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Barefoot Gen was heartbreaking story wise even though its animation it's quite dated.

6/10 - It's anime therefore I have to dock points for unimpressive animation even for the time (see Mobile Zeta Gundam for example).


I just find it horrifying that people still say that Japan would not have surrendered if we (US) didn't drop the bombs. How is it humane to drop a bomb to kill innocent human beings in order to prevent military casualties?

Absolutely horrific

Necessary is something else than justifiable.

Necessary? No, the war would have ended in a loss for Japan anyways. Justifiable? Certainly: a couple of bombing runs would have similar results and a land invasion would have killed millions more. The nuclear strikes ended the war early and thus saved millions of lives.

I know it's populair, especially for Japan fans, to say that the nukes were bad, but really if thousands more allied soldiers would have given their lives because people decided not to nuke: what would the populace have said?

Besides you know what's inhumane? Having let Japan screw arround in China and the rest of Asia for even longer.

Because those deaths wouldn't have happened with any of the alternatives right?

air raids and land invasion would have killed millions more than the second option as it would most likely have involved many more cities than just 2.

However I don't see why America couldn't use scare tactics against Japan and drop the bomb on an uninhabited island to demonstrates it's power and effect. They could then have warned Japan that should they continue the war they would drop it on them. It may not have worked but at least then it would have been entirely japan's fault for not giving up.

Another thing i didn't like about the bombs was how little time there was between the 2. barely 3 days, how are you supposed to tell what happened to hiroshima in 3 days.

Overall The atomic bomb did probably save more than it killed, however the second bomb on Nagasaki was probably uneccessary.

Of course all of it could have been avoided if America hadn't waited untill Pearl Harbour to join the war.

What a excellent post, I agree so much..

I often see people talk about how the bombs saved so many lives. The problem is that we don't know for sure what would have happened.

On one hand, if there had been a large scale mass invasion of mainland Japan, casualties would have been very high indeed. There difference I see here though is civilian vs military. While I'm not trying to devalue the life of a member of the military, I feel like a child who has never held a gun shouldn't be the one who needs to die in order to save soldiers. If we really needed to use a nuke, I don't see why it couldn't have been a more militaristic target, maybe an island airfield or something with a lower civilian ratio. Downtown nagasaki/hiroshima to me is like saying "yeah there are some factories here, so 300k women and children have to die."

Now that my personal opinion is out of the way...

The war was about done, and Japan was defeated. With Germany defeated, Russia was ready to turn its eyes on Japan, and everyone knew it. It was only a matter of time for the war to be over, Japan was exhausted in resources and had no allies left. So to say that the war would have never ended without nukes is simply false.

I'm about to turn this into a super long post since I think it's important...

In a 1986 study, historian and journalist Edwin P. Hoyt nailed the "great myth, perpetuated by well-meaning people throughout the world," that "the atomic bomb caused the surrender of Japan." In Japan's War: The Great Pacific Conflict (p. 420), he explained:

The fact is that as far as the Japanese militarists were concerned, the atomic bomb was just another weapon. The two atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were icing on the cake, and did not do as much damage as the firebombings of Japanese cities. The B-29 firebombing campaign had brought the destruction of 3,100,000 homes, leaving 15 million people homeless, and killing about a million of them. It was the ruthless firebombing, and Hirohito's realization that if necessary the Allies would completely destroy Japan and kill every Japanese to achieve "unconditional surrender" that persuaded him to the decision to end the war. The atomic bomb is indeed a fearsome weapon, but it was not the cause of Japan's surrender, even though the myth persists even to this day.
---
The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb (Praeger, 1996), historian Dennis D. Wainstock pp. 124, 132:

... By April 1945, Japan's leaders realized that the war was lost. Their main stumbling block to surrender was the United States' insistence on unconditional surrender. They specifically needed to know whether the United States would allow Hirohito to remain on the throne. They feared that the United States would depose him, try him as a war criminal, or even execute him ...

Unconditional surrender was a policy of revenge, and it hurt America's national self-interest. It prolonged the war in both Europe and East Asia, and it helped to expand Soviet power in those areas.
---
From the conclusion of a 1946 report done by United States Strategic Bombing Survey:

Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945 and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945 [the date of the planned American invasion], Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.
---


Personal opinions aside, based on the facts, the bombs were unnecessary.

Personal opinions in place, I feel they were a simple display of power. Not only to Japan, but to the rest of the world including Russia. No surprise that shortly after, we entered a cold war with our previous ally. A horrible waste of life in a war where humanity had already been taxed far beyond what anyone should ever have to witness.

War sucks.

oppsy

I think the movie illustrated what an atomic bomb somewhat looks like after going off.
The massive multi kilometer blast radius followed by a huge lava like heat blast capable of melting even metal. Then the radioactivity that comes in numerous forms such as the falling rain and poisoned water.

That scene was really graphic

As for everyone else thinking these bombs saved millions more you are absolutely correct. The Soviets would have killed millions if we let them have their way.

This was excellent! Thanks!

I think the bombs were unnecessary, and quite frankly, i can't conceive a scenario where i'm defending them.

The mere thought of the bomb "saving" anything seems absurd. I obviously get the intention that people who say that have, but it's plain wrong in my mind. The movie delivers some hellish imagery to such "saving".

It was clearly a showing of power. Japan had already lost, it just hadn't admitted it yet.