11. The Empire of Japan’s Awful Leaders
The main reason however that debunks the take that the atomic bombing of Japan was an awful mistake or atrocity is that the alternative would have been worse. Not just for the Allies, whether soldiers engaged in combat with Japanese, civilians living under brutal Japanese occupation, or POWs in brutal Japanese captivity, but for the Japanese themselves. If Japan had not been shocked into immediate surrender with atomic bombs, the Allies would have had to conduct a massive invasion of the Japanese home islands.
It was an invasion that Japan‘s leaders were determined to resist via national suicide. Said leaders of the Empire of Japan were a morally bankrupt and cowardly lot. An awful bunch who refused to confront and accept the fact that they had made an awful mistake when they took their country into an unwinnable war, which they then lost. Ethical leaders would have shouldered the responsibility for the mess they got their country. Japan’s leaders tried to escape their burden via histrionics and determined to immolate themselves and take their country with them.
