We need a meme in which...

[alex_antonin]

We need a meme wherein we get voted "Most likely to..." or "Least likely to..." with really unusual things. Like me, I'd be voted "Least likely to be a spokesman for the American education system." Because I can see it now: "Stay in school, kids! But remember that your teachers are lying to you. 90% of education is propaganda designed to turn you into a loyal, unquestioning sheep-person. They didn't need to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, because Japan was going to surrender anyway! Read the book "Lies My Teacher Told Me"!" *gets dragged away by the men in white coats.*

Comments

[kengr]

They didn't need to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, because Japan was going to surrender anyway!

Don't believe everything you read in books.

[christinathena.livejournal.com]

There's some reason to think they might've. Some historians have argued that it was the Soviet Union's entrance into the Pacific theater that triggered the surrender (better to surrender to the Americans than to the Soviets*). Still, there's other reason to believe the Japanese would've fought long and hard against a land invasion.

(Also, a lot more people were killed in conventional bombings than in the two A-bombs, yet no one attacks the firebombing of Japanese cities)

It really boils down to one person - His Majesty the Emperor. He could've ended the war much earlier by surrendering. And if he'd refused to surrender, the war could've dragged on longer. We can't know by now what he would've done if the bombs hadn't been dropped.

*I do wonder if Japan would've ended up divided Germany or Korea-style in the event of a lengthy Soviet invasion. Would there have been a "People's Republic of Japan" in the north?

[consortofvenus.livejournal.com]

I like this idea.