Did Truman make the right decision?
08-17-2005, 07:16 AM
#31
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My opinion:
In the end, the decision, though horrible, was right.
More people were dying in the firebombings than died in either Hiroshim or Nagasaki.
The invasion would have been devastating to both sides with a protracted guerilla war fought on the ground.
Troops whio had won the war in Europe would have been diverted to Japan, instead of home. I can only imagine how bad their moral would have been.
Now, couple other points. The United States did not maintain absolute neutrality in either theatre before December 1941. We were supplying both Britain and Russia military equipment under Lend Lease. In the far east, we were supplying China with materiel and allowed the AVG to exist (American Volunteer Group, aka Flying Tigers) wherein American pilots flew Amrican built P-40's in Chinese markings against the Japanese. We, and the British, French and Dutch, also had outposts in what Japan saw as their sphere of influence. There was a storm brewing in the Pacific, and without serious negotiations and concessions on both sides, the outcome was pretty much inevitable.
In the end, the decision, though horrible, was right.
More people were dying in the firebombings than died in either Hiroshim or Nagasaki.
The invasion would have been devastating to both sides with a protracted guerilla war fought on the ground.
Troops whio had won the war in Europe would have been diverted to Japan, instead of home. I can only imagine how bad their moral would have been.
Now, couple other points. The United States did not maintain absolute neutrality in either theatre before December 1941. We were supplying both Britain and Russia military equipment under Lend Lease. In the far east, we were supplying China with materiel and allowed the AVG to exist (American Volunteer Group, aka Flying Tigers) wherein American pilots flew Amrican built P-40's in Chinese markings against the Japanese. We, and the British, French and Dutch, also had outposts in what Japan saw as their sphere of influence. There was a storm brewing in the Pacific, and without serious negotiations and concessions on both sides, the outcome was pretty much inevitable.
08-18-2005, 03:29 PM
#32
Registered User
The war in the Pacific must have been horrible beyond anyone's imagination.
I saw an interview with an Okinawa veteran who just calmly stated, "We captured some prisoners. When the interpreters were done with them, we killed them. We couldn't let them free to rejoin the fight; we couldn't spare anyone to escort them to the rear; we couldn't take them with us."
The Japanese military knew the war was lost, but they were determined to shed so much American blood that they could negotiate a peace that allowed them to keep their power and their conquests.
When I returned to college a few years ago, I got to know a young man of Japanese descent. His father's father was an American citizen; his father was born here; he was born here. His mother's father fought in the Pacific against the Japanese: he disowned his daughter when she married "that xxx" and had never seen his grandson even though they lived 35 miles apart for all those years. I don't want to know what happened during the war...
I saw an interview with an Okinawa veteran who just calmly stated, "We captured some prisoners. When the interpreters were done with them, we killed them. We couldn't let them free to rejoin the fight; we couldn't spare anyone to escort them to the rear; we couldn't take them with us."
The Japanese military knew the war was lost, but they were determined to shed so much American blood that they could negotiate a peace that allowed them to keep their power and their conquests.
When I returned to college a few years ago, I got to know a young man of Japanese descent. His father's father was an American citizen; his father was born here; he was born here. His mother's father fought in the Pacific against the Japanese: he disowned his daughter when she married "that xxx" and had never seen his grandson even though they lived 35 miles apart for all those years. I don't want to know what happened during the war...