Originally Posted by
captmcneil
The real question is, how did it become normal to bomb cities, isn't it? When did cities become military targets as a whole, just because there were factories in them? Look at what other cities in Japan suffered during the time. 50'000 deaths or more were common even for conventional bombings.
I'm not legitimating the atomic bombings, they were a war crime, full stop. But I think the whole context of WWII was insane, so the actions were insane. It's much more worrying to me that some crackpots even discussed the use of nuclear weapons in Korea in the 50's.
The effects of radiation are, in my opinion, a bit exaggerated, or at least dominated by the effects of burnings. But I would be interested in proper literature on this.