Comments by "Ronin Dave" (@RoninDave) on "Twitter Storm: Cenk's Turkish Vacation, German Porn, Japan Nuclear Attacks, etc." video.

  1. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were military targets as they were port cities used for transport of troops and supplies. Nagasaki was actually the secondary target but the cloud cover over the primary target was too great so Nagasaki was selected instead. If the US had specifically wanted to go after civilian targets with little military significance they would have hit Tokyo and the Emperor's palace and the cultural center of Kyoto but they didn't. If Japan had accepted the Potsdam Declaration, they wouldn't have been bombed but even the first atomic bomb did not shake their resolve. After Hiroshima the government was willing to endure what few atomic bombs they thought the US had so the idea that demonstrating the power of the bomb on an uninhabited island as some have suggested would not have worked. Even after Nagasaki, there were still some that wanted to go on. While I wish it didn't have to come down to this, it happened over 60 years ago so my supporting or not supporting the decision ultimately means diddly squat. Some things to keep in mind though: The firebombings of Tokyo killed about the same number of people as Hiroshima and more than Nagasaki. The whole firebombing campaign did far more damage to the whole country. This is where the true war crimes lie as they were less strategic in nature rather than the overly sensationalized atomic bombs. A good part of Asia feels little to no sympathy over the bombings. A Korean friend of mine once said "We wonder why you stopped at two." There's a reason for this.
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  2. miguel brito if they were already defeated why did they reject the Potsdam Declaration? Why didn't they surrender immediately after Hiroshima? They were not willing to accept unconditional surrender which as I mentioned was a lesson learned at the end of WWI with Germany. Before Hiroshima and Nagasaki, civilians were being trained to use bamboo spears and become suicide tank busters. I saw a photo in a tokyo museum once of school girls being trained with bamboo spears to resist invasion. Also what the US witnessed in the Okinawa campaign steeled their resolve to avoid a land invasion at any cost and end the war by any means.
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  3. bigraviolees demonstrate the bomb? They bombed Hiroshima and the government's plan was to hold out. Kamikazes would have been less enthusiastic? You clearly don't how the Japanese were prior to the end of WWII. They thought the Emperor was their god. They were willing to kill and die in mass suicides as we saw in Okinawa.
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  4. BenjaminBattington tell that to Asia. I simply stating a fact.
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  5. BenjaminBattington It's not only my friend. Every other month China or Korea protest against Japan and much of that is steeped in bitter memories of WWII.
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  6. BenjaminBattington again take it up with China and Korea. My friend was not the only source of this and if you think that is the case you are horribly naive.
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  7. BenjaminBattington and I had a chinese girlfriend who lived in Japan who had a grandfather that lost hearing in one ear when a Japanese soldier slapped so hard for making a mistake at the restaurant he worked at as a boy during the war. Her parents forbade her to bring any japanese boyfriends to their home. The point I was making was that much of the westerner world doesn't really understand why there is still animosity towards Japan then and now.
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