The moral differences between the holocaust and bombing Japan

I'm not surprised that you are a student of Zinn

I quite agree with Farmerman that neither Truman nor any other level-headed POTUS would have hesitated a moment in ordering a nuclear strike on Germany if we'd had the weapon ready in time.

. . . .Would it be fair to say that "If other terrorists were able to detonate a few nukes here in our country killing many innocent civilians that they too would be level headed if they succeeded in their objective?

Another way of saying history books favor the winners. It may be true; but it doesn't help

. . . . What do you think religious books favor? Could some of them favor dogma? . . . .

Forgive me if I've said this to you before, neo, but my karma ran over your dogma.

No, it's a simple matter of pragmatism and has nothing to do with moral and/or ethical considerations; those come later when the war is over. At the time, it is the responsibility of the people in charge to do what is best for their side, to make sure that their side wins the war. Morality or ethics have nothing to do with it.

No, it's a simple matter of pragmatism and has nothing to do with moral and/or ethical considerations; those come later when the war is over. At the time, it is the responsibility of the people in charge to do what is best for their side, to make sure that their side wins the war. Morality or ethics have nothing to do with it.

The Jews posed no clear and present danger to Hitler except, perhaps, as potential political opponents. We were at all-out war with Japan.

Frank, you keep talking about the difference in American attitudes toward Japan and Germany. But in the post I'm responding to you make it pretty clear that what you're really talking about is popular attitudes toward Japanese-Americans vs German-Americans. I agree. German-Americans were not consigned to American concentration camps the way the Americans of Japanese descent were. But that's a different kettle of fish from the way we saw the countries of Japan and Germany. Those were both the enemy. I've heard from WW II veterans that in the European Theater of Operations (ETO), American servicemen were discouraged by their commanders from even using the word 'German' to refer to the enemy. If you think 'Jap' is a bad nickname, what about 'Fritz' and 'Jerry'? Intended to be equally insulting.

I quite agree with Farmerman that neither Truman nor any other level-headed POTUS would have hesitated a moment in ordering a nuclear strike on Germany if we'd had the weapon ready in time.

Frank, you keep talking about the difference in American attitudes toward Japan and Germany. But in the post I'm responding to you make it pretty clear that what you're really talking about is popular attitudes toward Japanese-Americans vs German-Americans. I agree. German-Americans were not consigned to American concentration camps the way the Americans of Japanese descent were. But that's a different kettle of fish from the way we saw the countries of Japan and Germany. Those were both the enemy. I've heard from WW II veterans that in the European Theater of Operations (ETO), American servicemen were discouraged by their commanders from even using the word 'German' to refer to the enemy. If you think 'Jap' is a bad nickname, what about 'Fritz' and 'Jerry'? Intended to be equally insulting.

I quite agree with Farmerman that neither Truman nor any other level-headed
POTUS would have hesitated a moment in ordering a nuclear strike on Germany if we'd had the weapon ready in time.

We'll have to agree to disagree.

As for whether Truman would or would not do anything...I will continue to call my guesses
about that..."my guesses." I think your certainty is a bit much.

In Germany, in 1938, Hahn and Strassmann of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin successfully bombarded uranium atoms to produce fission. The amounts were far too small to get a chain reaction such as that in a bomb, but the implications were not lost on physicists. In 1939, using Einstein's prestige, physicists in the United States sent a letter signed by Einstein to FDR calling on him to investigate the possibility of using fission to produce a powerful bomb. In Britain, Frisch and Peierls at the University of Birmingham calculated the critical mass of uranium 235, and the energy which could be released by that critical mass, which was less than 25 pounds--indicating that a bomb was feasible.

The Manhattan Project and the British tube alloy project were initiated before the war began in Europe, and before Japan was a threat on anyone's horizon. The original impetus for atom bomb development was to produce a bomb before Germany did, or at least as quickly as Germany did. The original purpose of both projects was predicated on Germany developing such a bomb.