Biggest Failures in History!

[Augy]

I still can't understand why people think the throwing of the atomic bombs on Japan was bad. It saved millions of lives; American, Japs and Soviets and shortened the war by potentially years. As much as Japan was in ruins after the war, an invasion would have been much, much more devastating and the Japanese simply didn't know the word surrender. Let's not forget that even after the Atomic Bombs had been dropped, the entire Japanese War Cabined voted to continue the war; It was the emperor that made an end to it.

It was still a crime against humanity. The big problem i also have with the "we had to drop the bomb to make Japan surrender" argument is that Japan was already in the process of surrendering. They wanted to keep the emperor at all costs.  The US kept pressing for an unconditional surrender but in the end let Japan keep the emperor anyway.

The actual reasons for dropping the bomb were to test nuclear bombs on real targets and see the effects, showing off the new toys to the rest of the world and making them afraid. Possibly the biggest reason was to show the USSR who the new boss was and to keep them out of Japan so they surrendered to the US and not USSR in order to stop it from becoming a stalinist puppetstate.

Japan was already firebombed the fuck out and their surrender and defeat were inevitable.

[Duuring]

There was indeed a political argument to throw the bomb (Look commies, we got bomba!) but Japan could not be allowed to just sign a peace treaty and carry on. They had too many warcrimes on their head, and even after the bombs were thrown, the Japanese got the Americans so far to not prosecute the emperor - Which pissed off an awful lot of Europeans.

As horrible as the use was, I really don't see how another year of fighting, bombing and suffering is anymore better then the two weakest atomic bombs we ever had.

[Barnesy]

Say what you think the biggest failures in history were. They can be events, people, nations, laws, battles, etc. Don't make your decisions based off race, nationality, or just plain idiotic grounds.


For me:
The Austrian Empire
Why: Battle of Karánsebes. That's why

Putting an idiot like General Whitelocke in charge of a British force at Buenos Ayres

[Skipper]

Whether the bomb had been dropped or not, there would have been lots of civilian casualties. The thing that gets me is a lack of understanding of how it is one of histories biggest failures? To fail means for something to not work or to not go as planned. The US got the results they wanted and thus it was not a failure. Perhaps a disaster for Japan? But not a failure.

[Colonel Howe]

Me being the fountain of neutrality will just say this about the bomb:

Was it horrible? Absolutely. Yet it is no different than the fire bombings these powers did to each other for years (Dresden) and it is no more militarily "immoral" than aerial power itself. And just like the Red Scares, it is easy for us people of the present (with no actual stress invested into the situation) to say "of course japan would surrender if Americans and Russians invaded". Also, we would probably see the same, if not more, the amount of death just extended over months/years of fire bombings and mountainous fighting. Hiroshima and Nagasaki basically created that amount of death in a few seconds rather than a few months.  Am I against nuclear weaponry and the aftermath of this bomb? Absolutely. Do I think it was immoral? Yes but no more immoral than the conventional side of the war and humanity in general.

[Kator Viridian]

"You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"

Charles VIII of France death.

[William]

Looking at the war like this, extend it and causes millions of causalities, or do your best to end it quickly with far less causalities on both sides.

[Friedrich]

The intention of dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not to save lives, it was to save G.I.s lives. US command didn't care about enemy lives as long they can save their own (-> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Okinawa ). US government feared a big war exhaustion after too much casualties.
And every bombing on civilians is war crime, not only atomic bombing. Btw, the conventional Operation Meetinghouse in Tokyo was more devastating then Hiroshima or Nagasaki (-> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo ).

[Duuring]

If you wanna talk warcrimes, the Japanese don't really have a clean sheet to begin with. Of course the Americans cared more about their own men lives. Doesn't change the fact that conventional warfare would have laid Japan in ruins and the Japanese populace destroyed.

[Friedrich]

With my last 2 sentences I was just responding to Augys comment. I don't deny any warcrimes made by any party.

[Coconut]

My parents told me I was their biggest failure because I was a mistake

[Colonel Howe]

My parents told me I was their biggest failure because I was a mistake

Here's the twist: I am your parents

[Bruin]

If you wanna talk warcrimes, the Japanese don't really have a clean sheet to begin with. Of course the Americans cared more about their own men lives. Doesn't change the fact that conventional warfare would have laid Japan in ruins and the Japanese populace destroyed.

+1