VJ day

Emphasis

Bez that is a very narrow way of thinking - to think that words in capitals have to mean shouting. It can simply mean empathis. We are not teenagers on social media.

No, children should never be part of any war, but sadly Chinese, Burmese, Thai, Malay, Indonesian, Australian children were caught up in this nightmare through no fault of their own, are they not worthy of at least a little sympathy for the terror that was imposed on them? POW's to be subjected to terrible treatment (if they were still alive) for heaven knows how long, because they were combatants and deserve it? Does that include all the women and children of the nationalities who were captured by the Japanese? Did they deserve it too?!
We're all entitled to our opinions, but to suggest that these bombs were dropped out of revenge and nothing else is simply not understanding the enormity of the situation on the ground. This war had to be ended, to prolong it month in month out and the carnage that would have caused would have been unbelievably awful for military and civilians alike.

NoAnnie not revenge but trying to stop any more people being maltreated and rescue this still alive from having this treatment continue.

So revenge ?

The Japanese imprisoned many men,women,children and babies in what was then the Dutch East Indies. All, including the children were starved and beaten by the Japanese.

Evil is never necessary . The prisoners of war were part of the war the children were not

Fortunately-not personally involved thank goodness.As an "outsider" therefore I cannot help thinking about the cause of it all.I would have thought trade would have something to do with it. Why were the UK/Holland/USA there at all I wonder? They naturally live the other side of the world.Again-could they have been better prepared? Were they aware of the Japanese mind + ethos? (The Oriental despot idea)Bearing all these + other factors in mind could the "situation" have been approached differently?(By having "escape routes" in place/strong bases in friendly countries like Australia?Perhaps one of the most deplorable facts was that of the "black market"-I quote from M.Gilberts' monumental work :"A History of the 20th. century"(Vol.2):" Fuelling the German warmaking capacity were 4 neutral states:Portugal. Spain,Sweden +Turkey,each of which accepted gold bullion from Germany....."(P.535) Therefore certain countries + even individuals were known to regret the wars' end as they were capitalising quite nicely thankyou from its continuation.

Fortunately-not personally involved thank goodness.As an "outsider" therefore I cannot help thinking about the cause of it all.I would have thought trade would have something to do with it. Why were the UK/Holland/USA there at all I wonder? They naturally live the other side of the world.Again-could they have been better prepared? Were they aware of the Japanese mind + ethos? (The Oriental despot idea)Bearing all these + other factors in mind could the "situation" have been approached differently?(By having "escape routes" in place/strong bases in friendly countries like Australia?Perhaps one of the most deplorable facts was that of the "black market"-I quote from M.Gilberts' monumental work :"A History of the 20th. century"(Vol.2):" Fuelling the German warmaking capacity were 4 neutral states:Portugal. Spain,Sweden +Turkey,each of which accepted gold bullion from Germany....."(P.535) Therefore certain countries + even individuals were known to regret the wars' end as they were capitalising quite nicely thankyou from its continuation.

Jing writing in capitals is considered shouting on forums! No- one can categorically say they are right in this - your opinion is right for you and others have a different opinion. What do you say about the way the prisoners were treated - your opinion I assume is they should have continued to receive harsh treatment till the megalomaniac in Tokyo either died or was persuaded to surrender? No one can really say that Japan was ready to pack it in as it was likely to be just the generals who then would need to convince the Emperor.

No, you are not necessarily right. As others have said you are not seeing the wider picture and you are ignoring the terrible suffering imposed on the peoples of the far east by the Empire of Japan which led to this dreadful finale. Thousands of children were murdered in ways that would give the most hardened soldier nightmares. How can we 70 years later from a completely different perspective possibly say what people caught up in this hell on earth, should or shouldn't have done? We weren't there, we weren't being captured, murdered, tortured terrorised by a fanatical enemy. Of course the bomb was shocking, but so were the circumstances that led up to it, all caused by Japan refusing to surrender. What on earth could have ended it, quickly, as it simply couldn't go on.

Very true Tegan, that and the fact that so many countries have this capability that we are all scared of using them.

Just a thought but, given that mankind always seems to have to use whatever horrific things they have invented, had the bombs not been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the realisation of how awful they were, would they not have been dropped another time another place years later? And it's only the understanding of the horrors unleashed that has prevented them being used since .

No. I am not shouting. And I will most certainly not apologise. I am right.

I ( personally) am not trying to justify anything, but trying to get a point over that a lot of people die during wars. a lot of people do think that it ended the war with Japan and was therefore a necessary evil.War is terrible and we are all trying to deal with this from a historical perspective .

Jingle just because you have started shouting that you are right does not make it that you are right!!! I think that you are being very unfeeling with your opinion to the thousand and thousands of people - men, women and children who were so badly treated by the Japanese soldiers. I know a Belgian lady who was incarcerated in Changai as her father was a Belgian diplomat - she too was handed out abuse - was that right - I say no! i was lucky enough that my father was in a reserved occupation working on the development of the radar which did help to save the lives of many people but I can understand the feelings of the ones who had their loved ones killed or returned in a dreadful state and many of these man had memories return to haunt them in later life. Just to count the number of people killed or maimed by the two bombs is to only look at part of the picture and part of the total of those who were killed or maimed. You are looking at one side only and giving your opinion. The rest of the posters on this thread are just as right in their opinions and just as entitled to air them as you --- and no-one else has shouted. Maybe an apology is due on this occasion. No one has said they would want to see another war let alone another bomb dropped but do think that the ones which were deployed did shorten the war and in some cases return to them much loved kind people who had been atrociously treated.

It's all awful Jingl, but so many children and old people did die, our own and German and, with the two bombs in Japan, Japanese as well.Not to mention Chinese ( ghastly happenings from Japanese soldiers there!) Burmese, etc.

You do realise just what you are trying to justify?

"just the scale of the bombs".

I'm leaving this thread now.

The kind of war that never targeted civilians and children happened a long, long time ago.The kind that featured two armies clashing in a field.

Their children did it?

Really?

Every mother, baby, child, old grandfather and every old grandmother did it?

Really?

It happens in every war, it was just the scale of the bombs in Japan.Hard for us to say now what should happen when we didn't live through it.

Really Jingl? the Japanese did just that.

No. It's factual decency.

You can't horrifically kill innocent civilians going about their daily lives, deliberately and cold bloodedly. You can't kill children. Ever.