Ok, I started a heated debate on social media with the following post -
Japan was diabolically brutal & evil in the war. The suicide bombings, death-marches, & brutal enslavement of Asian women, as sex slaves. There was no place in the Japanese heart for regard of other non-Japanese humans, and there was no other choices left for America to persuade Japan otherwise to stop the madness. Japan & its emperor was convinced just like Hitler, that it was racially superior.
Which was in response to Obama's visit to Hiroshima as reported on BBC-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36394975
Turns out a lot of people think the US should apologise and that the use of these bombs on civilian areas can NEVER be justified.
My response to the surprisingly Anti US backlash was the Japanese started the war. They were refusing to surrender and had indicated every intention of fighting to the death. The only alternative was an invasion of mainland Japan itself, which would have slaughtered thousands - if not millions - more. The bombs were dropped in Aug 45. The Geneva convention was amended to prohibit the specific targeting of civilians in 1949. This is why the Germans weren't prosecuted for Coventry or us for Hamburg either.
Finally if these people think American should say sorry then surely Japan should apologise for its treatment of POW'S (The Japanese captured over 1 million Chinese soldiers and only 56 were left alive at war's end), the Nanking massacre (up to 300,000 civilians dead, which Japan still denies even happened), comfort women (sex slaves), in fact many describe what Japan got up to around this time as an Asian Holocaust. Many innocent lives were lost in Hiroshima and Nagasaki but I consider it a necessary evil to prevent death on a much wider scale. The planned ground invasion of Japan would of killed half a million minimum alone.
Would love to hear your thoughts, particularly our American members.