The bombs were nasty as I am former marine I understand the destruction. But what the Japanese did you the Korean woman and Nanking?) make us look like pacifists. -----Original Message----- From: Jeff G. [mailto:Log0n5150 at hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 4:38 PM To: Philip Hart; dragaera at dragaera.info Subject: Re: on contradictions and such ----- Original Message ----- From: "Philip Hart" <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> To: <dragaera at dragaera.info> Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 2:08 PM Subject: Re: on contradictions and such > > > On Mon, 7 Feb 2005, Steve Simmons wrote: > > [some interesting stuff about history snipped] > > What's the latest thinking on the degree of justification of > the fire bombing of Tokyo/the nuking of Hiroshima/ditto Nagasaki? > Last I heard there were questions about whether the latter > were in part a message to Stalin, and (switching to my speculation) > that in fact a reason to finish off the Pacific war asap was to keep > him out of Japan. > As I recall, the original justification for the firebombing of Tokyo was that the Japanese industry was spread throughout many small "home" workshops, making the type of directed attack used against the German industry useless. Of course, I haven't studied this in detail for over 15 years, so there may be some information I have forgotten. As far as the atomic bombs, well, I think it was multifaceted, a message to Stalin and a way to finish the war quickly. 1.6 million estimated US casualties if the home islands were invaded is the number that pops into my head, and that was based on the nasty island hopping fighting done on the way to Japan. Also, until you have seen the devestation that they wrecked upon a city, you can not comprehend how devestating those weapons are, regardless of how many films you have seen of them expolding in the desert. Jeff G.