Necessity of the A-Bomb
"... Convincing Americans that droppng the A-bombs on Japan wasn't
necessary is no simple task."

The a-bombs were unnecessary. No reasons provided. No possibility of
contradiction acknowledged.

With one sentence in a Mainichi Daily News opinion piece Tomoko Oji
crystalizes the perception gap between Japan and the US over the
atomic bombing of Hroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

To many Japanese, their national victimhood in the atomic bombings is
a moral absolute that trumps all context.

However, one cannot form a true moral judgement without an
understanding of the context in which the decision to use the a-bombs
was made:

* The war had been initiated by Japanese aggression.

* Japanese atrocities against war prisoners and conquered peoples.

* The need to dissuade the Soviet Union from making further inroads
  on Japanese territory.

* Japanese falure to respond to the Allies' Pottsdam Accords.

* The terrible death toll of the conquest of Okinawa due to Japanese
  propaganda-inspired suicidal resistance by civilians.

* The projection that the conquest of the Japanese home islands would
  be even bloodier, costing many times more American and Japanese
  lives than Okinawa, and more than the lives lost in the atomic
  bombings. 

I am convinced that the use of the atomic bombs was a great human
tragedy, but the lesser of evils /necessary/ to bring a swift end to
the even greater tragedy of the war. 


<!-- 
Living as an American in Japan, it is impossible not to be aware of
the intense sense of victimization Japanese feel over the
bombings. This is reinforced around the bombings' anniversary every
August when Japanese media are filled memorials of the devastation,
tales of survivors' suffering, and calls for apologies from America
over fifty years after the fact.

I understand and sympathize with Japanese feelings. The bombs'
city-leveling destructive power and their gruesome and prolonged
effect on human victims are still shocking.

What is frustrating, however, is the attitude embodied in the
sentence quoted above: The a-bombs weren't necessary. No reasons
offered. No acknowledgement of the possibility of contrary opinion.
-->

<pre>
@ONLINE{Oji:2010:Online,
  author	= "Tomoko {Oji}",
  title		= "No remorse in U.S. for A-bomb attack on Japan, but
  push to abolish weapons growing",
  booktitle	= "The Mainichi Daily News",
  year		= 2010,
  month		= August,
  url		=
  http://mdn.mainichi.jp/perspectives/news/20100819p2a00m0na004000c.html,
  note	        = "accessed 2010/8/20"
} 
</pre>