37, an event known as the Rape of Nanjing occurred. Japanese troops took this Nationalist Army headquarters city and then spent seven weeks killing over 300,000 men, women, and children by hand. In 1932, Japan was also the first country in any of the theaters of war to create a deliberate firestorm in an undefended city when it bombed Shanghai. In the “comfort women” issue, thousands of women in occupied territories were forced to become sex slaves for Japanese troops. America, and other nations that were involved with the war, felt tremendous pain for the suffering of these innocent people. A retired Methodist minister, William J Hodge, was quoted as saying, “No one should think that war is humanitarian, that you just shoot the enemy in the legs. I feel sorry for the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who suffered when the atomic bombs were dropped, but I can look at all the atrocities the Japanese committed and know these bombs were an appropriate means to wage war.” The atomic bomb was the answer for direct revenge against the cruel Japanese militarists. The deaths from the two atomic bombs are pale shadows to the deaths resulting from the Japanese military persecution.This weapon of mass destruction also served as a powerful anti-Soviet deterrent to the shaky Soviet allies. Thoughts of the bomb and the threat of the Soviet Union were intertwined. Influencing the Soviet Union was a major consideration in the detonation of the bomb. Relations with the Soviets were not as good as they could have been. In essence, the military use of the atomic bomb was expected to not only end the war, but to help organize an American Peace. If the Soviets declared war on Japan after the atomic bomb was dropped they would share in the dividends promised to everyone who had fought against the Japanese, with little risk of defeat. That would score points with both the Americans and the Soviets in riches, trust, and mos...
