What I want people to understand about Hiroshima is that even if it were true the bomb ended the war (it's not) and even if it were true the bomb prevented a costly invasion of Japan (it didn't) it doesn't MATTER. It doesn't make dropping the bomb less of a crime against humanity

Winning the war was not worth unleashing the full & horrific force of atomic weapons against civilians. The lives of Japanese noncombatants were not less important/less worthy of protection than the lives of American servicemembers. The arguments "for" dropping the bomb are null

And I say this as not only someone with a graduate degree in history but someone who grew up surrounded by World War II veterans, someone who listened to them and their stories from the age of 9. I grew up on those stories. It's not hypothetical to me

The firebombings of Tokyo were already the height of brutal cruelty. The American war in the Pacific was already plagued by racism. There is no such thing as a "Good War." And the use of atomic weapons was a crime against humanity America has never once answered for

And people are still not getting it

Yes the Japanese committed horrific war crimes and there were post-war tribunals set up to expose those crimes. Yes, Japan committed atrocities. I do not deny this.

It still doesn't make dropping the atomic bombs justifiable

If the US had dropped the bombs on German cities (which I doubt they would have because they considered Germans white after all but that's another story) I'd be saying the same thing btw.

To address a few more things that keep coming up

-yes the Japanese committed horrible crimes in the course of the war. yes, perpetrators of those crimes walked free. still doesn't justify the use of the bomb
-the firebombings of German/Japanese cities were also unjustifiable

-the firebombings cost more lives in the short-term but the radiation caused by the use of nuclear bombs cost the health and lives of civilians for years afterwards

Read this book if you want to see how the bombs impacted the future of US foreign policy to the point where the world was very nearly destroyed on a regular basis: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25663779-the-doomsday-machine?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=tSUIf7O1kt&rank=2

Ok I'm literally disgusted by how desperate some of you are to change the subject.

This is about the use of atomic bombs.

Not war in general. Not firebombings. Not Japanese war crimes. Not surrender terms.

This is about the use of atomic bombs