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> equal parts fascinating and sickening That's how I felt when I watched the documentary about Robert MacNamara [0], when they started talking about how we are
by gknoy 6y ago
> equal parts fascinating and sickening
That's how I felt when I watched the documentary about Robert MacNamara [0], when they started talking about how we are pretty sure that what we did to Japan _before_ the atomic bombs counted as war crimes.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fog_of_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fog_of_War
- cushychicken 6y agoThat's most of what the podcast covers. They quote MacNamara in The Fog of War as well.
- RhysU 6y agoPlease do recall everything mentioned above pertaining to Japan was after https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor
- saagarjha 6y agoWhen else would it be? I'm unsure what your point is…
- RhysU 6y agoAll the horrible Pacific WW2 brutality by the US followed a surprise attack on its homeland intended to kneecap its military abilities so that Japan could invade countries around it unimpeded. Doesn't make any of it right. Just putting it in context.
- cushychicken 6y agoThe US did some disproportionately heinous shit after Pearl Harbor. For example: 2,500 people died in the attacks on Pearl Harbor. The firebombing of Tokyo killed somewhere between 90,000 and 120,000 people - most of them civilians, and most either incinerated or asphyxiated by incendiary bombs over the course of six hours. It's the single most lethal day in human history - even greater than the atomic bombs, where over half the deaths were lingering affects of radiation over weeks, months, or years. Curtis LeMay, the Allied Air commander in the Pacific, freely admitted that he would have been tried as a war criminal for the firebombing of Tokyo had the Japanese won. Don't rush to justify everything the US did just because we weren't the first to strike.