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Americans may not hide their actions, but they certainly paint the actions in a light favorable to the American self-image. Germany on the other hand exhibits c

• partycoder 10y ago
  There are also groups of Americans that condemn such actions. There is also compassion for the victims. There is a mainstream ethical debate, which is what allows society to move forward.
• bluejekyll 10y ago
  As an American, this is a question I struggle with. The the atomic bombs did what they were meant to, a swift end to the war with a full capitulation by the Japanese, before the Russians were able to mount an invasion of their own. This is generally forgiven because it in theory saved the lives of American soldiers who would have had a hard fight to take Japan. But all of this was done, and with an understanding that it would, cause a massive number of civilian casualties. The US and allies did this to Tokyo and Dresden with non-atomic weapons as well. To me these are crimes that we as a country have never really admitted to. We discuss it openly, but we have never truly said that we were wrong to kill so many innocent people. I believe that this is partly why we today do not also hold ourselves accountable to the large number of civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. Edit: I should include Vietnam as well in which we killed some multiple of millions. But even that has the list too short. We as Americans suffer from the Sam euro centric view we've always had, if your white, it's a death worth counting, if not, eh...
  • sukilot 10y ago
    You never noticed the opposition to the Vietnamese war? It is the primary cultural feature of the 1960s-1970s, and then in movies through the 1980s
    • bluejekyll 10y ago
      I should be more clear, there are many idividuals in the US who believe these actions were wrong, but the government continues to report civilian deaths as irreleveant in most cases. Also, I'd say those movies you're referring to were much more from the perspective of the unjustly forced into war soldier, than the plight of the Vietnamese. I was not alive then, my knowledge of Vietnam is all books and information from my parents and friend's parents.
      • nihonde 10y ago
        Life is so strange. The other day, I joined a new Japanese language class. The only other person who was starting that day was a young Vietnamese man. So here is an American and a Vietnamese man in Japan, speaking to each other in broken Japanese. Fifty years ago, we might have been killing each other. Thank goodness we found our peace and became friends with a common goal instead.
  • chillacy 10y ago
    Also, we're still killing civilians as collateral damage in the middle east through drone strikes. And the civilian death toll is officially underreported because of how they've chosen to define an enemy combatant. A quick googling shows counts in the 100k+ range.
  • nihonde 10y ago
    My view is that the people who made those difficult decisions are all dead now. Let's study their reasons in the coldest, least judgmental light and try to make some sense of their dilemma. From there, maybe we can do a better job of avoiding the situations that lead people to have to make those hard choices.
• GunboatDiplomat 10y ago
  It's hard to have contrition for policies and actions which saved, arguably, millions of lives.
  • sukilot 10y ago
    It certainly is hard to have contrition if all your lines of thinking start with the conclusion that you are never wrong about anything, and work backwards from there
  • chillacy 10y ago
    Saving 10 people at the cost of killing one person is still a tragedy, unless you're UtilitarianMan or a psychopath.