A little history lesson for MO

Submitted by Jeff (United States), Feb 8, 2008 at 21:22

All too typically, you throw out the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as though the US just one day decided it would be fun to drop a couple of new atomic bombs on some cities somewhere, and picked those cities at random. The truth is a bit more complex, and has to do with an event called World War II. Japan declared war on the USA. Japan attacked the USA. Japan attacked China, Korea, the Philippines, Southeast Asia, Burma. They had to be stopped. Ask a Korean if he or she thinks Japan had to be stopped.

The Korean peninsula was transformed into a huge and brutal slave labor camp, in which thousands died and from which thousands of girls were taken by force and sent around Asia to be sex slaves for Japanese troops (until they died after a few months and were replaced by more). Ask a Chinese if he or she thinks Japan had to be stopped. The Japanese army killed more people in one week in Nanjing, China with bullets, knives and flames than were killed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

Are you familiar with the standard Japanese mode of attack on a city, employed again and again in China? First, bomb homes, hospitals, public buildings, etc, to create havoc and panic (a bit like Muslims routinely do in Iraq and Pakistan, except the Japanese used planes instead of suicide bomb vests). Then, when the streets are jammed with hysterical, screaming women, children, old folks, babies, come in low with fighter planes to strafe the crowds of helpless, innocent people with machine gun fire.

Perhaps you have no problem with this behavior. We did, though. The air attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, tragic as they were, were done to eliminate the need of a full-scale invasion of Japan. An invasion of Japan would have cost many, many more lives on both sides than did the bombings. After the war we stayed temporarily and helped to rebuild Japan's infrastructure and economy, and instituted a democratic government (which, of course, will have to be removed someday against the wishes of the Japanese, because it's unIslamic.). We didn't stay, we didn't conquer, we didn't force anyone to convert to Christianity, nor did we levy extra taxes and burdensome rules on non-Christians.

Why is it I never hear complaints like yours from Japanese people? Why are the USA and Japan such good friends, now and since only a few years after we were attacked and our POW's were used for bayonet practice? Why is it, every time I am in Japan, I enjoy the warm hospitality of my Japanese friends and colleagues, and look forward to returning the favor when they visit the USA? Are we all missing something you need to teach us? Please, teach us all you know about everlasting hate, perpetual rage, and refusal of reconciliation. Good luck.

Do your feelings about nuclear weapons and their consequences also extend to the Iranian nuclear weapons program, and the consequences it will have for millions of Jewish people? Or, do you make an exception in that case?

Not a single one of your examples--not one--is an example of Christians following the dictates of their religion, as you imply. Jesus did not command his followers to kill Japanese, or anyone else. History gets ugly (imperialism, subjugation of peoples, slavery, etc.) when Christians, Buddhists, Taoists, etc., choose to ignore how the founders of their religions challenged them to live. History also gets ugly (imperialism, subjugation of peoples, slavery, etc.) when Muslims do exactly what the founder of their religion told them to do. That's a very basic difference.

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