So let's look at the root cause- was the U.S. at fault?

[sarisataka]

Hiroshima and Nagasaki are directly related to Pearl Harbor. Japan sought to neutralize the Pacific Fleet as they fought to obtain resources the U.S. was denying.

Should the U.S. not have gone to war, instead viewing the Japanese attack as an inevitable result of pressure from the embargo? Or should there have never been any embargo and the U.S. used only diplomatic means to restrain Japanese aggression?

[Cali_Democrat]

1. Japan's invasion of China was extremely brutal

I don't think "diplomatic means" would have restrained them. This is the same country that deployed kamikaze pilots toward the end of the war. They were fanatical.

[sarisataka]

2. That is without question

but I have seen more than one post blaming the U.S. for the war. I am wondering if any one believes 1941 inevitably led to the bombings or should a different course been taken.

[One_Life_To_Give]

3. And when the Phillipines were attacked

Japan was set on creating their Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. If they had the resources and the Axis was prevailing the conflict was inevitable. Unless we were willing to cede the West Coast.

[GalaxyHunter]

4. I feel they should have gone to war.

we were attacked, plain and simple.

[quinnox]

5. The USA is definitely responsible for dropping the atomic bombs

that vaporized thousands of innocent civilians, men, women, and children. There is always a choice.

[geek tragedy]

6. No sentient human being outside of the Japanese right views Pearl Harbor as anything

but an unprovoked act of military aggression.

[The Link]

7. We did the right thing.

I wish we could have ended the war much sooner.

[Savannahmann]

8. You should listen to this podcast.

It's long, two and a half hours. But it is very informative on the subject. Dan Carlin refers to the process as Logical Insanity. It is one of the most disturbing, and informative discussions I've ever heard on the subject.

http://www.dancarlin.com/disp.php/hharchive/Show-42---(BLITZ)-Logical-Insanity/Second%20World%20War-World%20War%20Two-World%20War%20One

It may give you a different view of the subject. It may help explain what the principles were thinking when they issued not only the orders on the bombing if Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but many other bombings as well.

[sarisataka]

10. The embargo failure was in large part

due to a gross misunderstanding of the Japanese. The post-Tokugawa Japan was very different from any European frame of reference that the U.S. was used to dealing with. Rather than restraining the military adventures of Japan, it pushed them to a higher level. To be fair, the Japanese had similar mistaken views of the West.

Though Japan had dreams of a Empire to rival Britain, realistically they knew it was not possible. A hegemony based on the Pacific, South and East Asia was well within their capability and would set Japan as a power on par with the UK, Germany and the U.S. Being a second-rate Great Power chafed the Japanese leadership greatly.

War is ugly... so true. I also believe there is no good war, though sometimes there is a necessary war