this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2024
304 points (96.6% liked)

World News

38719 readers
2372 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world -1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

But to say that made it okay to drop two nukes instantly killing thousands of civilians is not okay in any case.

My understanding was they were actually attacking manufacturing for the war, it's just that an atom bomb is not that discriminatory, and that all the military-only targets had already been bombed out of existence by that point.

Not saying it was right, just explaining it wasn't as black-and-white as you express.

[–] lud@lemm.ee 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

No, the targeting committee was very clear that the targets were selected mainly based on spectacle and effect.

They purposely kept a few cities in a "pristine" (or as close as possible) by disallowing other bombings so when the nukes were finished the before and after would look more dramatic.

The fact that they could just ignore these cities before dropping the nukes shows that the targets were of little to no military value

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

No, the targeting committee was very clear that the targets were selected mainly based on spectacle and effect.

That's not my understanding at all, only just that having witnesses was a side effect, but not the primary reason.

From what I remember from watching documentaries there were military targets in the cities, I think (don't hold me to it) bomb making factories.

~~Feel free to pass on some links if you know otherwise, as history is always a learning experience.~~ (See edit below.)

Edit: Looking at the Wiki page, under the section about targeting, it mentions this about Hiroshima...

Hiroshima, an embarkation port and industrial center that was the site of a major military headquarters

... and...

Hiroshima was described as "an important army depot and port of embarkation in the middle of an urban industrial area. It is a good radar target and it is such a size that a large part of the city could be extensively damaged. There are adjacent hills which are likely to produce a focusing effect which would considerably increase the blast damage.

The wiki article does mention what you're stating as well, so in essence we're both right, though I would still argue that the military objective was primary, and the spectacle as you call it was secondary, even if it was a close secondary.

[–] NoLifeGaming@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Thats and interesting point, but it does make me think, why drop the nukes when they can just bomb the manufacturing hubs without incurring as much civilian death

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

why drop the nukes when they can just bomb the manufacturing hubs without incurring as much civilian death

That's just it, they had been, for quite a while, but the Japanese would not capitulate.

So just bombing military targets with regular ordinance wasn't enough. The type of bombing was a signal and a message in and of itself.