"An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind"
-Mahatma Ghandi
In small group today we talked about killings and if any can be justified. I don't think any killing is justified. Dropping the nuclear bombs on Japan to end the war came up. Sure it saved an estimated 1 million lives but who's to decide that number? What about the thousands of innocent lives lost? I'm sure it was the ethical thing to do but it seems a bit immoral and if your ethics are more important than your morals then I think there's something wrong. I don't think it was fair to use the nuclear weapons because the estimated 1 million to die would have been primarily made up of soldiers who know they might die, not innocent civilians. It's crazy to think that people can hide behind ethical reason to commit murder. Had the roles been reversed I'm about 100% sure that Americans would not see it as the Japanese saving lives. This connects back to the hypothetical scenario we were given in the beginning of the year, would you kill one person to save five? I'm still in shock that so many people were quick to say yes. How do you decide the value of one life over another? Sure you saved five lives but that doesn't compensate for the life you took. It's frightening to think that people can have so much power over another being. To the Nazis the Jews were a danger. They were willing to sacrafice the Jews in order to improve the life of German people. They sacrificed a few to save the majority. This just goes to show that the Nazis are human and they're not as different from us as we think. We are just as capable of genocide as the Nazis. I don't think That any person can handle this much power. In one of the videos we watched the SS had to find another method of killing the Jews because the shootings were taking a mental toll on them. Another example of this power would be the death penalty. I know in order to be sentenced to death you have to do horrible things but it still bothers me. In basic terms the death penalty was put intact to kill people who kill people to show people that killing people is wrong. Isn't that ironic? These are just my opinions, feel free express yours below I'm curious to see it from a different perspective.
I was thinking of the reason why the US dropped the bomb on japan. It wasn't just american lives that would be saved but also Japanese lives. I recall hearing that before american dropped the bomb they gave japan and opportunity to surrender but the Japanese leaders rejected the offer and continued to fight. One of the was Japanese fought was with suicide bombers called kamikazes. They would fly their planes in to ships. Japan also has a tradition that death is better then being captured. Over all it was wrong for the US to drop the bomb even if they thought it would save millions of lives. The US attempted to make japan surrender by bombing city's but that proved that the Japanese will continues to fight.
ReplyDeleteNever really thought about it that way but you do make a good point!
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, and as horrible as this sounds writing it, it is better to lose the lives of those who volunteered and were ready to fight a bloody war, than to lose the lives of those who are just innocent bystanders of a politicians war. I am so against violence so honestly both options disgust me but if you have to pick one, the best one is without a doubt the invasion of Japan. To your point, the 1 million saved estimate is exactly that, an estimate and the fact that it most likely played a heavy role in the decision making is equally as disappointing. Again as horrible as this sounds, soldiers signed up knowing they would possibly face death, civilians do not join a country or are not born into a country expecting that fate. The fact that civilians are targeted in war is despicable and honestly makes the United States liable to face war crimes charges and maybe even crimes against humanity as far as I am concerned.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, killing some people to save the lives of countless others is justifiable. In the begging of the year we were all asked if we would push a man if front of a train to save the lives of five others. Almost all of us agreed that this was okay. Because of this I feel that the dropping of the bombs is the same situation but with inflated numbers.
ReplyDeleteTo end the lives of innocents to keep others living longer does not sound justifiable. An argument can be made against such statement, but there will still be a regret upon the argument and choice. When it comes to a situation where you bear the burden of millions of deaths to save more, do take credit for the deaths, the lives saved, or both?
ReplyDeletePonder.