[Buddha-l] Re: Greetings from Oviedo

[L.S. Cousins]

Dan,

>As I mentioned in the previous message, the Japanese overtures to Russia in
>search of a better deal are well known.

On the  contrary, it is clear that after the Potsdam Declaration of 
July 25th, Japanese overtures were on that basis.

>  It was not an offer of surrender,
>however. It was a probing, based on misguided notions held by some in the
>Japanese leadership that Russia, having its own imperial history, would be
>more understanding.

This is rather difficult to understand. Stalin would be more 
understanding because of Russian Imperial history ?

>  The US repeatedly issued requests, though various
>channels, asking for the Japanese surrender, which the Japanese repeatedly
>refused, according to some accounts, in very harsh terms.

Earlier and irrelevant.

>Given the timing of the Japanese acceptance of the terms of surrender, the
>idea that  "It is not clear
>that dropping those bombs actually had any impact on the Japanese decision"
>seems like little more than unconvincing pleading. That would be a whopper
>of a coincidence. The scenario suggesting that the Japanese were in
>negotiating mode, hoping that the costliness of a full out invasion --
>whether in potentia or in actu -- would produce sufficient change of
>circumstances that less than unconditional surrender would become possible
>seems a more accurate reading of the situation.

On the contrary, it is the precise timing which makes it unlikely. 
Governments rarely make decisions all that quickly.

>Similarly "In other words there can be no reasonable doubt that when the
>order to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was given, the U.S.
>President knew that Japan was willing to surrender" is reading too much into
>the situation. They knew that the Japanese were exploring options, and that
>the noose was tightening. The bombs clinched the deal. Again, if the
>Japanese were eager to surrender you need to explain why they didn't do so
>on Aug. 7th instead of Aug. 10th. You aren't suggesting that between Aug.
>6th and Aug 10th the US dept. of Surrender Acceptance was on vacation, are
>you?

The crucial factors were Potsdam and probably the carpet bombing of 
Tokyo which killed 100,000 people - more than Hiroshima and Nagasaki 
combined and much closer to home.

>The only ones raising the kind of questions you raise are in the West.
>The decisiveness of the bomb in Japan's decision is taken as a basic and
>obvious fact by every Japanese I've ever talked to about it. Curious, isn't
>that?

To be expected - it excuses defeat. Also, people do tend to assume 
causal connexions in the past, forgetting that attitudes were 
different at the time. Post hoc propter hoc.

>"From the Buddhist perspective, it seems to me that it is demonization
>or idolization of a race, a religion, a nation or a political
>orientation (left, right or centre) which is ultimately unacceptable.
>We all have allegiances or loyalties, but if we hold on to them too
>firmly and adopt rigid viewpoints based on them (or based on
>rejecting them), we become part of the problem instead of part of the
>cure."
>
>Nothing to disagree with there.
>

My feeling is that we have to recognize that wrong deeds were done on 
all sides, rather than exaggerating the faults of those we don't 
like. The German bombing of Rotterdam and subsequently of Coventry, 
Plymouth and elsewhere was a terrible thing and quite inexcusable. 
That makes the (even worse) subsequent bombing of Dresden and other 
German cities understandable. It doesn't make it excusable. If 
America had not dropped the atomic bombs and instead gone ahead with 
the alternative plan to use chemical weapons against the Japanese 
cities with an anticipated 5 million casualties, that would have been 
even worse.

But, to belabour the obvious, Germans (or Americans) in general are 
not responsible for the actions of some Germans, etc. They are not 
even responsible for all actions of the German government, 
particularly when that government was authoritarian in nature. The 
same goes for Japanese. The truth is that almost all participants in 
WWII have things of which to be ashamed. What we shouldn't do is drag 
up other people's wrong deeds selectively or exaggeratedly - usually 
out of unacknowledged hatred or vengefulness. Or because they do not 
belong to the same political or cultural grouping as us.

Lance Cousins