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Path: utzoo!watmath!watnot!watmum!cdshaw
From: cdshaw@watmum.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: People don't know their history
Message-ID: <228@watmum.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 26-Jul-85 19:55:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmum.228
Posted: Fri Jul 26 19:55:06 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 27-Jul-85 03:43:13 EDT
References: <307@looking.UUCP> <3306@garfield.UUCP>
Reply-To: cdshaw@watmum.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 25

In article <3306@garfield.UUCP> lionel@garfield.UUCP (Lionel H. Moser) writes:
>> Nuking cities is something that was done once, strictly for dramatic effect,
>> to end the second world war.  I don't think it's on people's minds today
>> Brad Templeton
>
>Was the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki required to win WWII? Hadn't
>it become just a mopping-up operation when the bombs were dropped?
>Lionel H. Moser

Absolutely not. The alternative to the American forces was the invasion of the
Japanese home islands, which would be substantially different from invading
various & sundry colonial possessions along the way. The casualties were 
estimated to be in the range of 1 million or so, and there was fear that the
war would have continued to 1948. The Bomb was NOT merely a straw to break the
camel's back. It was instrumental in bringing the war to a quick conclusion
with minimal loss of American lives.

When discussing politics, it is usually very useful to get the facts straight,
the most important of which is the historical perspective on the issue.


Chris Shaw    watmath!watmum!cdshaw  or  cdshaw@watmath
University of Waterloo
Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
		- Oscar Wilde