Would we have joined World War two if japan didn't attack pearl harbor?
468404
Of course we would have. President Roosevelt had started the Nation's first peacetime draft in history, starting in 1939, before the war began. Before the draft, the US had around 100,000 active duty soldiers. A year after the draft, we had over a million. By the end of the war we had over twelve million soldiers. \n   Roosevelt's massive pre-war military expansion was a precautionary measure; he could smell a storm coming, and we needed to be ready\n   Consider how world war one played out. We stayed on the sidelines and watched the Europeans kick the snot out of each other for three years. But we were not neutral. From the beginning of the war, we wanted Great Britain to win, because we knew our seas would not protect us from the world's turmoil much longer, and we needed good friends on the other side of the ocean. So even though we didn't fight until 1917, we kept sending food and war material to the Allies, which kept them in the game against Germany.  Germany realised that as long as we kept supplying their enemy, they could not win. So the Germans, out of necessity, started sinking our ships, and then, finally, we went to war, after the Germans were exhausted from endless trench warfare.  This strategy was preffered by the US, as it made winning much eaisier and less painful.\n   Back to WWII....\n   By the autumn of 1941, history was repeating itself, as we had hoped. The Germans were locked into an ugly, brutal stalemate (in USSR), that was taking a heavy toll on their military (and the USSR). We would have been content to let that play out another year or two, but inevitably, when Germany was on the ropes, we would have mobilized our Armed Forces to deliver the coup de gras.\n   When Japan launched a major strike on US soil, that did not change our ultimate decision, it just brought us into the war earlier than we had planned on. Winston Churchill cheered when we got hit, because he knew we'd have to start helping then.
48171
On the morning of December 7, 1941, planes and midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy issued a surprise attack on the US under the command of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo. This attack brought the United States into World War II. At 6:00 a.m. on December 7th the six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 181 planes composed of torpedo bombers, dive-bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters. The Japanese hit American ships and military installations at 7:53 a.m.. They attacked military airfields at the same time they hit the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. Overall, twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific fleet were damaged and the death toll reached 2,400.
322948
In theory I agree but in fact the Marines fight where the Navy is ordered to deploy. The bulk of our Navy was based in the Pacific. After Pearl Harbor the Navy and Marine commanders knew and decided that Japan would have to maintain air superiority and keep their fleets supplied. In addition the island hopping campaign to the Japan home islands. The bulk of  marine divisions ship stationed, the amphibious attacks could not occurred and the war might been lost.
372142
That my friend is probably true.  How many Japanese civilians were killed when Curtis Lamey ordered the firebombing of Japan.  Think about the two atom bombs dropped as well.  Justified in my opinion because of the casualties the Americans would have suffered if they had been forced to invade.  Had we lost most top leaders would have been beheaded.
939332
What would have been worse was that Japan would have secured the resources it needed in the Pacific to really wage war against the US.  Pearl Harbor was done to cripple the US in the Pacific so that Japan can invade and take over what they needed to maintain their war machine.\n\nAlso, lets not forget Hitler.  If the US had not entered the war, Germany would have taken England and would have had a pretty strong hold on Europe.  There is nothing short of war that could have stopped him.  Sanctions would not have worked because Germany was very industrial and could produce just about anything it needed.  If they needed it and could not make it, they would just invade whomever had it.  Diplomacy would not have worked because Hitler had a grand plan and you would not have been able to talk him out of it.
97016
I think it was not necessary, but hard for me to say that when U.S. Marines have over 45,000 causalties on Iwa Jima and Okinawa ALONE!  That is 20 times the amount of men and women lost in Iraq, and that is just 4-5 months of battle!\n\nThere were several reasons NOT to drop the bomb.  But President Truman did not want to have 100,000 to 1,000,000 causulaties taking the home islands of Japan, and he felt the need to establish American dominance in the Pacific, so that it did not go to the Russians, like Europe had already started to.\n\nThe Japanese may have surrendered to the USA and Allies without it, but they wanted to put conditions on the surrender.  We demanded u=nconditional surrender and nothing less.  This was a big reason for forcing them to surrender our way. \n\nMany scientists that worked on the Manhattan Project, including Openheimer and Einstein, wanted to detonate the Bomb on an unihabitied island to show Japan what it would do, and then ask them to surrender then.  \n\nThe Japanese military committed more warcrimes and atrocities than the Nazis.  The killed almost as many people, and save the holocaust, which I do not want to diminish in ANY WAY, Japan was involved in rape of Nanking, the Baatan Death March, and the murder and rape of MILLIONS of civilians and thousands of POWs.  One of Doolittles Raiders that was shot down over Tokyo(reference movie Pearl Harbor), was murdered in front of the public by a Japanese General and the General ATE HIS LIVER in front of the crowd!!!  He was hung after the war, but how bad to you have to be to EAT your enemy!??!\n\nMercy may not have been high in the mind of our nation's and allied nation's leaders when it came time to (paraphrase the Gap Band) "Drop the Bomb".
247111
The two atomic bombs dropped on Japan were on cities with no significant military targets. I had family on both sides of WWII and lost family on both sides. Dropping the atomic bombs took a lot of consideration from the government back then and decided that it was the only option they had to avoid large scale death invading, both to the US and to Japanese civilians. If it had to be done, then I agree with you, why not a legitimate target? Pearl Harbor was a military target attack by "surprise". The Japanese officials who were to deliver the notice of war that morning were delayed in a US waiting room and were not able to deliver the notice prior to the attack. War history is written by the victors, so it was a surprise. To rally America into war, the President called it a surprise in his radio address. I ask any of you to take a trip to Hiroshima and visit the museum. My mother's family was on the other side of the mountain range from Nagasaki and that is what saved them, but they did witness the cloud, had some affect of the fire, and saw the destruction when they went to help. Japan's research at the time determined that the bomb was not possible with the technology available, so they did not believe the US's claim they had it. Japan was negotiating for surrender after the first but the US want unconditional, so dropped the second. I understand the decision to drop, just not the target.\n\nPaulHalloway-I do disagree with you on the legitemacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki being military targets. May 1945 the target committee listed Hiroshima as a class AA target using year old inteligence. The depot had been moved in Oct 1944. Nagasaki was never on the Target committee's list. The only other reason for Hiroshima to be targeted was the terrain and larger city. Mountains around Hiroshima would increase the affects of the blast and the size of the city  would allow that if the bomb was off target, would still cause mass distruction and casualties. It was also in the original plan recommendation to follow the bombing by an incendiary bombing of the city. Also the orders from Gen Spaatz on July 1945, identified the city as the target, not any military base, contrary to Truman's direction to Sec. of War Stimson.
248231
The majority of Americans were against it, therefore it would've been a very unpopular war, look at what's happening today in Iraq.  Americans were 'isolationist' in their thinking before Pearl Harbor.
1054539
Absolutely!\n\nChemical or biological attacks on major Western cities comes to mind.  If a biological attack on Paris killed 5 million people, should we sit and think about it?\n\nAs far as WWII is concerned, the war had to be ended, and Japan had to surrender.  The decision was taken to drop the bombs rather than risk an invasion of Japan will a million or more US casualties.\n\nWar is a very nasty business.  This is one of the mistakes we are making now.  In war, lots of people must be killed in order for the leaders (bin Laden, for example) to decide that it is time to stop murdering women and children.\n\nIf we make war to clean, then there is no motivation to stop it.
774357
A very cowardly act for our president to commit and it was genocide i believe. At least those brave japanese fighters had honor and never targeted cities with innocent woman and children in it like we did.they caught us with our pants down in Pearl Harbor and it was a military target not a whole F****** city.We took the easy way out and i think it was very cowardly and wrong to ever drop a bomb not even targeting military targets but whole cities.Im ashamed of what we did to Japan in the past.
525662
No. At the moment, Japan is the underdog, with Koizumi panting and yapping at Bush's ankles!! \n\nIf it had been Japan that dropped the bombs, on America, it would be Bush panting and yapping at Koizumi's ankles!!\n\nBut seriously, of COURSE things would be different - you know that a man is only a 'war criminal' if he's on the losing side, so a few Americans might have been convicted, but no Japanese.\n\nAs for whether the Japanese would have been any more (or less) sadistic, cruel & manipulative to the Americans than the Americans have been to Japan - we'll NEVER know!
736809
If Hitler hadn't attacked Russia, they would have been very suspicious allies. Germany may have put Britain out of the war and captured more of Africa and the Mideast. With all that captured by Germany, the US would have concentrated on the Pacific war. I don't think Germany could do a trans-Atlantic invasion, especially if the British scuttled their navy or sailed to the US to be the "Free British". The Germans had very few ships. After 1945 there would have been a US-German cold war.
341763
Japan entered WWII when they bombed Pearl Harbor. They wanted to spread the borders of their country, but got a war with the U.S. instead. They never made an allience with Gremany or Italy. When the U.S. used the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and a large valley, Hundreds of thousands of people were killed. Japan unconditionally surrendered their military forces.
819896
After allied forces had pushed the Japanese back to their mainland, they still refused to quit fighting.\n\nRefusing to surrender gave Harry Truman (assumed the war time presidency at Roosevelt's death) two choices. Either invade Japan on the ground at the cost of thousands upon thousands of Americans and Japanese lives or drop a bomb and kill thousands of Japanese. \n\nI have a tendency to think Truman already made the decision to drop the bomb but, don't think he thought he would need two!\n\nThe reality: A horrible destiny for a proud people that were lead by a vicious war machine and a  misguided emperor. Thousands of Japanese and their off spring affected for years after.\n\nWas it necessary?
831455
Mark was referring to the attack on Pearl Harbour. That is a good point, maybe they are a bit paranoid about having a large military presence as it attracted the Japenese in'41'. Or it could be the attitude of people from the lower 48 if "AFwife"s atitude is an example .
1074205
If our actions in Iraq are not a war then that event in the Pacific in the 40s was not a war. Japan attacked without declaring war.\n\nA war is a war....and we should face up to the fact that we invaded Iraq...not for the people of Iraq but for america
143423
In the case of the United States dropping an atomic bomb on Japan, there was a World War going on with Japan using military power to take over countries all over the world.  The United States was a non-participant in these events until it was attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor, thereby declaring war on the United States and opening itself up to attack by United States forces.\n\nJapan had declared that there would be no surrender and it had begun arming all of its civilians to resist invasion.  The estimated death toll from a direct assault on the main island of Japan was in the millions based on extrapolation of the death toll from the capture of Okinawa.\n\nAs for North Korea, there has yet to be a declared war between North Korea and the United States and while there are scattered conflicts occurring throughout the world, there is definately not a war of the scale of World War II currently happening.\n\nThe decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan was calculated to end one conflict, the one with Japan.  There was never any belief that these events would bring an end to all the war in the world. History has shown that there will always be another power to step in and fill the void when another power is removed or collapses. If Korea did follow your suggestion to attack the United States with nuclear weapons and was successful in toppling the United States, that would merely create a vaccuum for the next power to step into.\n\nIf your plan follows the same path as post World War II, that would merely place North Korea in the position of being the world's superpower and having them "bully" their way around the world, eventually leading to someone from another nation, perhaps a South American country, to post a similar question, this time being "North Koreans say, NK nuked US to end the war. Is it acceptable, Argentina nuke NK to end the war in the world?"