Was it Wrong to Drop the Atom Bomb on Japan?

Absolutely the right thing to do.

 

No. That's what they got for starting a war with us. It would have been a huge waste of U.S. life to invade Japan.

 

No, it ended the war and my daddy came home to us alive and well.

 

Imagine for a moment what the world would be like today if the other side had won the war.

 

I think it would be worse than that.

 

Yes, it was wrong. I thought surely I would not be the only one to say this.

 

Why was it wrong?

 

Who really knows?

 

But, Hank, you do not know that he wouldn't have come home without the bombing. And how many Japanese Daddies (some of them Christian) died because of our hasty action?

 

LOTS! Its kind of like removing cancer cells - sometimes you have to overdo it to ensure the cure.

As a Christian/human being I wish with all my heart that the innocents who died in Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings could have been spared.

As a former soldier I blame Hirohito for their deaths.

 

It was wrong on several counts. But first I want to ask anyone here to give me a verse or passage that would show such a drastic action was right. Try to keep it in the New Testament,surely a clearer revelation of the heart of God on moral and spiritual matters.

Here is how it is wrong:
1. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Are the Japanese our neighbors?

There are many other verses that could be brought up but this passage is foremost.

2. The Japanese were at the point of surrender. In fact months before they had shown willingness to surrender to terms that were basically identical to the terms the US later accepted. But the US refused the earlier offer.

Was Hiroshima Necessary?
The War Was Won Before Hiroshima—And the Generals Who Dropped the Bomb Knew It

3. It is purely propaganda that the Japanese would "fight to the last man". It is a way for America - and Americans - to not feel the weight of the horrible atrocity they committed - and continue to justify. We rightly fault the Japanese for not acknowledging their criminal actions in the past, like their enslavement of enemy women for their own uses, but refuse to acknowledge our own misdeeds.

BTW, a visit to Hiroshima two years ago was very enlightening. Did you know that ground zero in Hiroshima was not near any major military target but was a high-density population area, including several schools? The nearest base, which we also visited was on a hillside a mile or so to the north (if memory serves). The second link above goes into more detail about the US rationale in targeting. It was not military.

We had this new invention and our military leadership were itching to use it in a "real life situation".

It is sad that Christians - of all people - go along with our country's propaganda in continuing to justify this most unChristian mass killing. A killing that has extended for decades and two or three generations in its outworking.

Or do we not believe that our government is capable of propaganda?

 

An eye for an eye, eh? Or, in this case, many more eyes. The Bible has two Testaments. My challenge remains to any of you: Show me a verse or passage that justifies what we did.

 

Nation-states and individuals have different roles and rules. I can forgive a drunk driver for killing my wife, but the state must prosecute him. Do you want police and judges turning the other cheek regarding murder, rape, and theft? The State bears the sword by God's design.