Different times. Americans WERE racist then and many still are today. I'm not sure about the claim that it wasn't used on the Germans first because they are white. If Hitler WAS very close to getting atomic weapons, America would have nuked Germany. I have no doubt about that.
The Allies had been fighting the Japanese since 1941. The British and continental Europeans had been fighting the Germans before that. The Allies were tired. They wanted the war over. Period. No one cared how. The Russians and Chinese had taken brutal amounts of casualties, both military and civilian. Their casualty numbers make the American casualties look ridiculously low. I'm sure they wouldn't have cared if they had even understood what nuclear weapons were. There's was very much the sentiment that Japan had started the war and that they deserved what they got. I do know that the bomb wasn't quite ready until after the German surrender, so that may have been part of it, too.
I know that Truman was so shaken by the photographs (the ones the public didn't get to see) of the bomb's results that when the generals brought up using them in Korea, he squashed the idea immediately and said they should never have been used on civilians.
Churchill once said that "jaw, jaw, jaw, was better than war, war, war." I agree with him. That's the only way Humanity is going to survive. I'm not an apologist for the use of the bombs on Japan. I'm trying to explain the way people felt and thought at that time. We can't Monday morning quarterback their decisions and acts. So we can do is try to avoid any of them ever being used again on anyone anywhere.
I really hope they get a guy with a good Russian accent to say "Holy Jesus fuck farts!" for this scene when they make History of the Fuckin' World Part 1
They didn’t steal the technology a few years later. They were in the process of stealing it at the time. Klaus Fuchs was an important part of the Manhattan Project.
Different times. Americans WERE racist then and many still are today. I'm not sure about the claim that it wasn't used on the Germans first because they are white. If Hitler WAS very close to getting atomic weapons, America would have nuked Germany. I have no doubt about that.
The Allies had been fighting the Japanese since 1941. The British and continental Europeans had been fighting the Germans before that. The Allies were tired. They wanted the war over. Period. No one cared how. The Russians and Chinese had taken brutal amounts of casualties, both military and civilian. Their casualty numbers make the American casualties look ridiculously low. I'm sure they wouldn't have cared if they had even understood what nuclear weapons were. There's was very much the sentiment that Japan had started the war and that they deserved what they got. I do know that the bomb wasn't quite ready until after the German surrender, so that may have been part of it, too.
I know that Truman was so shaken by the photographs (the ones the public didn't get to see) of the bomb's results that when the generals brought up using them in Korea, he squashed the idea immediately and said they should never have been used on civilians.
Churchill once said that "jaw, jaw, jaw, was better than war, war, war." I agree with him. That's the only way Humanity is going to survive. I'm not an apologist for the use of the bombs on Japan. I'm trying to explain the way people felt and thought at that time. We can't Monday morning quarterback their decisions and acts. So we can do is try to avoid any of them ever being used again on anyone anywhere.
I really hope they get a guy with a good Russian accent to say "Holy Jesus fuck farts!" for this scene when they make History of the Fuckin' World Part 1
They didn’t steal the technology a few years later. They were in the process of stealing it at the time. Klaus Fuchs was an important part of the Manhattan Project.