What did Japan did to make America bomb Hiroshima?

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Fantom kid

you deserve it, japanese soldiers raped and killed lots of filipino women during WW2.

King M 000

Its because Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

ecoguy

We were fighting a war. The Japanese were on the side of the Nazis. So we dropped bombs on Japan, as you do in wars, it just happen to be the biggest bomb of all time. You ask the question as if the US just dropped a bomb on Japan out of nowhere.

Alecram

They bombed Hawaii and killed innocent Americans.

My husband is from Hiroshima, are you? My husband's grandfather happened to be out of town that day, was yours?

It's a touchy subject, don't talk about it.

Last I heard, Japanese history books were removing this from their education.

gamerzilla

Wow, what a Wapanese-tinged question.

Japan was part of the Axis powers along with Nazi Germany and Facist Italy. Japan's military felt threatened by America's sympathy towards China (whom Japan invaded in the 1930s - look up "The Rape of Nanking") and decided to deliver a pre-emptive strike on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in an attempt to cripple America's naval might because they feared that the US would interfere with their "Uniting Asia Under Imperial Japanese Rule." This backfired of course and only brought America's full military might into WWII against them. The US was neutral at the time. Japan severely underestimated America's potential and didn't think that they could raise such a gigantic and superior force in such a short time. Fatal mistake.

And as Ian had pointed out, a conventional invasion of Japan would've cost 10's of thousands of American soldier's lives since the Japanese would've fought down to the last man. Surrender was unthinkable to most Japanese at the time (probably even today). So we dropped the bombs. And what "M" conveniently didn't mention was that Japan also had a nuclear weapon project - the US just beat them to the punch. In short, Japan started a war with the US and the US finished it in a big way.

And Japan's military were so brutal to the people they conquered (look up "The Bataan Death March") that when the bombs were dropped, the rest of Asia cheered as well as every nation that was fighting Japan at the time - especially the US, England, Austrailia and New Zealand. The Japanese were so brutal to other pwople during the war that when their government surrendered, they thought that they in turn would be brutalized and rather than face that themselves, many committed suicide. A compassionate enemy was beyond their comprehension. General MacArthur - who was instrumental in defeating Japan - installed programs to raise Japan from the ashes and helped it become the super-industrialized nation it is today.

It is Japan that has been trying to revise history by trying to sweep their horrible war crimes under the rug. Their deeds in China, Korea, The Philippines, and Indo-China aren't even mentioned in their school history books. Talk to any non-Japanese Asian person that is old enough to have experienced WWII and you'll get the bitter truth.

That said - war is horrible and should never be - but sometimes, it's a necessary evil. If Japan or Germany won the war, we'd all be living in a very different world where most of the "inferior" races would have been exterminated.

Fumiaki

UNPROVOKED, Japan attacked, occupied & carried out atrocities in various countries in S.E.A. and in China, but more importantly, Japan bombed Pearl Harbour... again... UNPROVOKED. But thats all history and should be forgiven. Whats unforgivable are present Japanese saying Japan was "LIBERATING" the countries they occupied in WWII.

I'm not American and I also believe that the A-bomb was, sadly, the only way to stop Japanese aggression.
Also, it not only saved thousands of US soldiers' lives but many more civilians' lives in Japanese occupied countries.

And please dun make a fool of yourself by comparing earlier cases of invasion & occupation by the Brits, Dutch, Portuguese, French or USA. The atrocities committed by the Japanese army is in no way comparable to any foreign power occupation.

koko

well, it was during the war...

Evil Meerkat

Hey Ponyo - don't try to shift blame on the bomb to America. The only ones to blame for it are the Japanese government and the emperor that approved of the plan to attack the US. The Japanese government and Emperor Hirohito were responsible for what happened to their citizens - no one else. Their actions provoked the US into the war and Japan got their asses handed to them. Japan woke up a sleeping giant and they got stomped.

This is why a lot of people worldwide are still pissed at Japan - they won't take responsibility for their WWII actions. If Japan had completed their nuclear weapons, there's no doubt that they would've dropped them on San Francisco or Honolulu or even New York or Washington if they could get that far.

How about you check out those links that Gamerzilla posted? WWII era Japan was an evil force that had to be stopped.

I'm sure all the Wapanese don't want to hear about all the horrendous war crimes committed by Japan during WWII so they won't even check the links.

Mike

we did it to end world war 2

Ian M

Despite your appalling English I will try to answer the question.

General Eisenhower was aware that the Japanese soldiers would not surrender and therefore to try to invade Japan would cost a huge number of lives. He reasoned, correctly, that the H bomb would bring the war to a swift end and save many thousands of American Lives.

He was right.

Ian M

astronate72

japan bombed pearl harbor and brought us into the war. They just caused their own downlfall by messing with the US

Mari

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor..& an open opportunity for Pres. Truman..an atomic bombing of Japan is also the only thing that would justify the expense of the Manhattan Project. If this expense was not justified, Truman would have faced a Congressional inquiry into the misappropriation of $2 billion. Not only did he want to avoid Congressional hearings, but he also wanted another term of office. His chances of reelection would have been nil if it were learned by the general public that he wasted money and American lives by shelving a weapon that could have ended the war more quickly. The final Revisionist claim is that Truman wanted to give the U.S. and edge in the coming Cold War by showing that he was not afraid to use these weapons of mass destruction.

ピンク色の侍

hi! nice to meet you!
vuoi studiare i nomi di pesciin giapponese?

鮫　さめ　＝SHARK
鱘　チョウザメ　＝STURGEON
have a nice day!

Ponyo Ponyo

To -M-,

Your opinion is well known in Japan (but only among intellectual adults. our children don't know about it because we don't tell them the detail in politics).
Thank you for writing it.

We Japanese think we should not to say so even if we know that, because main reason of tragedy in various country during WWll was caused by Japanese.
We know we were wrong at the time of early 20th century, and have been feeling responsible for it. We also have NEVER been educating our child "the U.S. also selfish then" in public. All of our child are always taught only "Japan was bad then", "War is bad thing" "Let's give up the measure of war to solve the political problem with other countries" because we believe it in the bottom of the hart.

But at the same time, we still think until middle of 20th Century, every Great Powers (including the U.S. that were already invated Hawaii and the Phillipiness until then) were selfish, just like Japan was.
We do not say so to the foreigners because we think admit a fault is a virtue, and we understand that "To hit someone is easy to forget, but the pain from to be hitted is never to forget". We shoudn't say what Asian countries invated by Japan don't want.
We think so, but still so many Japanese believe other countries were "bad" then compared with 21th century's criteria.

At least, very few Japanese believe that two times Atomic bombing were not necessarily to end the war. We always feel many Americans are weird and seem very like people in mind-controlled-country when we hear they say that Atomic bombs were necessarily to end the WWll. (and guessing the situation they have been in are probably like it just before the Iraq war)

In Japan, the top officer of Air force of self-deffence-force wrote that Japan was not wrong at that time in public, and everyone afraid that it's foreboding sign for a crisis of civilian controll, and the hearing to him is opened in national parliament just yesterday. Medias are blamming him everyday, and most people think his opinion is wrong. The officer was forced to quit his job, and quit.
In my opinion, of course It is ridicurus to say "Japan was not wrong then, it was not a invasion". Yes, it was a invasion.

What I want to say is that, the responsibility of Japan on the war is no relation to the necessity of Atomic bombing, is it?
(one explicit reason is who started the war was their government, but who were killed by the bomb were general public)
but many Americans seem to me that they want to say "Japan was wrong, then Atomic bomb to beat Japan was wright, anyway". It is a child's logic.
I always think this when I watch the report of Iraq on TV.

I don't want blamming American people, but have been wanting Americans get know much about not only what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but also what was that bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki for their country's politics in fact.

There already was no any option to Japanese government but surrender in August 1945, so atomic bomb was not necessarily.
Again, I don't want to blame the people living in the U.S. now.
We have better to know much about history to built better world. I think it is a kind of responsibility for all of us in the world.
To understand the situation in 1945, especially after Yalta Conference (it also made many tragedies during "Cold War" era), I think we should understand one by one carefully.

Hi, Phah Kyu,
I think I know much about what our grandfather's goverment did, and have been very sorry to them. Japan was wrong beyond all dispute. Please read carefully.
(sorry to rewrite many times, I'm not so good at English to write complex ideas in English at once.)

CariCadaveroush DIAMONDS!

They bombed pearl harbor, and killed tons of americans, but I believe that it was not right to bomb Hiroshima, or Nagasaki~I believe its called

boohoo_Jebus

The American government wanted to enter the war. It is my understanding they provoked Japan to attack Pearl Harbor.(a military target ) "We" needed to test two different kinds of bombs.And we destroyed two Japanese cities in the process.( both civilian targets)

heartburn

they were making better cars than the americans.

Mizuki N

Because america was dumb back than

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