yes “america bad” is a valid political stance

  • NotSoCoolWhip@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    We didn’t nuke Japan for fun. We warned civilians by dropping pamphlets. They had just weaponized the bubonic plague on china. When the bombs were dropped, they had planned on doing the same biological attack on San Francisco in two weeks.

    The Japanese were arguably worse than the Nazis, but their evils during the war were erased because they were such a convenient trading partner. Not even their own citizens learn about their atrocities, especially in the way that Germany does.

    • CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.mlM
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      1 year ago

      We didn’t nuke Japan for fun

      Well, a bit for fun. Eisenhower didn’t want to nuke Nagoya because he spent his honeymoon there.

      But you’re right otherwise, the bombs were dropped because the USSR was making too much headway and preparing a naval invasion of the main island set for mere days after the bombs were dropped, which would have given them an edge at the negotiating table.

      warned civilians by dropping pamphlets

      Didn’t seem to help much, their shadows are still singed against the pavement.

    • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Neither of the atomic bombs had warnings, those were pamphlets for the fire bombings of Tokyo. The goal was to spread fear of what we could do to the whole world. We used Japan as a fucked up example.

      • rjs001@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        Japan still was commiting genocide during the war. We absolutely shouldn’t downplay Japanese war crimes but we also shouldn’t compare the two as it leads nowhere productive

          • Anarcho-Bolshevik@lemmygrad.ml
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            1 year ago

            https://web.archive.org/web/20070614140107/http://yale.edu/gsp/publications/WaiKeng.doc

            The [Axis] Occupation of Singapore from February 1942 to August 1945 was a particularly momentous period of loss and sacrifice for the Chinese population as compared to other ethnicities, because they were the targets of brutal [Imperial] military policies. During a month of screening procedures and indiscriminate massacres in 1942 known as sook ching, or cleansing operations, an undetermined number of civilians were separated from their families and friends and suffered uncertain fates. In many cases, the last time relatives saw loved ones was at a screening center before the unlucky victims were driven away in trucks to unknown destinations.

          • Buchenstr@lemmygrad.ml
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            1 year ago

            it was definitely genocide, what we’re criticising is the war crimes committed by the americans.

      • NotSoCoolWhip@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        What about the invasion of mainland China? Rape of Nanking? What about the vivisection of living test subjects? Manchurian testing?

        They may not have done a holocaust, but they did a lot worse shit in other areas. The medical testing was the worst to learn about. The worst thing is they got away with it, not admitting to any of it until later. Japanese leadership completely skirted any type of Nuremberg-type consequences.