[ESP0704]

As a child of a WWII European Theater veteran who might have had to participate in Operation Olympic, I can find some justification in using the atomic bomb to save the lives of American soldiers.

The decision might lead to accusations that we placed a greater value on the lives of American servicemen than those of Japanese civilians, including children. Well, yeah. That's one of the reasons war is a moral abomination, which is why it should be a matter of last resort, Mr. President.

But here's another matter no one mentions when talking about whether it was right to talk about dropping the bomb ...

It saved millions of Japanese lives.

In the U.S. invasions of the Japanese fringe islands of Okinawa and Iwo Jima (which began 60 years ago this month), the defenders fought to the last person, civilians included. U.S. military newsreel footage shows Japanese women flinging their babies off cliffs to their deaths to avoid them being taken prisoner.

It would be reasonable to assume that an invasion of the home islands would have gone pretty much the same way, with those old or young enough to defend the homeland being conscripted with orders to defend to their deaths.

Those too young or too old might have committed ritual suicide, or been sacrificed.

None of those assumptions are unreasonable, based on Japanese WWII actions like the kamikaze, soldiers committing ritual suicide rather than being taken prisoner, and the aforementioned examples with the babies.

The fact is, sick as it sounds, the Japanese fared much better the way things went, than they would have had there been an invasion.