[QUOTE="Archon_basic"][QUOTE="portej"][QUOTE="Archon_basic"] [QUOTE="quiglythegreat"][QUOTE="Archon_basic"] While it's true that Japan was engaged in negotiations it was likely they were willing to stall and drag out the conflict in the hopes the U.S. would lose it's resolve and agree to a more favorable cease fire. portej
Japan getting a slightly more favorable treaty is far more tragic than hundreds of thousands of innocents vaporized.
No offense, but you have an abstract view of the situation and you could use some more history study on the subject. People were dying at a terrible rate at the end of World War II - the fire bombing of Tokyo was costing thousands of lives by the week, many people were dying in China because of the ongoing conflict with Japan there, and the cost in both U.S. and Japanese lives as the fighting progressed towards Japan was increasing at a terrible rate. The war would not have to have drawn on much longer for the casualties to exceed the death toll of the atomic bombs, and if it came down to an invasion of the Japanese mainland the death toll would have been immense and there would have been much less chance of a peaceful occupation of Japan afterwards.You make it sound like Japan was some kind of victim here, but don't forget that they attacked the U.S. first, that they invaded China and committed countless atrocities there, and that they were not willing to accept an unconditional surrender until after two atomic bombs had been dropped on them. With all of the immense loss of life and money the U.S. suffered from the war in Japan an unconditional surrender was the only course of action, and unfortunately it took two atomic bombs to obtain that. We could not afford to let Japan keep it's military and current government and risk having to fight the same war again later on. After all World Ward 2 had cost the world there had to be unconditional surrenders on the part of Germany and Japan to ensure the war was completely over and would not resurface. So don't say we should have played nice and not bombed Japan, or given them a better treaty so we could avoid using atomic weapons. The only possible justification for not using the atomic weapons was if Japan was actually close to an unconditional surrender without the use of further force, and from what I've studied on the subject the evidence seems to suggest that they were not.
Japan would have never attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor if the United States didn't place economic sanctions and embargos on Japan. The United States brought it upon themselves. Though I have to admit... the Japanese chose to mess with a country that was way out of their league both economically and militarily.
And why did the U.S. have sanctions and embargos on Japan? Once again, don't make Japan out to be the victim. Pearl Harbor was an attack in response to U.S. oil embargos, but the oil embargos were in response to Japan invading countries in Asia and allying themselves with the Nazi's. The pupose of the sanctions and embargos was to deprive Japan of the ability to carry on their invasions in Asia. They had the choice of abandoning their wars or continuing them and initiating war with the U.S., and we all know what they chose. Any way you look at it Japan was the aggressor.Tell me why, exactly, it was necessary for the US to place oil embargos on Japan for their activities in Asia? Yes, Japan was expanding its territories throughout the Asia Pacific, but how does that in ANY WAY AFFECT the United States? Yes, Japan did ally itself with Nazi Germany, but was it directly harming or threatening the security of the United States? No. This is just another example in history of the United States being the World's Police Force, and intefering in the activities of other autonomous nations. Of course, it is okay when the United States expands its territory, be it through it's self-proclaimed divine "Manifest Destiny" or through imperialism in the form of the Spanish American War or Mexican American Wars. Even today, we can see the United States being the World's Police Force with its duty to democratize and "bring order" to the Middle East. The result? US soldiers lives lost unneccessarily. More hatred and resentment towards the US. More terrorist groups forming in the struggle against the United States "democratizing crusade". And in the end, nothing significant accomplished. Eventually the US will pull out, and Iraqis and Iranians will kill each other, and eventually things will restore to a natural equilibrium that would have been achieved years ago had the US only not intervened in Iraq...
So they should have just let them continue taking over the pacific? Brilliant. Japan was headed to war with them anyways. And what right did Japan have invading China?
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