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[Order David Horowitz’s new book, America Betrayed, HERE.]
My disdain for the Left began at a young age. From as early as I can recall, I hated evil, and I therefore always hated communism. When I realized the Left either supported communism or, at the very least, opposed anti-communism, I understood that leftism was a force for evil. Liberals and conservatives hated communism; leftists did not.
As liberals began their leftward drift in the 1960s — to cite one example, virtually all liberal media condemned President Ronald Reagan’s description of the Soviet Union as “an evil empire” — I came to regard conservatism as a moral refuge in a dark world. In the conservative moral universe, America was essentially a force for good; communism was evil; liberty, most especially free speech, was a supreme value; Western civilization was a morally superior civilization; the Judeo-Christian value system was the moral bedrock of the West; and Islamic violence — as exemplified by al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, Boko Haram, the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian regime — was the great religious threat of our time.
That conservative moral universe is in decline. Some leading figures on the Right are as confused as the Left on some of the most important moral issues. This was made manifest last week when Tucker Carlson told Joe Rogan that any person who defends the dropping of the atomic bombs over Japan is evil.
Here is what he said:
“People on my side … on the Right, you know, have spent 80 years defending dropping nuclear weapons on civilians. Like, are you joking? That’s just like prima facie evil. … It’s wrong to drop nuclear weapons on people. And if you find yourself arguing that it’s a good thing to drop nuclear weapons on people, then you are evil. Like, it’s not a tough one. It’s not a hard call for me. So, with that in mind, like, why would you want nuclear weapons? It’s, like, just a mindless, childish sort of intellectual exercise to justify — like, ‘Oh, no, it’s really good because somebody else will get it.’ How about ‘no’? How about, like, spending all of your effort to prevent this from happening? Would you kill baby Hitler, you know, famously?”
Given that nearly every liberal and conservative thinker over the past 80 years has defended the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in Tucker’s view, nearly every conservative and liberal thinker of the last 80 years was or is evil.
For those 80 years, the charge that America was evil for having dropped those bombs on Japan has been associated almost exclusively with the Left.
Now, an increasing number of America-first conservatives have adopted the position identified for three generations with the America-hating Left.
In another column, I will attempt to explain this right-wing moral decline. But here I will confine myself to a brief moral defense of President Harry Truman’s decision to drop the atom bombs on Japan.
1. The responsibility for the war between Japan and the United States lay with Japan. Every Japanese death was the result of the fascist Japanese government’s decision to attack the U.S., China, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, Thailand and the Philippines. If the Japanese military regime had never attacked those countries, not one Japanese would have been killed.
2. The Japanese were as cruel and sadistic as the Nazis. Because the average American knows little about history, few Americans know how vile the Japanese were during World War II. The Japanese performed grotesque medical experiments on fully conscious Chinese civilians just as Nazi doctors did on concentration camp inmates. The Japanese used Korean and Filipino women as sex slaves to be regularly gang raped by Japanese soldiers. The Japanese tortured and murdered American, Australian and other prisoners of war.
3. Possibly over 100,000 Japanese civilians were killed on the night of March 9-10, 1945, in one of the American bombing raids over Tokyo, far more than were killed in the Nagasaki atom bombing. American aerial bombing over Japanese cities between 1942 and 1945 killed between 241,000 and 900,000 Japanese, and such bombing would have continued had the atom bombs not ended the war. Apparently, however, killing far fewer people with an atom bomb is more immoral than killing far more people with conventional bombs.
4. Invasion was not the more moral option. In the words of Roman Catholic priest and University of Notre Dame professor of history Father Wilson Miscamble, “Truman sought to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two major military/industrial targets, to avoid an invasion of Japan, which Truman knew would mean, in his words, ‘an Okinawa from one end of Japan to the other.’ His assumptions were entirely legitimate.”
5. More from Professor Miscamble:
Japanese military and civilian losses had reached approximately three million and there seemed no end in sight. Despite all this, however, Japan’s leaders and especially its military clung fiercely to notions of Ketsu-Go (‘decisive battle’). In fact, the Japanese government had mobilized a large part of the population into a national militia which would be deployed to defend the home islands.
Confirming the Japanese determination to fight on is the fact that even after the use of atomic bombs against both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese military still wanted to pursue that desperate option. … It took the unprecedented intervention of a Japanese emperor to break the impasse in the Japanese government and finally order surrender. It was only the dropping of the atom bombs that allowed the emperor and the so-called peace faction in the Japanese government to negotiate an end to the war.
Japanese losses would have been far greater without the bombs. And the overall casualties would also have included thousands of Allied prisoners of war whom the Japanese planned to execute in case of invasion.
Miscamble concludes: “The judgment of history is clear and unambiguous: the atomic bombs shortened the war, averted the need for a land invasion, saved countless more lives on both sides of the blood-soaked conflict than they cost, and ended the Japanese brutalization of the conquered peoples of Asia.”
These quotes are taken from Fr. Miscamble’s PragerU video, “Was it Wrong to Drop the Atom Bomb on Japan?” made 10 years ago.
In Tucker’s view, Fr. Miscamble is just another evil man, as is one of the most morality-driven conservatives of our time, Victor Davis Hanson, who has written:
To Americans and most of the world 75 years ago, each day in early August 1945 that the Japanese war machine continued its work meant that thousands of Asian civilians and Allied soldiers would die. In the terrible arithmetic of World War II, the idea that such a nightmare might end in a day or two was seen as saving millions of lives rather than gratuitously incinerating tens of thousands.
What explains the moral confusion of some on this New Right is worthy of another column. But I, for one, have found a silver lining: clarity about a heretofore puzzling development. The inability of many America-first intellectuals, podcasters and their followers to call Hamas evil and morally defend Israel is not necessarily a function of antisemitism. It is a function of a broken moral compass.
A nation, a community and an individual can only defend themselves from a position of strength.
I recall a neighbour when I was a boy who was captured by the Japanese during the war, he was broken.
Japan has never started a war since.
Tucker is influenced by the grotesque nature of the cowardly islamic Hamas lies.
I don’t think Tucker is influenced by Hamas lies so much as he has never had to deal with the terrible calculus of war. Most of us have not. And, no doubt about it, dropping a bomb on a civilian population is prima facie evil. But the world in which we live is not simply black and white – but grey.
Ecclesiastes 3: 1 – 8 makes clear there is a time for war and a time for killing. Japan’s choice to make war and kill many of us made our choice to drop atomic bombs righteous.
Truth and justice are unyielding to our softer desires. And it terrifies me.
Find me somewhere in the Bible where killing innocent people is justified in a war…
Genesis 6: 7 (the flood)
Genesis 19: 24 – 25 (Sodom and Gomorah)
Exodus 12 :12 (firstborn of Egyptians)
Numbers 21:3 (Canaanite Cities)
Deuteronomy 20: 16 – 17 (All cities in the land given by God to Israel)
Joshua 6: 17, 21 (Jerico)
Revelation 6:8 (destruction of 25% of then-living people on the earth)
Revelation 9:15 (1/3 of remaining mankind destroyed)
This is not an exhaustive list.
Those are people God deemed worthy of execution. Did God declare to USA that they were authorized to drop a nuclear bomb on a city and kill the innocents there?
I should have been more clear with what I wanted demonstrated. Can someone find me somewhere in the Bible where God asks humans to kill innocent people in war? Or somewhere where God himself killed people that were said to be innocent?
Hiroshima Nagasaki says: “Can someone find me somewhere in the Bible where God asks humans to kill innocent people in war? Or somewhere where God himself killed people that were said to be innocent?”
The two Genesis references and the Exodus reference show God Himself doing the killing.
The Joshua reference was synergistic – with God making the wall to collapse, and Israel killing every man, woman and child with exception of the family of a non-innocent prostitute and her family.
The Numbers and Deuteronomy references are the Israelites destroying entire cities and villages at the command of the LORD God (synergistic).
The two Revelation passages are largely supernatural armies in concert with human armies.
“Innocent” has more than one meaning. I am not innocent, but if I am the victim of a crime in which I played no part, then I am “innocent” in that context. Babies are innocent because they have not yet sinned, but they still belong to God and to the parents that made them – and as such they sometimes suffer the consequences of the sins of their parents.
God alone is completely innocent (in the sense of sinless perfection). Jesus, as both God and man, suffered an excruciating death as a penalty for the sins of the whole world – including you and me. It is why He is often called “the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.”
The book of Joshua.
Those who ignored the US warning perished. Japan poked the rattlesnake, and it struck back.
The LeMay leaflets were airdropped before the A-bombs release: See below.
Read this carefully as it may save your life or the life of a relative or friend. In the next few days, some or all of the cities named on the reverse side will be destroyed by American bombs. These cities contain military installations and workshops or factories which produce military goods. We are determined to destroy all of the tools of the military clique which they are using to prolong this useless war. But, unfortunately, bombs have no eyes. So, in accordance with America’s humanitarian policies, the American Air Force, which does not wish to injure innocent people, now gives you warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives. America is not fighting the Japanese people but is fighting the military clique which has enslaved the Japanese people. The peace which America will bring will free the people from the oppression of the military clique and mean the emergence of a new and better Japan. You can restore peace by demanding new and good leaders who will end the war. We cannot promise that only these cities will be among those attacked but some or all of them will be, so heed this warning and evacuate these cities immediately.
Find me in the Bible where saving millions of lives is bad! Estimated losses for America was 1 million casualties and 20 million for Japan not to mention the Soviets were encroaching in the north and we would need their manpower-millions of Japanese would grow up under communism like North Korea has
You are correct, El.
In his insightful essay, “Okinawa: The Bloodiest Battle of All,” William Manchester recounts the horrors of that battle. He was a sergeant in the 29th Marines and was one of those fighting men who finally captured Okinawa in case the island was needed as a staging area for the landing on Kyushu on November 1, as England had been used as a staging area for the invasion of Normandy. Manchester’s regiment, by the way, lost 80 percent of the men who landed on April 1, 1945. As Manchester notes, “More than 200,000 perished in the 82-day struggle – twice the number of Japanese lost at Hiroshima and more American blood than had been shed at Gettysburg.”
Manchester makes a rather important comment about the decision to drop the atomic bombs. President Truman asked General Douglas MacArthur, who had made uncannily accurate eve-of-battle casualty estimates throughout the war in the Pacific, about Kyushu. MacArthur said that a million Americans would die in the first phase of battle during the attempt to take the Japanese homeland.
As paradoxical as it sounds, the bombs saved untold millions of American and Japanese lives
Dropping a bomb which saves lives and ends a war is not prima facie evil. Carlson is not a deep thinker.
What has snapped in Tucker Carlson’s head? I had always admired him immensely, but that admiration evaporated the instant I learned of his insane position on the “morality” of Truman’s necessary decision to a-bomb Japan into surrender and bring WW II in the Pacific to an abrupt end.
The incredibly bloody Battle of Okinawa, in the summer of 1945, demonstrated the true nature of the enemy–the Japanese determination to fight literally to the last man, woman, and child, civilians leaping to their deaths from a cliff (have you seen the several films of those horrifying suicides?).
Plans had been made, and preparations were underway, to shift U.S. troops in Europe to the Pacific for a conventional amphibious invasion of the Home Islands–with a million American dead (and many millions of Japanese, including Japanese civilians) expected. Okinawa showed what that final battle would be like.
Years ago I once asked my father, an 18-year-old in the U.S. Navy, what he felt at the news that Japan had been atom-bombed. “I felt relief; we all felt relief. Because we knew, then, that we would live,” he replied. That feeling was universal among all of our soldiers, sailors, and Marines. And it’s still justified and understandable–except to fools like Tucker, whose own lives were not on the line in August 1945, I guess.
Ask any soldier, sailor or Marine alive during the war, and is still alive today, whether dropping the bomb was the correct thing to do and you will probably get a near unanimous thumbs up.
The whining naysayers either weren’t there, or didn’t have to go for whatever reason, or they are Communist sympathizers, so their soy boy opinions don’t matter anyway.
Tucker Carlson is campaigning…to become the new Pat Buchanan.
Bombing the innocents in Japan certainly goes against Biblical values and the faith God expects form us.
God gave us the ability to think. You haven’t thought this through.
I just value human life unlike many commenters here apparently. The Japanese had many brutal savages in their army when their empire was invading countries, but they also had many admirable, hard working people who love beauty and excellence and like to be productive members of their society.
Estimated casualties were 22 million for the anticipated invasion of Japan by the allies
When your question was answered multiple times you had no response. Now you pretend you never asked it. Zero credibility.
Are you talking about the commenter who referred me to the book of Joshua? He/she didn’t give a specific example. There may be a verse in there where God killed some people or had the Israelites do the execution, but were they said to be innocent?
Killing innocents to end a war seems like a cowardly way to settle a war.
My father survived the island hopping to Japan in the south pacific theater. He fully supported the dropping the bombs. He was not evil, he was a American hero. He told me how fanatical the Japanese were and that an invasion would have been devastating to our troops.
I fully support that decision to drop the bomb.
My dad was a submariner during WII. Years later when he would talk about the war. They were terrified of invading Japan. Okinawa was bad. Multiple how much more of the same Japan would have been. The sailors probably would not have been in the landing. Still, they were scared of what the consequences would have been.
Two cities were bombed and that was bad enough. An invasion would have destroyed the entire country. The population would have millions more killed.
My connection with the atomic bomb was a lunch interview I had with Dr. Frank Oppenheimer when he was building the original Exploratorium in San Francisco in 1972. (Exploratorium.edu) Testing of nuclear bombs to dropping the atom bomb has irradiated the planet for 10,000 years. Those who lived within 30 miles of the New Mexico top secret base where the a-bomb was tested have serious cases of cancers and other diseases as well as birth defects. We have never been nearer to a all out nuclear war as we are now. Interesting that President Trump, who knows the inside scoop and has proven is a man of his word and doesn’t mince words, has been warning about WW3 for a couple years. This is not just campaign pandering but the awful truth of where we are at and the evil people fomenting and financing the wars in the mid-east and Ukraine and wherever. Obama and Biden has given billions if not trillions of our tax dollars to Iran who is the head of all these terrorist groups. It is demonic insane for any side to launch a nuke missile but if Israel is pushed so far against the wall by Iran franchised jihad groups and the UN and USA under the evil demonic joker Joe Biden and those who control lying corrupt Joe Briben, there could be nukes launched at Iran and deaths and irradiation will spread faster and more pervasive than the pLandemic!
Prager speaks of a broken moral compass in reference to what is happening to some people in America.
Let’s consider what happened to other countries and societies and cultures who have had their own broken moral compass.
The leaders and most of the population in Nazi Germany and militaristic Japan certainly had a broken moral compass.
The same is true for for the revolutionary communist leaders in Russia and China, as well as the Jacobin leaders of the French Revolution.
Of course we should not forget the morally devoid depraved psychopath berserk mass murderer Pol Pot in Cambodia.
The point is that when the moral compass of a nation and society and civilization is lost, then most likely that nation and society goes truly berserk, bonkers. and absolutely morally corrupted
And speaking of losing one’s moral compass, there currently exists a 1400 year old morally corrupt depraved society and culture that has never even had a moral compass.
That is depraved psychopathic violent murderous berserk hate-filled Freedom suppressing Islam Itself.
So history teaches us that really bad things seem to happen to nations and societies and cultures that lose their moral compass.
I think that America is at the point of no return in regards to losing its moral compass.
I estimate that about half the population and half the electorate of America have already lost their moral compass.
And more than half of the elite educated wealthy ruling oligarchic and political leader class of America have also lost their moral compass, as demonstrated by their policies of stabbing America and US citizens and Israel in the back.
That being the case, America and US citizens are in really big trouble.
The Pied Piper of America’s Moral Apocalypse is definitely on the march and gathering up all those fools, young and old alike, who have lost and continue to lose their moral compass.
It hopefully was just Tucker having a senior moment with the passing of some gas.
Sadly, it isn’t. He recently interviewed the Evangelical Lutheran pastor from Bethlehem, Munther Isaac, who’s had a history of attacking Israel over the so-called “occupation” of Palestine. And he didn’t disappoint in spewing anti-Israel propaganda for Tucker to listen to.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/holy-land-pastor-tells-tucker-carlson-that-israels-occupation-must-end-calls-us-policy-horrifying/
Not to defend Tucker (or nuthin’) but prior to WWII, targeting civilian populations was considered a war crime. Then the English bombed Dresden and Berlin, the Germans blitzed London, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were just two more. A taboo had been breached. I agree that The Bomb brought the war to a close (and made the Soviets aware that their possible plans for a Japan invasion would not be a good idea). But we didn’t know the horrible after-effects of radiation. Knowing what we know now I would say nuking is evil, perhaps necessary, but still evil, and only to be used if no other options exist.
War is hell. Maybe you didn’t get the memo. There’s never been such a thing as nice bombing where there have been no civilian casualties. The allies never “targeted” civilians. They targeted war-manufacturing industries, transportation and political centers. and other targets considered to have some strategic advantage. And civilians will get killed in the process.
And I hope it’s occurred to everyone here that should the US enter the next war, we’re all potential casualties whether you wear a uniform or not. That applies, as well. to every country that chooses to make war. As Captain Kirk once said, “That’s why it’s a thing to be avoided.”
I got the memo just fine, thank you very much. But calling war hell doesn’t mean anything goes. We established the Geneva Conventions to keep our barbarism in check when war becomes the only solution. Sorry, but Dresden was fire-bombed three nights in a row, hospitals and schools were reduced to rubble and women and children reduced to grease puddles. And Dresden was not a military stronghold or major manufacturing center. IMO, it was and shall forever remain to me a war crime.
I’m disappointed to find that Tucker Carlson is so ill-informed. The US was creating destruction just as terrible and even more so with conventional bombing raids over Tokyo, The only difference is that the Tokyo bombings took more raids to achieve their cumulative damage. I think the real objection to the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a simple one.: Two aircraft, two crews, two sorties, two bombs. Done. It was like the Americans had suddenly cheated at war, by making it too easy. And therein lies the lesson.
Tucker is morally unstable – inconsistent and often terrifyingly wrong, like when he said he doesn’t recognize Israel’s right to defend itself against the October 7th Hamas terror and the war that is still raging. He has been against Israel’s mission to prevent the Iranian nuclear bomb, and has spoken against retaliation against Iran for their many terror attacks against American, Israeli and Argentinian targets.. He seems like a n Iranian asset, or perhaps a raging antisemite, or both.
They stabbed us in the back and it drew us into the war. We exacted the most horrific revenge ever taken, and ended up becoming friends. Isn’t that odd?
Revenge is not immoral, nor is saving untold millions of lives. We accomplished both at once.
I disagree with a lot of the history mention in this article. I have read a lot of history books and articles regarding events that took place that indicate a different more accurate reporting of those historical events.
Dick Gregory, the black anti Vietnam War activist was asked by Johnnie Carson how he would end the War in Vietnam.
He replied… I would Charter a Plane and land in Saigon, pick up some Government and business leaders and then fly them up to Hanoi where we can pick up some of those Government leaders and businessmen and then fly them all on a tour of Japan and then Germany just to show them what happens to a country when it loses a War to America..
Tucker was merely stating that nuclear War is not a good idea as the bombs of today are a thousand times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japan and why did Uncle Sam feel the need to drop two as one was more than enough but surely lessons learned as common sense just aint too common these days.
One was not enough, or Japan would have surrendered after we dropped it. Two almost weren’t enough, because the military leadership tried to prevent the Emperor from surrendering.
The atomic bombs ended Japan’s will to continue the war. Up to that point they were down to kamikaze attacks, suicide mini sub attacks, and were preparing to meet the American invasion with their remaining civilians. Women were drilling with bamboo spears, men were training with suicide anti-tank bombs on poles, and children being taught to dive under vehicles and detonate their explosive backpack. The Military Party was effectively holding the Emperor hostage to ensure the war continued because without his saying so, nobody was,going to surrender. Firebombing the majority of cities to ash, and bouncing the rubble, hadn’t made Japan quit.
Yes, they were beaten, but would not surrender unless shocked into being convinced of it.
The proof that the bombs were needed to provide that shock, to overcome the insanity of Japan’s resistance, is that TWO bombs were required. Just think on that.
Disagree with your reply. Japan was putting out feelers that they were ready to surrender but requested that the emperor remain. Those feelers were rejected by the U.S. Government before the atomic bomb was used. There were other reasons they wanted to use the bomb on cities which I will not discuss at this time. Those two atomic bombs could have been used on military targets but that suggestion was rejected.
Keep in mind that Japan did not bomb Honolulu when they attacked Pearl Harbor. If you do your research it was the United States that had a lot to do with Japan attacking the United States, just like we did by attacking Germany on September 12, 1941. The Under Secretary of the Navy made comment that we are at war with Germany and the American people people don’t know it yet.
I thought you might like some accurate historical information about that war.
Numbers 31:17! Gd commanded seizing booty even from women and children, killing all males including kings and Balaam.
Yes, this is an example of being instructed to kill those who are not guilty of murder. So my request is answered here. The key point for that verse is that Moses ordered it so likely it was authorized by God. If God ordered bombing Japan with nukes even if it killed those who never killed anyone, then OK. Otherwise, look for another solution!