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Originally Posted by The_Jazz
Regardless, if Tibbets hadn't done it someone else would have. He gets the commendations for being The Guy, but it just happened that he was chosen.
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I agree. I don't think tibbets by himself is that important- he was a cog, any other cog probably would have done just as well. I think his death is another reason to remind ourselves of the bomb, and what it represents.
As for whether it was justified, if it was, than good for us, if it wasn't, then it wouldn't be the first time innocent people unnecessarily caught hell for things in which they had no control. I'm not in a position to judge- this event is pretty fucking emotionally charged and one's opinion depends on which experts one chooses to trust, which generally depends on what one wants to believe. I don't know either way, i don't know that i care. It happened, for better or worse, and speculating about the what-ifs only serves the purpose of soothing consciences. I had nothing to do with it- my conscience is clear. If i was someone with StanT's father on the way to Japan, regardless of whether i thought the bombing was the right thing to do, i would have been thankful for it.
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As far as claim that this is the largest slaughter of civilians ever, I suppose if you limit it to a single day, if it's not the largest (hint: read Ustwo's post), it is on the list. However, let's remember that the Soviet Army had just finished raping, pillaging and slaughtering their way across Eastern Europe in 1945 and that the US and British forces firebombed Dresden and Hamburg. If we're talking about atrocities commited against civilians in WWII, this doesn't even make my top 5.
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I can't believe that we've actually gotten to the point where we're creating a hierarchy of wartime atrocities. It's completely beside the point.
Apparently, some people look at the phrase "largest mass killing of civilians in human history", and think, "well, but what's the time scale on that?" I agree the implied timescale is omitted. Did i mean day? Did i mean week? Am i talking about a scale other than time? Did i mean per gallon of gas sold in europe in 1984? It doesn't fucking matter. There's no amount of selective qualification that could detract from the fact that 80,000 people died, none, sorry to disappoint you, folks.