So Long Mom...

... I'm off to drop The Bomb... (Tom Lehrer)



August marks the 'anniversary' of the only use of atomic weapons in combat.



I've never understood the 'anti-bomb' camp when they talk about how immoral using atomic weapons was. I can understand (and even agree with) objections to the strategic bombing used in WW II in general (including a large number of the bomber raids in Europe and a majority of the ones in the Pacific), but I can see no reason why the use of atomic weapons is sufficiently more evil than, say, the firebombing of Tokyo, to merit any special attention.



Attacking civilian targets is morally questionable at the very best. The problem is, of course, that industry of the time was in far too close proximity to population centers for the accuracy of high-altitude bombing of the time. Sometimes, we didn't even try (see, again, the deliberate dropping of incendiaries on Tokyo). Yet I've heard not a single complaint. Apparently it is OK to kill hundreds of thousands of people over the course of months, but not tens of thousands in a single day.

I'm not going to argue the military/political necessity of the bombing, I'm just confused by the moral separation.