Incidents of “mass suicide” represent the most tragic example of civilians succumbing to the horrific pressures brought to bear on them during the Battle of Okinawa. Apart from the many who took their own lives individually, there were approximately thirty cases of multiple suicides and family members killing loved ones, with the tragic escalation of panic and fear on Zamami-jima and Tokashiki-jima in late March claiming the lives of and people respectively. The majority of mass suicides occurred early in the battle and either involved direct coercion by the Imperial Japanese Army or their functionaries to prevent civilians being taken captive by the Americans, or indirectly by the fear of capture that had been instilled in civilians through contact with the Army. Many of the Japanese soldiers who had fought in China had told locals of the terrible excesses they had committed during the fighting there and…read more

    • kmkz_ninja@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      He didn’t even say using nukes was bad. He just said the Soviets were more terrifying to the Japanese than nukes.

    • TheDankHold@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Probably because they’re a tankie actually. The kind of person whose ideology makes their perspective on America intensely hypocritical. It also incentives them to frame the situation disingenuously.

      Obviously getting bombed and losing two full cities had nothing to do with their calculations of course, it could never be a complex situation with many angles. It was only because a country that spent tens of millions of lives fighting another front declared war. The nation that they recently trounced in their last encounter. Nothing to do with city erasing wmds.

      Ps if you care about the worst casualties talk about the Tokyo firebombing. Blows the nuke death count out of the water but it wasn’t flashy so debate bros don’t care.

      • MinekPo1 [She/Her]@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        Its not that the atomic bombs did not have an impact, but as many allied army official thought at the time, the Soviet invasion of Manchuria was more impactful. Some quotes for you:

        the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing.

        - Eisenhower

        The vast destruction wreaked by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the loss of 135,000 people made little impact on the Japanese military. However, the Soviet invasion of Manchuria … changed their minds.

        - the National Museum of the U.S. Navy in Washington, D.C.

        If at any time the USSR should enter the war, all Japanese will realize that absolute defeat is inevitable.

        - the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Joint Intelligence Staff

        • nuxetcrux@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The one thing about Reddit I miss is they had quality control on some subreddits like askscience or askhistory, and insulting drivel like this was filtered out.

          Chief of Staff Marshall was pushing a 3 bombs per months regimen Japanese intelligence was aware of. There were debates about whether to drop them weekly or all at once. Thankfully that didn’t have to happen.

          Historical record endeavors to be factual; it is not your emotional toy-sword.

    • MinekPo1 [She/Her]@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago
      • the largest genocide was not the Holocaust, but the genocide of Indian tribes
      • American companies assisted in the III Reich war effort and profited of German Concentration/Death camps
      • the USA does not follow the rules of the WTO, an organization it itself started, promoted and forced onto the world
      • the USA is behind countless coups and military overthrows of governments, yet they are the one to preach democracy

      just a few more of the top of my head 🙃

      • diprount_tomato@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Wdym? It’s true that they feared the Soviets more than they feared Americans, as they would basically have done the same they did to Korea

        • Stuka@lemmy.ml
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          Sure, and let’s just pretend that the looming American invasion after losing a long and bloody island hopping war of attrition and the atomic bombs had nothing to do with their surrender, yep just the threat of soviet invasion.

          Gimme a break. Anyone who tries to simplify it down so far is either a moron or has an agenda. See:tankie, synonym for dumbass

          • MinekPo1 [She/Her]@lemmygrad.ml
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            1 year ago

            This is not me pulling shit out of my ass - its an opinion US military officials held at the time.

            the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing.

            - Eisenhower

            The vast destruction wreaked by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the loss of 135,000 people made little impact on the Japanese military. However, the Soviet invasion of Manchuria … changed their minds.

            - the National Museum of the U.S. Navy in Washington, D.C.

            If at any time the USSR should enter the war, all Japanese will realize that absolute defeat is inevitable.

            - the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Joint Intelligence Staff