[MD] Flying Spagetti Monsters

[craigerb at comcast.net]

Arlo (Platt mentioned),
1)  In WWII both Germany & Japan worked on atomic bombs of their own (& in fact, co-operated with each other.)  
>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Unterseeboot 234 (U-234) was a WWII German (U-boat) whose first and only mission into enemy territory consisted of the attempted delivery of uranium and other German advanced weapons technology to the Empire of Japan. An anecdote regarding the name, U-234, of this vessel: Reportedly the German crew were bemused when the two Japanese military officials to travel on the craft had cargo brought on board that was labelled "U-235" — their thinking was something like: "Look, they didn't even get the name of the ship right." According to the report, the cargo was however labelled accurately — it contained uranium 235.
2) There was a program on the History Channel which told of Japan's plan to explode a "dirty" radioactive bomb (like a neutron bomb) over the U. S. in Sept. 1945.  
3) The U. S. considered a demonstration drop of the atomic bomb on unoccupied territory for Japan, but rejected that option.
4) Japan did not surrender upon the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima, so it's not clear that any demonstration would have made a difference.
5) Even after the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, a coup to prevent the surrender by Japan was attempted & almost succeeded.
6) Japan offered a "conditional" surrender, which was rejected by the U. S. because a) the Germans had agreed to an unconditional surrender (but only after Hitler had killed himself), b) after 4 years of war the U. S. would have considered the status quo ante to be a defeat & c) the U. S. was worried that Japan would continue to be a threat if the Emperor was not forced to deny his divinity.
7) The U. S. planned an invasion of mainland Japan in case the Japanese did not surrender.  Military historians agree with Platt that millions of lives could have been lost based on the battle for Okinawa & the assumption that Japanese civilians would (willingly or unwillingly) be part of the defense.
8) Both the U. S. & Japan thought the other to be of inferior racial stock.
9) Because of 8) & the Rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March, kamikazees, etc., Americans felt that Japan was uncivilized & did not value life, so Americans were unsympathetic to the death of Japanese civilians.

My own solution to the moral dilemma of the atomic bomb would be:
A) Inform Japan of the existence of the A-bomb & demand surrender
B) If Japan refused, provide them a list of military-industrial targets from which all civilians needed to evacuated by a certain date
C) After that date, drop one bomb on one of the targets
D) Repeat as necessary.

It is immoral to intentionally harm or kill non-combatants, even if doing so saves more lives, if it is unnecessary to do so.
Craig