Response to Spike Hampson’s article “A Reality Check for Those Who Deplore the Nuking of Japan” published in American Thinker

(For some reason this comment was not suitable for publication.)

The conventional account of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is thoroughly installed in the American psyche.  Only one person dared to question the bombing and he was called “a freaking idiot.”  The bombing is justified because “civilians support combatants” and therefore are legitimate targets.  It was mentioned that bombing had an impact on morale.  Did the German bombing of London lower the morale of the British?  It is quite possible that bombing civilians was counterproductive.  There have been numerous international agreements designed to protect civilians.  The Nuremberg trials also condemned attacks on civilians.

The nuclear bombing was not a radical deviation from U.S. policy.  Many cities suffered many more casualties from conventional attacks.  The fire bombing of Dresden is given as a example.  The number of fatalities is given as 135,000.  I have seen estimates of 20,000 to 500,000.  No-one knows.  Many bodies were reduced to ash.  The choice of casualty numbers reveals where a person stands on bombing civilians.  The British Lindemann Plan targeted women and children.  Still it is odd to say, “The Japanese were lucky to be nuked by America,” or call it “a merciful act for it save enormous numbers on both sides.”

The Japanese fought with fanatical determination.  It is pointed out that even after the bombing many in the Japanese leadership wanted to continue the war.  Much of this was the result of a culture that valued “death before dishonor.”  Some of this was the result of government propaganda.  “Women jumped off of cliffs while holding onto their babies to avoid capture by US troops.”  Was this propaganda correct?  Cossack women threw their infants into the Elba rather than surrender them to the Soviets.  How would Americans respond in a situation where they knew if they were defeated their wives and daughters would be sold into prostitution?  The Japanese were well aware, through press reports, of conditions in defeated Germany.

The Left has rewritten history with the intention of portraying America as evil.  They have carefully concealed their role in some of the most evil acts of the 20th century.  From the beginning they have done their best to conceal the crimes of the Soviet Union and Red China.  Their role in forming U.S. foreign policy cannot be exaggerated.  They were responsible for U.S. involvement in the slave trade and genocide in postwar Europe.  The idea of “unconditional surrender” did not “pop” into FDR’s head at Casablanca.  It was devised by a committee composed of Soviet agents.  The conventional account gives only two alternatives: nuclear bombing or continuing the war resulting in millions of casualties.  A third alternative could have been a negotiated peace where Japan was allowed to retain power in Korea and even Manchuria.  Of course the Soviets and the Left would not be happy with this.