American Double Standards – The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The majority of people I come across, when asked if an American life is worth more than a Non-American life will almost unanimously say no, especially around witnesses. Yet, when you observe their opinions and how they react to disastrous historical events, it is hard to take their words at face value. These are the people who still cry about September 11th, but manage to think that the Japanese “had it coming” with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They seem to lack the ability to scrutinize the actions of this country as they would the actions of others. I understand that everybody does this at times in more personal circumstances, but I can’t understand how people can think they have any respectable moral code when they constantly support conduct against others that they wouldn’t allow to be enacted against themselves.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that Japan started the war with us. And to be fair, I recognize that Japan started the war in a cowardly fashion. That being said, while they didn’t declare war until after the attack on Pearl Harbor, they did at least attack armed soldiers. These soldiers were serving during a world war, and were equipped with the means to defend themselves, so this attack does not compare to our later bombings of two major cities full of civilians. These attacks killed somewhere between 150,000- 240,000 civilians, that obviously had no chance to defend themselves. Innocent women and children, who are no more responsible for all of their government’s actions as we are for ours, were murdered and disfigured by our government. With that being said, I hate it when people pretend like we are an innocent country, and no one has the right to resent us.

As for Pearl Harbor, if it wasn’t for a stupid military decision by American generals to move our ships closer together, the Japanese attack wouldn’t have had the same level of success that it did. I’m not trying to imply that we had it coming; there is no justification for their actions. But our generals need to be accountable to their troops, and they let them down in this situation.

As I mentioned before, Americans still bitch and moan about Pearl Harbor, and who knows when they will ever get over 9/11. but to this day, many American citizens see no problem that we dropped atomic bombs on other countries cities. If it is ok to attack citizens during war, how can anyone blame the jihadists for their terrorist attacks? They are in a self-declared “holy war” which would by that logic, make their actions acceptable. I am not arguing that terrorist tactics are acceptable! I am simply arguing that the United States government implemented a similar and even more horrendous tactic, and as citizens of this country we should not accept these actions, nor turn a blind eye to them.

Even worse than the actual deaths from the bombing were the families that were mutated by the radiation. This has caused irreversable damage to millions for generations. We are unable to even predict whether there will be a time in the future where this damage will be diminished enough that it will no longer continue onto the next generation. This was probably the single most horrific act in all of history and america seems to have replied with a political 'Whoops'.

On the other hand, I agree completely with the generals being held responsible for their decision. After world war 2, anyone who was affilliated with germany in any way was put on trials and almost automatically put to death. It did not matter if they said "I was just following orders" or "I just cut the potatoes". These men were viewed as scum and executed for their association with the nazi regime. However, even though the men who ordered and implemented the dropping of the atomic bomb committed one of the most heinous crimes in history, people view this as acceptable.