Was it a war crime when US nuked Hiroshima & Nagasaki?

no test needed...just a note concerning the topic:war crimes

High Seas wrote:

Oralloy - from contemporaneous sources you will see that informal talks were held between envoys of the Imperial Court of Japan and officials in Switzerland, Sweden, even Russia, BEFORE Potsdam ...........

I wonder whether Stimson woud have preferred
to exchange the well being of the Japanese
for American casualties, including the bereaved back in America.

Oralloy - from contemporaneous sources you will see that informal talks were held between envoys of the Imperial Court of Japan and officials in Switzerland, Sweden, even Russia, BEFORE Potsdam - admittedly at low levels. When Japanese officials tried to meet higher-level Russians (with whom they were not at war at the time, as you know) they were allowed to arrive and then contemptuously told that the Russians had already left for Potsdam. The report of the returning delegation to Tokyo minutely describes the loss of face at this treatment - and that record, as well as many others, have been preserved by all participants. Secretary Stimson mentions it specifically in his diary - and he, unlike others in that administration, was extremely uneasy at dropping these terrible new weapons on what he called "defenseless women and children" in Japan.

recent studies by German experts has debunked the 500,000 casualties reported at Dresden...20,000 to a maximum of 25.000....still a heavy toll but certainly not in the same category as the A-bombing

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/3123512/Dresden-bombing-death-toll-lower-than-thought.html

....Death is coming for all of us anyway, and it is better to be Lot's wife looking back through salty eyes than the Deity that destroyed those cities of the plain in order to save them....

The »Historical Commission on the Aerial Bombing of Dresden between 13th and 15th February 1945« brought its investigations on behalf of the City of Dresden to a close on 17th March 2010 with the publishing of a final report.

Up to 25,000 people died in the Allied bombing of Dresden during World War II - fewer than often estimated.

During the five years of research, the Dresden Historians’ Commission reviewed records from city archives, cemeteries, official registries and courts and checked them against published reports and witness accounts.

The figure of 25,000 matches conclusions reached by local authorities immediately after the war, in 1945 and 1946.

The report also found that the number of refugees fleeing the Eastern Front who were killed in the bombing was lower than often presumed, and dismissed speculation that many victims’ bodies were never recovered.


Press release (English)

Final report (German)

Yes, killing civilians is never acceptable, and in this case Truman went against the advise of his Generals.

Yes, killing civilians is never acceptable,

and in this case Truman went against the advise of his Generals.

cheesey wrote:

Yes, killing civilians is never acceptable, and in this case Truman went against the advise of his Generals.

Does that make it a CRIME ??

WHICH statute was violated ?

Casualty predictions varied widely but were extremely high for both sides: depending on the degree to which Japanese civilians resisted the invasion, estimates ran into the millions for Allied casualties and tens of millions for Japanese casualties.

Quote:

Casualty predictions varied widely but were extremely high for both sides: depending on the degree to which Japanese civilians resisted the invasion, estimates ran into the millions for Allied casualties and tens of millions for Japanese casualties.

...maybe cheesey...Truman and the advisers saved a lot of lives...