Trail-Axe said:
It always amazes me how many people condemn the USA for dropping two A-bombs on Japan. Those imperialist thugs attack us first, drag us into a war we were not involved in, kill our young men so they can rule the world, and then they have the gull some 64 years later to tell us we need to disarm? Give me a break! If they had won the war (IE: we did not nuke them), do you really think they would have allowed us to continue on as a free democratic nation? No way, we would all be speaking Japanese, and worshipping there emperor. And its not like they left us much of a choice, we dropped one bomb, and still they would not surrender (too much pride), so then we drop another, and then they finally surrender, but even still their military leaders wanted to fight till the last man. Ya civilians died, too bad, very sad, but don't put that on the USA, it was Japan that thought it could rule the world. And now they want the USA and Russia to disarm? Why, so Iran, China, and North Korea can rule the world? I am sure glad I do not own any Japanese cars!
[URL="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080809/wl_nm/japan_nagasaki_dc_1"]http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080809/wl_nm/japan_nagasaki_dc_1[/URL]
Actually, Japan was not out to rule the world, that was Germany. Japan just wanted to rule Asia. By setting up an oil embargo to Japan to slow their aggression in China, we actually pulled the last straw out of the camels back. Pearl was an attempt to disable our Navy so that the oil embargo would be lifted, instead they got the war they declared. The Emperor didn't rule Japan, the Military did. The Emperor was and still is, a figure head position.
During WWII, it seems just about everyone was working on the Atom Bomb. In the lead was Germany and us, and we were determined that we would beat Germany to the punch, and we did. However, the bomb was not completed until after Germany surrendered. If Germany would have completed the bomb first, there is no doubt at all they would have used it on somebody, so it was never an option to develop this weapon and not at least take it for a spin to see what it could do.
With our losses running pretty high in the islands off Japan, and them not able to surrender due to their military code, we really had no choice but to do something pretty drastic. Even after the first bomb, some in the Military figured we didn't have the power to do that again. They were mistaken, and Japan surrendered.
Japan's industrial complex was revitalized by the US Military. We rebuilt the Japanese industrial complex into the power house it is today, not the Japanese. We also made sure that the Japanese society turned from conquest and war, to defense. To this day, Japan can only have as much military as it takes to defend itself until we get there.
However, the Japanese industrial machine we created, and still own parts of, has crippled our local automobile industry's.
Dropping a nuke on Japan in their eyes was a dirty thing to do. However, after Pearl, we had no aversion to playing dirty, only to killing so many non-combatants. The price Japan paid for their aggression was horrible, but has educated the world as to the result of nuclear warfare. Japanese society has made it a point, having been the only country actually bombed by a nuke, to make everyone aware of the horror of that reality, and many there have spearheaded world peace movements to make sure it doesn't happen again. Personally, I'd sleep safer at night knowing that every single warhead was destroyed, rather than this little game the US, Russia, and everyone else has been playing for decades.
The war with Japan was a nasty little affair, and was brought on by a lack of understanding on the part of the Japanese military leaders as to the affect the actions at Pearl would have on our national psyche. They were little Hitlers, only interested in their ages old conflict with China.
Germany however, was run by a total lunatic who was actually kicked out of the Military once, but who was able to persuade the population of Germany to once again, try and take over the world. It was Germany that was the real threat. Once Hitler was done with Europe, we would have been next. If we would have lost that war, you'd be sprecken ze deutsch.
On to your Japanese car remark. Automobile manufacture is world wide, and just about everybody owns somebody else. Just a look at what Ford owns gives you an idea how widespread this phenomenon is Many of the smaller Ford trucks are made by Mazda, Chevy's popular Geo series, now just branded Chevy, was all built in Japan (and now China). Japanese car manufactures, are building factories in the US, and providing jobs for US citizens.
atriot:
