Military Necessity and the Atomic Bombs

[Kael]

From what I recall of my Japanese history, the Emperor was a figurehead. Sure, he was supposed to be a god, but he wielded little actual power when it came to policy decisions. I don't remember if the period during WWII was any different.

[Dragar]

I point out: the time between the Japanese surrender and the second bomb was longer than the time between the two bombs.

[beyelzu]

Originally Posted by The Man

So Vork seems to believe. However, referring to the initiative for peace, Vork explicitly says that “only the Emperor suported this initiative”. Maybe I just misunderstand the structure of the Japanese government at the time, but wasn’t the Emperor, um, the supreme god of the Japanese people? If that’s the case, then what anyone else supported was kind of irrelevant.

kael is right, it was really an oligarchy and more to the point it was something of a military dictatorship with the emperor as figurehead.

[beyelzu]

Originally Posted by Dragar

I point out: the time between the Japanese surrender and the second bomb was longer than the time between the two bombs.

Okay, so maybe the second bomb was unecessary is that what you are saying?


To which I would reply well we would have dropped a third but we were fresh out of bombs, we didn't know if they would or wouldnt surrender, but we basically went all in with the bluff.

[Doctor X]

The book Downfall deals with a lot of this. Some of the "figure-head" is a post-war apology to justify not charging the Emperor with war crimes.

Nasty business war.

--J.D.

[Crumb]

This thread is 10 years old, but I had to bring it back from the dead to share this MOVIE LENGTH treatment of the subject by Shaun. A guy who make great videos on YouTube. I am only half way through at this point. I am learning a lot though and he is very convincing.

Dropping the Bomb: Hiroshima & Nagasaki - YouTube

[JoeP]

My [thanks] does not warrant that I have or will finish watching the entire video ...