the bomb

with it being early august, there's been a lot of stuff on tv about dropping the bombs on japan, especially since it was the 60th anniversary. when i was younger i didn't really think much about it, i just figured that it was something we did and it ended the war, not really putting too much thought into it.

even until this year i didn't really think about it too much until i started watching these shows. i keep going back and forth between whether or not it was a good idea. on the one hand, it killed a hell of a lot of people and set off an arms race that could mean the end of the civilization any minute. on the other hand, it probably saved the lives of millions of americans and japanese, both troops and citizens, and pehaps the country. the problem was that the line between soldiers and citizens was being blurred. the japanese were training the citizens, including small children, how to fight to the last man. an invasion of japan would have been very bloody. truman saw how hard it was to take iwo jima and okinawa, and wanted to avoid that on the mainland. he knew that it was "the most terrible weapon ever created," but decided using it was worth it.

it almost didn't end the war, the militarists wanted to fight to the last man, but in a rare moment of clarity hirohito knew the future of his country was at stake, and decided to surrender. the attitude of the militarists is probably more justification that it was a good idea.

i go back and forth daily on whether or not it was the right move. truman probably couldn't have predicted just how the arms race would go, though i'm sure he knew it would happen. if nothing else he had balls, and made a decision i think nobody would ever want to make. would prolonging the war and a much bigger loss of life have been worth not dropping the bomb? would it have stopped the arms race? probably not, as the bomb existed already and it was only a matter of time until other countries tried to catch up, and if we hadn't invented it, i'm sure someone else would of.

all things that i would never want to deal with, which why i'll never be president