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Was dropping the bomb wrong? It saved untold number of lives in the long run.
Did it? If you are referring to its use to stop the war, that's debatable.
Uhm... no debate here.
My grandfather was drafted into WWII. He landed and was wounded on D-Day. He was later wounded in France. Somehow, he lived to see VE Day. But he had already received his orders to the Pacific Theater when the A-Bomb was dropped.
He, and a lot of other men probably owe their lives to the dropping of that bomb.
Did a lot of non-combantants die from it? Of course. So did a lot in the firebombings of Europe. And correct me if I am wrong, but both Hiroshima and Nagasaki had military value to the Japanese. That makes them viable military targets.
Recently, I watched a documentary on The Military Channel that was a real eye-opener.
It seems that we were expecting such high casualties in an invasion of the Japanese home islands that we went ahead and ordered 400,000 Purple Hearts. What is amazing is that we are STILL giving out Purple Hearts from that order. That order has lasted us through Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I, Gulf War II, and every military exercise since VJ Day.
And we were planning on giving every one of those out for ONE invasion. We anticipated needing more, but that was a start.
So no... there is NO debate in my conscience as an American as to whether dropping the A-Bomb was a correct decision.
Remember, political maneuvering aside, we didn't START the war with Japan. But by God, we finished it. My best friend's uncle died on Pearl Harbor. He kinda takes it personal as well.
-- John