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It is absolutely about extreme cultural values. Some times extreme cultural values are good things, sometimes not. Some cultures fight to the death, others do n
by cmdkeen 11y ago
It is absolutely about extreme cultural values. Some times extreme cultural values are good things, sometimes not. Some cultures fight to the death, others do not. The overwhelming evidence was that the body count, on both sides, of an invasion of Japan would have far surpassed that of the dropping of the bombs.
To be fair to you I am not singling out Japanese culture in this scenario. The World Wars, and history in general, are replete with cultural significance, from cultures that abandon a sense of self in attack or defence, or both, to those which view themselves as culturally superior such that occupation is preferable to annihilation. None is better or worse than the other, but the idea that different cultures manifest different responses to the same stimuli cannot be controversial, and that therefore how different cultures are treated by others is necessary.
- darkerside 11y agoYou're making a values judgement on how hard a nation and people should fight to defend themselves. And whatever Japan's stance at the start of the war, they were certainly defending their homeland at the end of it. I'm not saying that the calculation of lives was incorrect. All I'm saying is that the "evil culture" reasoning is designed to rationalize to the masses, and it's a distortion of reality. I don't disagree that cultural values can be problematic. I just think it was a bullshit excuse in this particular case.