Is it true that Japan was ready to bomb San Fransisco before we attacked Hiroshima with the atomic bomb?
96203
No, Japan's military was basically defeated by the time the A-bombs were dropped. American bombers could fly over Japan almost completely unmolested, and the Japanese only contolled their home islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu).\n\nJapan had absolutely no ability at that point to go on an offensive. But what they did have was the willingness to fight to the death to defend their homeland, and the military government refused to surrender because of their Samurai "honor". So any conventional invasion would have had a huge cost in terms of casualties (I think US war planners estimated greater than 2 million total, but I'm not sure). The A-Bomb was dropped to force the Japanese into surrender without the bloody land war.
368740
Yes.  While the tremendous loss of life from the bomb and its after-effects is indeed tragic, several things need to be taken into consideration.  Firstly, the U.S. had no idea they would be condemning the next generation of children.  We've all seen the footage of the testing of the atomic in the desert.  Do you think they would have been standing so close if they knew they would probably get Leukemia?  The next thing to consider is that over 100,000 Americans died trying to take Guadalcanal, how many would have died trying to take Mainland Japan?  At least twice that number, maybe more?  And what of the Japanese?  Would they, the nation that brought the Kamikaze fighter, have surrendered?  Eventually yes, but not until they had lost at least twice as many the 60,000 plus people the bombs killed.  It is within reason to say that at least 500,000 to 1,000,000 Americans and Japanese would have had to die to end WWII with conventional warfare.  Knowing that, the trade of 60,000 lives for at least 500,000 seems reasonable.\n\nTo the person who thinks that dropping the bomb was more of a terrorist act than 9/11, you have a lot of growing up to do.
638564
Yes, they had used it but only once in world war two. They dropped the bomb in 1945.
50146
Probably, because they are clearly developing weapons of mass destruction.  I think a pre-emptive nuclear strike is in order.  Spring 2007.
812863
lol...i think they will do that.... call every body else as "Terrorist"\n\notherwise they would have destroyed their nuke first.....they just want to keep their nukes and restrained others not to keep them..by saying....."deadliest weapon ...we are still sad after using on Japan twice........ (bull*s*hit)........Just to keep hold on others..
641194
Hiroshima was nuked, you need to rephrase your question.
1129411
By Teruaki Ueno \nSun Jun 18, 11:57 AM ET\n \n\n\nTOKYO (Reuters) - Japan warned        North Korea on Sunday of "a harsh response" from Tokyo and Washington if it went ahead with the launch of a long-range missile.
624475
The bombing of two major Japanese cities convinced them we meant business...
307203
Christians did not drop atom bombs on the Japanese. Americans dropped atom bombs on the Japanese. It is an important distinction, and should be clear.\n   As the "poor" Japanese attacked our country without provocation at Pearl Harbor, I feel rather less sympathy than I might, although no nation should be subject to the terrors of nuclear war.
200761
Both.\n\nThe Japanese knew that it was only a matter of time before the United States would enter the war, so they took a gamble to strike pre-emptively to keep America out of the war.\n\nTheir intent was not to scare America into submission, but to cripple the Pacific fleet enough so that it would take them over a year to rebuild. By that time, the Japanese figure that they would have entrenched themselves in the conquered territories to make it impossible for America to get them out.\n\nThey made a few mistakes:\n1) They underestimated America's industrial power. Under normal non-war conditions, it would have taken over a year to repair the fleet, but when all of America converted to war production, it took only a small fraction of that time.\n\n2) They crippled the battleship fleet, but the Navy aircraft carriers were not at Pearl Harbor at the time. Military wisdom at the time made the battleships the main fighting force of the fleet, but at that time, the Navy was already changing tactics to make aircraft carriers the main fighting force. The attack at Pearl Harbor only sped up that process. America retaliated to Pearl Harbor using their carriers.
395978
Click and Paste is great, but it just shows you don't understand what you are answering.\n\nThe primary reason for Japan attacking the US fleet at Pearl Harbor is because Deterrence as a long-term source for peace simply does NOT work. By imposing trade sanctions against Japan and the concentrating both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets at Pearl Harbor, the US wanted to send the message "if you do anything, we will destroy you." The message the Japanese received was "if we DON'T do anything the Americans will destroy us!"\n\nJust like Vietnam, the US was drawn into World War II by trying to prop up a dying European colonial empire, again it was France. When Germany destroyed France in June of 1940 the new government was called Vichy France because the city of Vichy was the only unoccupied city that could handle the number of bureaucrats in the French government. When General De Gaulle ran away leaving his fellow countrymen to face slavery and humiliation, he began politically luring some of the French posessions to follow him. In early 1941, the island of New Caledonia had a coup which ousted the Vichy governor and installed a Free French administration. Japan, which had already made an agreement with the Vichy government in Indochina to occupy what is now Laos and North Vietnam to stop supplies from reaching the Chinese army, decided it must act before a similar event took Indochina out of their reach as well. Japan launched an amphibious invasion of all of Indochina. This is the reason for the economic sanctions against Japan.\n\nJapan knew it could not hope to win a long war, simply because of the logistical problems involved. As a small island nation, not only did Japan have to import almost all of its natural resources, but almost half of those resources arrived via cargo ships flying American, British and Dutch flags. Japan's economy was already realing from the huge expense of building a gigantic military and a modern navy (and, like the USA, cheating on the restrictions!). Any sort of long embargo from America would surely send Japan back into Depression, but any sort of political retreat would surely provoke the Japanese military to once again seize power like they did in the early 1930's. By destroying the combined fleet at Pearl Harbor at one blow, along with the British and Dutch posessions in the western Pacific, Japan felt they could be in such a strong position that they could dictate terms to America before she was able to recover. As Admiral Yamamoto had said, for the first six months I can run wild through the Pacific, but after that I can promise nothing.\n\nJapan's problem was that the strike force sent to Pearl Harbor was able to inflict severe damage on the actual fleet but was simply not strong enough to do the sort of damage to Pearl Harbor's logistical capabilities that was necessary (the dry docks, the repair shops, the fuel storage tanks, etc). By leaving Pearl Harbor relatively untouched, America's distance to strike back at Japan was cut more than in half. If the US Navy had to work out of San Francisco rather than Pearl Harbor in 1942, it would have been a drastically different war!\n\nAnd don't EVEN get me started on the ridiculousness of the FDR "conspiracy" to get Pearl Harbor bombed so the USA could enter the war. The vein in my forehead is pulsing again!
329015
U.S. Navy, 1985-1990. USS Belleau Wood (LHA-3). Didn't see any "action", but we were ready. We were sent to San Francisco to provide aid after the 1989 earthquake, but when we got there, they decided to send us back to San Diego. Also in 1989, we were on 24-hour alert for Panama. But again, they didn't use us. And if Desert Shield would have happened 6 months earlier, we may have been sent there, but by the time it happened, we were too far along in preparation for an overhaul that we didn't go.
1064351
The question:\n\nWould we have joined World War Two if Japan hadn't attacked Pearl Harbor?\n\nThe answer:\n\nCheck it out here; it's really interesting: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylt=Ai6fsEgESenbEPC2ThudBXEjzKIX?qid=1006041013039
370178
I am not sure about a conspiracy, but I am sure there was a lot of incompentency just like we should have known on January, 1944 of the upcoming attack on Pearl Harbor almost a year in advance (December 1944)!  Check out the message posted on http://www.thesmokinggun.com
1156042
Pearl Harbor led to the aerial bombardment of civilians....at hiroshima and nagasaki. Toward the end of the war, the Japanese turned down the Potsdam demands for unconditional surrender, even tho they were making overtures for peace through their emmissaries in Sweden.\n\nThe kamikazi and suicidal attackes at Iwo and Okinawa led the US to believe that hundreds of thousands of lives were at stake if they assualted Japan itself, therefore, to end the war quickly it was decided to use the a-bomb to save further American lives.\n\nAnd finally, the US wanted to end the war quickly before the Soviets had a chance to attack Japan and gain hegemy in the Orient, similar to the Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe.\n\nOppeneimer and other American nuclear scientists advocated for using the bomb to end the War more quickly. Other scientists wanted a demonstration in the Pacific Ocean to show the Japanese leaders the devastation of the new weapon. Since there were not alot of A-bombs in existence, the US leaders didn't want to take a chance on the 'demonstration' failing, therefore it was decided to use it against a Japanese city.\n\nPrior to the bombing, leaflets were dropped on the cities informing the populace to flee. Anyway, ever since, the world has been staring into the dark abyss of nuclear holocaust.
529150
The Armageddon is the one that holds the nuke. America is one of them, and we are the only Nation to use the weapon. What makes you think it hasn't already started when America nuked Japan? There is a 1000 years of suffering afterward. I think it happened back then myself. Nobody knows if we are supposed to live in a Garden of Eden, or struggle with wars and Capitalism. Think about it and read what is said in Mathew from Jesus.
1007505
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_San_Francisco\n\nLook it up....