WAR

WAR: Why Aren'twe Reconciling?

Yes, "aren'twe" is one word.

I'm not very creative. How could you tell?

Anyway.

Why would anyone go to war with Japan, let alone war at all?

In Japan, people would rather die than surrender. (Kamikazes are an example of this to a certain extent.) It's all about honor and surrendering is a dishonorable thing. I can see where they're coming from. But if you have a country where honor is everything and they don't surrender, doesn't that sound like a pretty good recipe for losing the said war? I suppose the only way you could win that war is by using a "trump card"*. This trump card would be...oh, let's just say an atomic bomb. (Hiroshima or Nagasaki ring a bell?) Hundreds of thousands of millions** of people died as a result of the US dropping an atomic bomb in these two locations. Was it really necessary? In my humble opinion, no.

Was it really necessary to go to war in the first place? Well, OK, so Japan bombed us first. We have to go drop an atomic bomb on them? Doesn't that seem a bit extreme? Yes. Not only were people's homes and businesses destroyed, but many lost family and loved ones. Hiroshima took a long time to rebuild and twelve years for the National Diet to actually do something about the relief efforts and health effects for the survivors. People had charred skin, and radiation poisoning plagued the survivors for years after the bomb had dropped.

My favorite part about the bombing: the fact that after Americans had dropped the bomb, they tried to keep the Japanese population from finding out what it really was. Well, they found out and not only did the politicians or military men know, they published information about the atomic bomb in small pamphlets and distributed them to the Japanese people. Why would you not want to let them know you dropped an a-bomb on them? You might as well tell them so they know what they're dealing with.

*As dubbed by Cleelus Matthews.

**Figure not verified or accurate. Do not cite.