Nuclear Weapons

[i'va biggen]

Originally Posted by gnadfly

I have noticed that your an expert on "dumb"

I rest my case

[gnadfly]

Originally Posted by ekim008

I rest my case

Too late! You are enjoying your life sentence. .

[i'va biggen]

Originally Posted by gnadfly

Too late! You are enjoying your life sentence. .

I am a expert on dumb,but you are easy to spot.anyone can see it.

[CuteOldGuy]

I think there are a lot of contenders for the most stupid poster here. I'm not sure we want to turn it into a competition.

[ThekNight]

It is very easy to justify the dropping of the nuclear device on Hiroshima, it is impossible to justify the second nuclear device dropped on Nagasaki.

[Sidewinder]

Actually, it was the second device that convinced Japan that the war was over.

The first one could have been a fluke, like the Doolittle raids four years earlier. The second one meant that the round-eyes knew how to build more of those things, and knew how to deliver them, and there was no way to know how many the round-eyes had or could make or could deliver.

All of this is well-documented in the history books. It wasn't that many years ago that the guys who were there and did it were still around to tell their stories. The late Emperor Hirohito talked and wrote about all of it, in the years after the war.

[I B Hankering]

Originally Posted by Sidewinder

Actually, it was the second device that convinced Japan that the war was over.

The first one could have been a fluke, like the Doolittle raids four years earlier. The second one meant that the round-eyes knew how to build more of those things, and knew how to deliver them, and there was no way to know how many the round-eyes had or could make or could deliver.

All of this is well-documented in the history books. It wasn't that many years ago that the guys who were there and did it were still around to tell their stories. The late Emperor Hirohito talked and wrote about all of it, in the years after the war.

+1 Correct, and U.S. atomic weapons prompted the Soviet Union to step up its timetable to join in the war against Japan. The two atomic bombs and the obliteration of Japan's Manchurian armies by Soviet forces led Hirohito to personally intercede, for the sake of his subjects, and concede defeat.

[joe bloe]

Originally Posted by Sidewinder

Actually, it was the second device that convinced Japan that the war was over.

The first one could have been a fluke, like the Doolittle raids four years earlier. The second one meant that the round-eyes knew how to build more of those things, and knew how to deliver them, and there was no way to know how many the round-eyes had or could make or could deliver.

All of this is well-documented in the history books. It wasn't that many years ago that the guys who were there and did it were still around to tell their stories. The late Emperor Hirohito talked and wrote about all of it, in the years after the war.

The Japanese had no way of knowing that we only had two bombs. If they had held on, after the second bomb, America might have been forced to do a traditional invasion, which would have resulted in even more Japanese deaths than Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It's the ultimate irony that in the long run, America's use of nuclear bombs, actually saved Japanese lives.

We had a right to use nuclear bombs on Japan because it saved the lives of American soldiers. If it had required a thousand Hiroshimas to save the life of one American soldier, it would have been morally justified.

[i'va biggen]

I am surprised the right hasn't blasted a democrat for having it dropped....

[CuteOldGuy]

Democrats and Republicans were different back then. At least a few on both sides had some integrity. Not the case these days.

[ThekNight]

Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

Democrats and Republicans were different back then. At least a few on both sides had some integrity. Not the case these days.

Hear, Hear


I know the second device ended the war but did the second device need to be dropped on a city?

The use of the first nuclear device had many decisions that had to be made after the decision to use the device had been affirmed. The US had stopped bombing certain large cities so that a complete analysis of the devices destruction could be studied. Some wanted to warn Japan about the device thinking the Japanese scientist could convince the Japanese rulers checkmate had happened. The US decided against this because Japan could just move American POWs into the cities so that we would basically be killing the Japanese plus Americans plus any other allied POW.

The US decided against dropping the first one over water off the Japan coast because the material to build the bomb was still hard to make and if the device failed, which was possible, it left only one other deliverable device.

[I B Hankering]

Originally Posted by ThekNight

Hear, Hear


I know the second device ended the war but did the second device need to be dropped on a city?

The use of the first nuclear device had many decisions that had to be made after the decision to use the device had been affirmed. The US had stopped bombing certain large cities so that a complete analysis of the devices destruction could be studied. Some wanted to warn Japan about the device thinking the Japanese scientist could convince the Japanese rulers checkmate had happened. The US decided against this because Japan could just move American POWs into the cities so that we would basically be killing the Japanese plus Americans plus any other allied POW.

The US decided against dropping the first one over water off the Japan coast because the material to build the bomb was still hard to make and if the device failed, which was possible, it left only one other deliverable device.

And what target would you have selected? Conventional bombing had essentially eliminated or very seriously damaged all major military targets in Japan. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were put on the target list because there were minor military targets in both cities, and -- just as importantly -- they had not been seriously damaged by bombing there-to-fore. U.S. decision makers were counting on the shock value of destroying an intact city to motivate the Japanese towards surrendering, Furthermore, it was the second bomb, not the first (as Sidewinder noted above), that prompted Hirohito to react.

[TheDaliLama]

There's enough rocks on the planet to kill everyone 10 times.

[dilbert firestorm]

Originally Posted by TheDaliLama

There's enough rocks on the planet to kill everyone 10 times.

ew... TDl, can you kill that obama joker avatar of yours????

[Mr E]

As to the use in Japan. Yes it was justified. We were at war. Had it been my decision I would have wanted to make a drop every week on progressively larger more important areas until they gave up.


Today if another country, not a widely scattered group of misguided people, were to cause a situation forcing us into using Nuclear weapons then we should. A situation of having to defend ourselves or to speed up the surrender of attackers as with Japan where the loss of life was smaller using them than it would have been to do with boots on the ground.

The modern day terror attack or guerrilla style of fighting does not lend it self to nuclear weapon use.

We should have used "Daisy Cutters" or the MOAB(mother of all bombs) more often than we did in the last two conflicts, These bombs have a REALLY BIG boom for those who don't know what they are. We just need one or two delivery improvements.