Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki

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And the Japanese knew a lot about killing "women and children" as they were very proficient at it

By "the Japanese" do you mean to include the women and the children who were killed when the atomic bombs were dropped and by the radiation thereafter?

During a war it is customary to refer to the country's name. In this case, because the country was JAPAN, we speak about the enemy in a collective sense, such as "The Japanese". Don't you like my choice of words? If you have something to say, then say it.

The Japanese GOVERNMENT was very good at propaganda...far better than the United States was at that time. It's entirely possible the Japanese people INCLUDING WOMEN AND CHILDREN were totally duped by their leaders and believed their war was righteous. But these same civilians were making bombs to kill OUR SOLDIERS.....there was little compassion asked or shown by either side, until after the war.

Families, women, children are all swept up in a war. I expect, had we somehow failed in our efforts, the JAPANESE WOULD HAVE BEEN DOING THEIR "NANKING" DANCE ALL OVER OUR BODIES. And the JAPANESE PEOPLES would have been doing "the happy dance" along with them.

But for many younger people (?) their view of WWII is sterile...all their thinking dispassionate. So when thinking of these old terrible scenarios, try to think how you might feel if it were YOUR father, brother, or husband over there, dodging bullets (in a war we did not start)....what would YOUR decision have been? I believe the correct (although tragic) decision was made.

ZenDen,

For some reason I cannot summon anger at your comment. It is simply sad. It's thinking like this that continues to cause suffering and death and destruction in this world. May God have mercy on us all.

Well, I'm very happy you're not angry. Stating the facts means sometimes stating terrible things.

And I'm sorry to hear you're sad. All that bad "thinking": tch...tch.

But to make you feel less sad I'll tell you a story........this story is from back when I was working....in the early 2000s.

One day I was at my desk in the corner of the room, and I heard a group of guys (from our department) at a desk at the opposite corner as they congregated around a laptop. And I heard one of the guys say "These are videos I got from XXXX. He downloaded them from a ..(missing).... and they show our helicopters firing machine guns."

So I got up and wandered over that way.......but what did I see?? People being blown to pieces by our machine gunners...pieces! !! !! And the 3 or 4 guys standing around the laptop are f'ing CHEERING.

At first I got sick, then I got angry. I told them to shut that s_it off NOW....I told them I wouldn't have it in this department (CA lets you do that)......and I asked them if this was how they REALLY feel about people-human beings getting their bodies torn to shreds. And each and every person got a look on their face (recognition)...then another look on their face (shame)....and, individually turned and went back to their desks. It was never spoken of again, and there was no further "war talk" (at least until I retired some years later).

As I thought about this later, I tried to figure exactly what had gone wrong?? Why had these guys (all of whom were upstanding citizens/parents/employees/registered voters/etc.) acting the way they were...I'd known most of them for years and had never seen even a "inkling" of such thought or action. And yet there it was.

So you tell me beneficii, why was this? What causes these things to happen? Where could this possibly come from? was this part of their "genetic heritage? What's "your" answer? I think they remembered they were civilized humans and were ashamed they acted like animals. But what about their original Jekyll to Hyde routine? Terrible things happen in a war, it seems to bring out the worst in some. (Doesn't this sound like some are acting during this presidential campaign)?

Very good question, but I don't think a particular group's genetic heritage has anything to do with it. I think it has more to do with things like jingoism and a very tribal thinking (us vs. them, they kill some of our people, so we kill some of theirs-type thinking, etc.). Once war or other violence gets started, you'll find lots of people who'll get like this.

This is why philosophies such as pacifism are so important, and once war gets started, having checks and balances in place. By checks and balances I mean things like the Geneva Conventions and the Red Cross, international tribunals, and internal mechanisms to restrain this tendency for violence (which we were very fortunate to get in the person of Hugh Thompson, Jr. at the My Lai Massacre, for example).

YES, I agree; you said: "This is why philosophies such as pacifism are so important." I agree. Are you a pacifist?

But I didn't always agree. I was raised on plastic soldiers and war comic books....everyone knew Hitler was a jerk and cheered on "our" side. It was considered a "good" thing and very patriotic.

It wasn't until the Vietnam atrocities that I first started noticing innocent people being massacred. The last war...the Korean War...had been considered by most, the same way as WWII...although there had been some poorly reported incidents. But this Vietnam war made no sense...and it was killing thousands and thousands of innocent people besides. By mid-1968 I became a pacifist for life.

If people could only see through all the BS served up by our governments there would be no need or fervor for war, and the evil things we do to each other. All we can do is tell the truth about it, and protest whenever we can.