TobyBartels comments on Rationality Quotes September 2013 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: Vaniver 04 September 2013 05:02AM

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Comment author: Grant 03 September 2013 11:24:17PM 0 points [-]

If the bombing of Nagasaki contributed more to the end of the war than the bombing of Tokyo, then we could easily say it was morally superior. That is not to say there weren't better options of course.

Comment author: TobyBartels 14 September 2013 08:20:46AM 2 points [-]

We can debate endlessly the wisdom of bombing Hiroshima, but does anybody have a defence for bombing Nagasaki? Since this is the quotation thread, I'll quote Dave Barry:

It was Truman who made the difficult decision to drop the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the rationale being that only such a devastating, horrendous display of destructive power would convince Japan that it had to surrender. Truman also made the decision to drop the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, the rationale being, hey, we had another bomb.

I'm seriously curious. (Reasonably rational arguments, of course.)

Comment author: Vaniver 15 September 2013 08:57:00PM 5 points [-]

Recommend reading the actual history, rather than comedians.

Comment author: TobyBartels 17 September 2013 12:03:07AM 0 points [-]

I read that, amongst other WP articles, while researching my comment. That one doesn't even attempt to explain the reasons for dropping the second bomb. (The quotation from the comedian is not meant to be an argument either.)

Comment author: Vaniver 17 September 2013 12:33:21AM *  7 points [-]

This section seems relevant:

At first, some refused to believe the United States had built an atomic bomb. The Japanese Army and Navy had their own independent atomic-bomb programs and therefore the Japanese understood enough to know how very difficult building it would be.[74] Admiral Soemu Toyoda, the Chief of the Naval General Staff, argued that even if the United States had made one, they could not have many more.[75] American strategists, having anticipated a reaction like Toyoda's, planned to drop a second bomb shortly after the first, to convince the Japanese that the U.S. had a large supply.[59][76]

Emphasis mine.

Comment author: TobyBartels 17 September 2013 03:03:09AM 4 points [-]

OK, thanks, I must have missed that anticipating the immediately following section.

Looking over my posts, I see that I may have given the impression that I doubted that there was any rational argument in favour of dropping the second bomb. I only meant to say that I didn't know one, because the discussion (here and elsewhere) always seems to focus on the first one.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 15 September 2013 06:20:58PM -1 points [-]

Well, the Japanese just barely surrendered even after Nagasaki.

Comment author: gwern 15 September 2013 09:12:31PM 6 points [-]

It would be more accurate to say 'barely surrendered even after the simultaneous bombing of Nagasaki and their most feared enemy Soviet Russia declaring war on them'.

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