My point was originally to show the truth of Adrians statement - "A bad tool I can think of is an Atom or Hydrogen Bomb, not much use really apart from killing several million people in one hit and leaving the area it hits radioactive for many years, but I am sure there are some out there that will argue it has its good uses.'" I then stated that it seems a majority of people take the view that the use of the atom bomb on Japan in WWII was entirely justified. Several posters then confirm this in the usual fashion using quasi military jargon completely forgetting we are talking about the lives of millions of civilians, who else killed civilians on such an industrial scale? Totalitarian regimes like Russia and Nazi Germany. Japan was also a totalitarian regime, but I never think the civilians of any country should bear responsibility for the actions of their governments. Japan could be seen as the beginning of Americas role as world policeman, Vietnam, the Middle East, countless lives lost through heavy bombing campaigns. Japans foolish bombing of Pearl Harbour cost a few thousand American - mostly soldiers - lives, the death rate of American military personnel to Vietnamese military/civilian must be something like at least 1/10. It seems America can just bomb away with impunity and we're all supposed to look away. Also once again, may'be it depends on what historians you read, but Japan were ready to surrender and probably would have done so. What need was there for America to storm their island? A ridiculous notion! What threat did Japan pose to America? The country was on its knees after the U.S. bombing of Tokyo in march 1945 which was even more deadly than Hiroshima or Nagasaki in terms of immediate casualties! I wonder how many U.S. civilians were killed during WW2?