Quote:
Originally Posted by DARISC
Reflecting on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I wonder, had the enemy been on the European continent rather than on islands in the Orient, all other factors being equal, do you believe we'd have dropped the bombs on westerners?
I suspect the answer is that we would not have. It seems that there would likely have been an unspoken, quite likely even unrealized, racial consideration that would have entered into the decision.
Thoughts?
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You are very wrong.
To anyone who has read history and understands the politics of the WW2 it is quite clear that race was not a factor.
IT IS CERTAIN WE WOULD HAVE NUKED NAZI GERMANY HAD THE TIMING BEEN CORRECT.
1. We started building an atomic bomb not to end the war with Japan, but because
we thought HITLER was building the A bomb.
2. Once our bomb was complete it was inevitable it would be used
as soon as possible. No US president would want to explain to American mothers, why their sons died when we had a secret weapon which could have ended the war earlier. However, Berlin fell to the Soviets before the Trinity bomb could be tested, otherwise there is no doubt that it or another German city would have been at the top of the list.
3. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were selected because they were militarily important cities that were largely untouched by bombing. Kyoto was originally at the top of the list, but Stimson vetoed it because he recognized it's historic beauty and importance to Japanese culture. He had honeymooned there. A very pragmatic decision which took cultural factors into account. Hardly can be considered racist.
4. Given the mindset of the time, there was no thought that the A-bomb was the be all, end all, horror weapon. It was simply a bigger, badder bomb. The full effects of slow death by radiation would not be realized until after the war was done.
5. For 50 years after the 2nd world war, the Warsaw Pact was the main target of our nuclear arsenal. Last I checked all member states were European and Caucasian. Meanwhile Japan has been one of our best allies.
So I can see no racism in the decision of targets for the nuclear attacks during WW2 or the selection of cold war targets thereafter.