Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!parsec!ctvax!uokvax!andree From: andree@uokvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: re: Addendum to Flame - (nf) Message-ID: <5959@uiucdcs.UUCP> Date: Thu, 1-Mar-84 04:33:17 EST Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.5959 Posted: Thu Mar 1 04:33:17 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 3-Mar-84 08:36:44 EST Lines: 35 #R:decwrl:-559100:uokvax:5000081:000:1782 uokvax!andree Feb 27 19:04:00 1984 [To correct some misinformation that has lately appeared on the net, I post the following comments. As usual, I'm to lazy to give the references, but will gladly mail them to anybody who asks.] Fact: The Japanese weren't just an enemy in a war, as Nazi Germany was; they actually attacked us -- attacked a nation that up to that point had no grievance with them, a nation that would most likely have stayed neutral throughout the whole war if they hadn't attacked us first. The nuking of the two cities may not have been moral, but it was certainly justifiable. [No, there WAS cause for the Japanese to attack America - we had been rather nasty about most things towards them, most notably cutting off supplies of vital war materials. There is evidence to indicate that Roosevelt both expected and wanted an excuse to get into WWII. For a first aproximation, just note that after JAPAN attacked us, we proceeded to dump massive resources into defeating GERMANY (~98% of the materials produced before germany surrendered went to Europe.)] Fact: There was a plan drawn up for a full scale invasion of the Home Islands. The military estimates for lives lost (on both sides) if that plan was implemented was greater than the estimates for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Clearly, the US government made the sensible (if not "right") decision. [Minor corrections - the estimate for the lives lost on the AMERICAN side was 1/2 million. This is larger than any total I've ever seen for Nagasaki and Hiroshima (most of them stop at about 400,000). I've never seen estimates for the Japanese side, except notes that they would be much larger. This is estimate is for capturing 1/2 of the southernmost of the Japanese islands, for use as a base for capturing the rest of the islands.]