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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: robnhood who wrote (3978)	4/17/1999 12:55:00 AM
From: D. Long	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17770

<<Well at least there is an admission there of who really started the war with Japan---- Chomsky points out that it was in the latter stages when the US and Britain started to turn on Germany and Japan,, much the same as the latter stages of WW2 when they turned on Russia.... Hiroshima and Nagasaki was for the Russian's benefit>> This is not entirely true. The desire of the Japanese for a Pacific Empire (or as they referred to it, a Pacific Co-prosperity sphere) would have in the end brought Japan into conflict with the US. Yes, Roosevelt did put the pressure on Japan to get us into the war with Germany. Chomsky's dubious historicism bears out in that statement, turning on Germany? We were never for Germany. Appeasement does not mean nodding in approval. Remember, that generation still had the memory of WWI's killing fields fresh in their minds, there was no desire to go to war if it could be prevented. As to the nuke being for Russia's benefit, this is hardly the case. The planning for the invasion of Japan had been drawn up, the plan was the invasion of the southern island with a follow invasion of the Tokyo Plain after it had been taken. Early estimates put casualties at 250,000 with the force intelligence had estimated was in the southern island. By June of 1945 the forces had quadrupled, Japan was pulling every available division it had to defend the home islands. It was later learned that the Japanese had a force of over a million men defending the island. Casualties would have been close to half a million to take the southern island alone. To take the Tokyo Plain no doubt would have cost a million lives. The bomb was used without question. It quite possibly saved 1.5 million US troops and double or triple that in Japanese casualties. To say that the bomb was dropped for Russia's benefit is absurd. The record has shown that when Truman came into office and the plans for the invasion were being drawn up, Truman made it known that casualty rates were the number one factor in making a decision. The bomb saved lives, period.