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Replying to Avatar MichaelJ

This is the correct take.

I think the decision to use the atomic bombs was driven by the doctrine of total war and the demand for unconditional surrender.

The point is often raised that an invasion of mainland Japan would cost hundreds of thousands or millions of lives. The US, though, was not seeking a negotiated peace that offered terms to protect the citizens of Japan. For all Japan knew, the US would do to them what they did to Nanking.

Total war and unconditional surrender have driven US war politics ever since we used the atomic bombs to force the end of WWII. It drives the endless wars in the Middle East and the meat grinder conflict in Ukraine even today.

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Niel Liesmons 1y ago

They didn't even use atomic bombs.

No evidence of anyone ever using them, in fact.

https://archive.org/details/Hiroshima_revisited

Fear will make people believe and play along with anything.

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MichaelJ 1y ago

Even if they didn't use the atomic bombs, the same logic applies to the policy of carpet-bombing and firebombing civilian targets, tactics which the US employed heavily towards the end of the war in the Pacific.

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Niel Liesmons 1y ago

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atyh 1y ago

🥱

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