Is there justification for nuking? — Down The Rabbit Hole
Well, just imagine yourself in the shoes of President Truman, when he is told about this new bomb alternative.Anyway, it goes like this: The will to live is amoral. What you do on behalf of your own survival can't be judged as long as you thought you had no alternative. — frank
I think the will to destroy other human beings was paramount, not only because they knew such a thing would happen (they ran the tests), but because they knew it would give them an edge in their campaign. They knew it would destroy innocent people, most of whom I assume had never killed any American soldiers. The choice to drop the bomb was no doubt an immoral one. — NOS4A2
If what you mean is that you want to live, that's fine. "I want to live" says nothing about how you should deal with others, so it says nothing about morality.The will to live is amoral. — frank
This does not follow from your premise. It doesn't follow because it is about how you treat others, and so has moral content.What you do on behalf of your own survival can't be judged as long as you thought you had no alternative. — frank
The idea of bombing civilians with any kind of bomb would strike most sensitive people as immoral. — frank
What you do on behalf of your own survival can't be judged as long as you thought you had no alternative.
— frank
This does not follow from your premise. It doesn't follow because it is about how you treat others, and so has moral content.
Whence that moral content? There's a missing premise, something along the lines of "I may do whatever I want to other people in order to preserve my life". And that is not so. — Banno
But further, it is clear that there were alternatives, that the Allies were winning and that neither Truman nor the allies were in imminent danger of extinction.
So I don't see how your argument works. — Banno
I'm guessing the situation in Israel/Gaza is what you and RogueAI were discussing, or the situation spurred you to this question? Another tough one. — Down The Rabbit Hole
By and large morality is something we observe in ourselves and in the world. — frank
I won't pretend to have special access to Truman's beliefs.If you don't feel like following me on that, that's fine. — frank
Is there justification for nuking? If so, is there justification for nuking twice? (Many say no to the second question) The answer would depend on whether the war would have ended without it or them, and if so how costly ending the war would be without using it or them.
Truman was a murderer. — Banno
A related question with respect to the Israel-Palestine conflict is whether it is illicit to indirectly kill those whom the enemy has taken hostage as human shields; along with the secondary question of whether the fact that the human shield is the enemy's compatriot makes a difference. — Leontiskos
Playing with statements is the shallow end of the pool. — frank
It's similar with the question of Japan's surrender. Would the war have dragged to 1947 and would have quarter of a million US servicemen died? Who knows. — ssu
Well, just imagine yourself in the shoes of President Truman, when he is told about this new bomb alternative. — ssu
the USA erased the Samurai soul of Japan... — javi2541997
But people also question if it was moral for the US to abandon half of Europe to the Soviets with their mass rape, mass brutalization of subject peoples. Particularly the abandonment of Poland, the Baltics, etc., so it goes both ways, "the wars you don't fight," become an issue as well. — Count Timothy von Icarus
Uh...how on Earth???It is obvious that Japan would have won against the US if Truman hadn't dropped the atomic bombs. — javi2541997
Yukio Mishima is the perfect example here. He made his "coup" and tried to get Japanese soldiers of the Self Defence Forces to stage a revolution. They mocked him. Mishima stopped after few minutes and then took his own life.The kamikaze ('kami' God/ 'kaze' air) were considered martyrs of the glorious Japanese Empire. Yukio Mishima and Shintaro Ishihara wrote a lot of this. — javi2541997
Yukio Mishima is the perfect example here. He made his "coup" and tried to get Japanese soldiers of the Self Defence Forces to stage a revolution. They mocked him. Mishima stopped after few minutes and then took his own life. — ssu
Nostalgia,Mishima even stated in some essays that 'corruption' and 'representatives' in a Parliament are just a Western thing and Japan was poisoned with these elements. He had nostalgia about living in a Samurai era where honour and loyalty were the pillars of Japan: 'Bushidō' He was right in terms that, after Japan becoming a 'modern' nation, they had to face big social problems: the middle-class way of life - capitalism - and, yes, corruption. — javi2541997
And some Germans think highly of mr Hitler too. But I wouldn't say that there's really many of them.Do you know what is the worst? That a great part of modern Japanese society feel ashamed of their past and values for not letting them win the war, and post-changes were necessary to become a 'Western' alike modern nation... — javi2541997
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