Total War

If unconditional surrender was the only option (that's a big if, but it is the condition that this discussion about the atom bomb is based off of), then I'm not sure I agree with the total outrage expressed by some in response to the news of the atom bomb. The idea of WW2 is that it was a "World War" and a "Total War." World war meaning most of the world is somewhat involved, and total war meaning "a war that is unrestricted in terms of the weapons used, the territory or combatants involved, or the objectives pursued, especially one in which the laws of war are disregarded." I think the key phrase in that definition is the lack of restriction of combatants involved. From our readings and from this definition we can see that civilians (teenagers -- 144 lbs!) were volunteering and getting drafted to go to war. Why is the death of those civilians in the army any more justified than the deaths of those in Hiroshima? The atrocities of the aftermath of the atom bomb are brutally clarified in our readings, as are the atrocities of warfare and, more specifically, a beach landing, which is what likely would have occurred if the bomb wasn't dropped. I think that if unconditional surrender was the only option, the atom bomb was an understandable way to go about it. That being said, it seems that America's narrow-mindedness lead to this ultimatum of ending the war via some sort of slaughter. Very complicated decisions made at the close of WW2.