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Dshimizu's avatar

Mahalo for your in-depth analysis

Thi ssubject is very for me. I'm an America of Japanese and Filipino ancestry, and my grandparents suffered and survived the occupation of the Philippines by the Imperial Japanese military

My heart breaks for the millions of Japanese non-combatant civilians killed by US strategic bombing, including the atomic bombs

But it also break for the tens of millions of non-combatant civilians killed by the Imperial Japanese military, peoples from Burma and Vietnam, to Korea and Manchuria, to Indonesia and Polynesia, and tens of millions in between. Peoples who were still fighting against Japanese Imperial occupation on the days of the atomic bombs

And your article is a sharp and necessary debunking of the myth that either Operation Olympic (or the alternative naval and air blockade) would have been any less bloody

The atomic bombs were horrible. But short of unconditional Japanese surrender prior to the bombs, no other alternative by the US government was better

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Robert Honeyman's avatar

Thank you,Wes. For years, I was disgusted that the US dropped the bomb, not once but twice, on civilian populations. This crystallizes the horrible decision facing Truman. I cannot imagine the courage that decision required.

After digesting this, there is no question that the bomb saved millions of lives by forcing the emperor to unconditional surrender. Truman may have been one of the top presidents of the 20th century. I was still tiny tot when he left office. All I knew of him for years was that he had the misfortune of succeeding FDR. And that he dropped the bomb.

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