Tokyo, Kobe and other cities had civilian populations targeted and firebombed. In Tokyo alone over 250,000 civilians died in one raid. By any definition it was terrorism.

The mood of the times was fierce, and with reason. The war had been long and hard, and since the opposing forces didn't look like each other their treatment of prisoners unbelievably cruel.

I don't want to second-guess the use of the atomic bombs. I don't think there was a real choice, given the times. And, no one wanted to invade Japan. I had a relative who was part of the planning for that, down to the date and places.

And at best the A-bombs shortened the war by 30 days. The Japanese political and military systems were at odds, but they were working on it.

A big, big hang-up was the "unconditional surrender" which had been announced. There were many Japanese who were willing to die before they saw their Emperor dragged off in chains and shot. Didn't care what the cost would be.

And, in reality, he wasn't. Could have been announced earlier, would have saved American and Japanese lives.

But even so, it just looks reasonable that Japan could have been starved into submission. They had no Navy left, no effective Air Force, and were an island. The have to import massive amounts of most essentials, and we had more than enough assets to blockade them while bombing the living dickens out of whatever they had left.

I just think the mood was such that they wanted to get it over fast regardless of the loss of life, even American. Without the A-bomb, the invasion would have been expensive in terms of Allied lives.

By the way, at the Hiroshima Memorial there is no reason given for why the US dropped atomic bombs, just that we did. It's almost as if they were minding their own business, looked up, and BLAM!

Arf