Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

I am disgusted with my classmates. At least twenty of the kids in my history class supported the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. How can anyone condemn someone to death, let alone 200,000 innocent people you don't even know? What if one of them had grown up to find a cure for cancer? Now you're condemning millions more people to death. And the bombing fucking didn't even end the war. The Japanese military generals weren't going to surrender. They didn't care about civilian lives. The only reason Japan surrendered is that Emperor Hirohito was afraid for his own life, and he persuaded the military generals to surrender. Not because of the fucking bombings. Those 200,000 people fucking died for no reason. Those 200,000 innocent civilian people who had hopes and dreams in their heads who suffered and learned and cried and laughed either were suddenly wiped off the face of the earth, or forced to die a slow and painful death from radiation in a destructed city with no resources. Sure, Japan was horrible and barbaric in war strategies and especially with the treatment of POWs, but does that excuse the Allies killing over 200,000 innocent civilians? I thought my classmates were more mature than "An eye for an eye." Besides, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. If someone hits you and you hit them back and knock a tooth out, are you justified? Should you have hit them less hard? Should you have blocked their attacks and tried to work it out? I say, if it's too late to talk things out, then yes please defend yourself, but only defend yourself, and knocking someone's tooth out is not defending yourself. Even Madeleine and Christina. How can I befriend and respect two people who wish death upon someone else? It makes me sick.

I kept whispering to myself,

Let suffering be all my thoughts
Let suffering be my only duty
God, as your body was red and wounded
Let my heart be as such forever and ever

This whole situation reminds me of a great quote from the Pillowman. Katurian says, "I murdered two people who tortured a child for seven years. You murdered three children who hadn't tortured anybody for any years. There's a difference."

I ask you, is there a difference? Are any of these murders justified in any way?

I can think of so many arguments for why the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were complete folly and I bet I can shoot down any argument for the other side. Sure, I can think of a lot of "benefits" that came about from the bombings. Our economy boosted, but it would have anyway if we had won the war without bombing Japan. Other countries learned not to mess with the US because we dared to use an a-bomb. I can shoot this down with the following hypothetical situation. Mercutio and Tybalt are fighting. Tybalt stabs Mercutio to show the Montegues that the Capulets are better. Surely this would make everyone fear the overzealous and over-violent Tybalt. But why trade lives for fear? And besides, what happens next? Romeo comes along and kills Tybalt. Who is Romeo? Iran? DPRK? Iraq? Afganistan? It was almost Russia. Who's going to come along and play the same dirty trick the US played on Japan back on the US? Only this time it will be worse because Romeo already knows the power of Tybalt, so he will have to fight even harder and dirtier. The US bombing Japan instilled not only fear, but hatred and contempt in developing countries. The US could have earned respect and awe, and then Romeo would have learned to accept Tybalt and not kill him. See how it works? You can't argue with Shakespeare.

All this aside, it is still a war crime to kill innocent civilians for what the military is doing. No matter what anyone says, it is a crime against humanity. Supporting the death of 200,000 innocent civilians is also a crime against humanity.

This really happened. A man had an affair with a woman out of wedlock. He was caught and convicted. Do you know how they punished him? His sister was raped. Fucked, really. Fornication with consent of the king. In this case, it was more like with consent of the military dictator, but really. Can you support this innocent girl being raped? After all, her brother fucked someone else illegally. It's the brother's fault, he should be punished, not her. How can you support the death of 200,000 innocent civilians who loved and laughed and struggled when it was really the military's fault? How can you support the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki but not this incident when they are so clearly in principle the same idea? How hypocritical can you be?

There is a terrorist somewhere out there whose greatest wish is the death of all Americans because of what Bush has done in Iraq. If he gets together a big enough group and kills every American, is he justified? He will kill you because of what a US soldier did to his brother. Tortured and dehumanized him. He blames it on you. He will track you down and kill you because you are American and one day surely you will go to Iraq and torture him unless he kills you first. Is he justified? How is this incident any different than the Allies bombing Japan? Sure, you know, now everyone's learned not to mess with him, and his economy is doing great, but just you wait, Romeo will come along one day and destroy everything that terrorist has built. Of course, the original terrorist is long since dead, but Romeo will take it out on his descendants, and it will become a never-ending cycle of death and revenge. And it will never be justified.

ttyl