Friday, January 07, 2011
"How Many Died? Who Knows the Number?"
Once again, complete the Gilbert reading pages 301-319 and comment on/question/answer the follwing 3 questions: (1) Why did the Germans invest so much time and resources into rocket and jet technology? (2) Which was Hitler's priority in WWII: restoring German greatness, elimination of Europe's Jewish population, making a name for himself, or other? (3) Was the US decision (here you go Kaylan!) to drop the atomic bombs on Japan a justified military necessity?
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Hello and I will be seeing everyone again on Monday after my short vacation. As for your questions I think that the Germans knew the great potential that rockets and jets would offer them. Looking that the blitzkrieg strategy, it required a fast and explosive attack. Having rockets and jets would allow the Germans to attack faster, harder and from farther away.
ReplyDeleteI think that the main goal of Hitler was to raise a powerful German state. It was to not only have the former glory of Germany but to have a even grander glory. I think the hatred of the Jews was a personal hatred but not not his ultimate goal.
Yes, the US decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan was militarily necessary. Even if Japan was battered and near beaten from the war such far it was still a near fortress and attacking it would have gone with a large loss of lives. Dropping the bomb also showed the true power of the American military strength and in combat if you're so scared to fight someone they have already won.
I agree with AJ that the germans needed rocket and jet technology because they needed to be on the offensive to win the war. They'd learned from WWI that defensive strategy wasn't effective, and this new technology seemed the best way to attack the Allies quickly and with less loss of life, as it didn't require a massive army.
ReplyDeleteI think Hitler mostly wanted personal glory. To achieve this, he wanted a glorified German state, for which he would be responsible. Mostly, the "grander Germany" idea was a ploy to justify waging a second world war.
The atomic bomb was a military nessesity, because the Pacific theatre needed to be closed before Americans grew sick of an everlasting war. Beyond that, the massive loss of life that would have resulted from a continued war with Japan was too horrible to contemplate. And I think that the American popluation already had a slightly cold war mentality, and the use of the atomic bomb prevented the USSR from getting involved in Japan, which had originally been the deal.
I think Germany needed rockets and jets because they were very much alone in their war. True that Italy and Japan were allies but each nation had its own agenda. And were Germany to find itself trapped it was unlikely that the others would come to the rescue. Thus superior air power, and technology that could produce mass killings from a safe distance would be a huge appeal.
ReplyDeleteI think Hitler's goal was to return Germany to glory under his name and guidance. From wreckage to dominance I think Germany's reclaimed status would have been a jewel in his crown, and given him more fame and admiration.
I don't think the US decision to bomb was just. I do believe in war crimes, attacks on those who are defenseless, bombing the innocent was truly a taint on our honor.
I think that germany wanted to invest a lot of time and money into the jets and rockets because they wanted to create something that no one else had and that would give them an advancement in the war.
ReplyDeletePersonally I feel like Hitler was going for the personal glory. I dont really think that anyone trys this hard to get into a dictatorship to better the country because i think they should know that a dictatorship might not be the best plan for the country but they do it any way because it is what would bring them personal glory. I think that killing the jews was just a stepping stool into his plan for glory.
I feel like it wasnt a necessity to drop the bombs because we could have beat them with out the bomb, but by dropping the bomb i believe it ended the war faster and with less loss of life than if we had continued the regular tactics of war.
Germany needed so much time invested in air technology because they needed something to give them a unique advantage and give them an edge on the offensive strategy. I think they also realized at the end of WWI how much air technology could benefit them, with massive destruction of a wide area.
ReplyDeletePersonal glory was Hitler's only motive. He had had a pathetic start at the real world and he found a loop whole in the German political system. He only used German rehabilitation to gain the strength he needed, and the Jews were an easy way to sustain his power. Both were just maneuvers in reaching his own top glory.
We were asked the justification of the atomic bomb last year in seminar and I still stand by the argument of the majority. The atomic bomb without a doubt was a brilliant scientific break through, but the use of it went to far. It was smart to use it, it was easy and far beyond destructive, but the use of it on cities was not called for. To make it useful for the military, they should have dropped it on the factories making war supplies, and military training bases. Most of these were not near large civilian areas, like cities, and would have saved so many innocent lives. Lives which were not involved in the war as far as the military was concerned.
The Germans invested so much in this new technology (rockets and jets) because it was the best way to be offensive, which was their only way to truly gain an edge in the war.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I feel like Hitler was all about the glory. We've learned about how he faced rejection growing up, and that pushed him to be noticed and revered. He deemed the best way to do this was to bring about his vision of a grander Gremany. I'm not saying he wasn't motivated by allegiance and patriotism to his country, just that glory was the underlying factor.
My question! YES! Okay, so I've spent months working this out and found that, no, the bombs were not a military necssity to win the war against Japn. There was some pre-Cold War tension between the US and USSR, which forced Truman's hand. The US had been building the bombs in secret, and had planned to use them against Japan. However, Japan would have surrendered as soon as the USSR entered the war, which it was planning to do. So why drop the bombs? Answer: power politics. Basically, the US wanted to win the war without help from the Soviets, so they wouldn't get post-war influence in Asia. There was a boatload of other nonsense too, but that's the basics. So no, the bombs were not needed to end the war in Japan. They did play a role in dealing with the Soviet Union, but at a huge price.
The Germans invested so much time and resources into rockets and jets because they wanted to come out on top. With this technology the Germans were able to be on the offensive side, and it was a way for them to show their potential of greatness.
ReplyDeleteAnd i agree with Kate i think Hitler just wanted to put Germany back on the map and return some glory to the name.
I don't think it was totally justified to drop the bomb. I think the US ultimately just wanted to show of its guns. I feel like we could have won the war without using the bomb so dropinging it really wasn't necessary.
I agree that Germany needed better offensive weapons in order to keep its head above water in the attacks by the Allies. It needed to be able to have fast, destructive munitions that Allies didn't have or weren't bothering to develop.
ReplyDeleteHitler's original intent was to restore German glory. However, I think that once he was in power, he used his influence to divert the glorification into just the destruction of the Jews.
Dropping the atomic bomb was a military necessity. If we hadn't, the Japanese would have fought until every last one of them was dead, which would have also killed thousands more Americans. I am not saying that the target choices were ethical though.
The Germans invested time and resources into rocket and jet technology because it allowed them to attack quickly and from farther away, which was ideal because it caused less risk for them personally. It just made sense for them, because they could be farther away and cause more damage. They knew there was a lot of potential in rocket and jet technology.
ReplyDeleteI think Hitler’s priorities were all kind of intertwined. He wanted to restore German greatness, and to do that he had to eliminate Europe’s Jewish population to create his perfect Aryan state. I think he thought that Germany wouldn’t be great unless the Jewish people were exterminated. And he knew that if he accomplished this, he would make a name for himself, which was great for him. Each idea was connected to the other, and they all sort of fueled each other and the actions he took.
I definitely do not feel that the bombs were necessary the way they were used. I agree with Lauren, it would have made way more sense to drop them on factories making military supplies, and on military training bases. It was ridiculously unjust and excessive to drop them on major civilian areas, and it was even more unnecessary to drop MULTIPLE bombs on civilian areas. Maybe one would have been ok and a less harsh.
I agree with what everyone is saying about the German's investment in rockets and jets- it was needed for their blitzkrieg warfare and they needed that to be on the offensive because obviously the defensive war didn't work out in WWI.
ReplyDeleteI believe Hitler was largely out to make a name for himself under the guise of bringing Germany to it's former glory. I mean after watching his biography first he wanted to be a famous painter and when that didn't work he turned radical, maybe in hopes that would gain him fame? He also wouldn't accept anything short of chancellor, showing that he wanted nothing less than the best. He definitely wanted to improve Germany, but I think he wanted Germany to improve him even more.
As far as the atomic bombs are concerned, I believe it was a military necessity to drop them. It saved thousands of American lives by utterly annihilating the Japanese, but at the same time i believe it could've been handled differently. For example, a warning could've been issued considering the amount of women and children that were in the cities, and also I believe if the atomic bomb was truly meant to end the war Russia wouldn't have agreed to declare war on Japan once the bomb was dropped, to me that was only encouraging the spread of war.
Firstly, I think that the extreme focus on rocket and jet technology that Nazi Germany had stemmed from its need for a strong, quick method of offensive warfare as part of its Blitzkrieg. However, I also believe that Nazi Germany put so much focus on this particular technology was because it felt that rockets and jets had a very high chance of being developed in a very short period of time. It didn't want to have to wait for years for some technology that might not even work to be developed (which is one reason why the German atomic bomb program lost out to the United States Program)- it wanted a technology it could get its hands on tomorrow and blow up its opponents the day after.
ReplyDeleteI think that Hitler's ultimate goal was to restore German greatness, of which he associated his own greatness with. Hitler was a former member of the German military, and he joined after he failed in life as a painter. He joined the military because the extreme nationalistic drive that it provided to its members gave Hitler something to work for in his life. That extreme sense of nationalism became engrained into his identity; To everyone, including himself, he was out to prove Germany's superiority. However, proving Germany's superiority proved that his own values that he believed so strongly in were superior as well, and therefore, made him superior.
I don't think that the United States dropping the atomic bomb on the Japanese was a just decision. Yes, dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki did stop thousands from dying. However, the people that would have died in the war to come would have been Japanese and American soldiers, ones who have dedicated themselves to fighting for their country. Instead, the Atomic Bomb killed tens, even hundreds of thousands of civilians. These cities have people in them just like those of any war-time American city: children, people who don't support the war, etc. Additionally, the United States, through almost exclusively its own power, was fighting and succeeding against Japanese in the Pacific. Nazi Germany had only recently been defeated. This means that even more American troops and weapons, in addition to those of the Soviet Union and Britain, could have been allocated to fighting Japan. The Allied Powers were probably going to win anyways, and quite possibly with a lot less death than the Atomic Bomb caused- was it worth dropping the bomb? I don't think so.
Ok take two of my comment. I hate internet! :) I think the air tech that was developed by Germany at this time had a lot to do with their geographical location. Like WW1 they were surrounded by “enemies”. Although they had signed a pact with Russia I believe Hitler had every intention of making him their enemies due to his hatred of communism. They air tech allowed Germany to attack in a much safer way with out directly and immediately having to fight the allied powers. Also, bc this was new tech. they wanted to keep an advantage in the war.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Hitler had a lot of personal motives, overall I think he wanted to restore greatness to Germany. Personally I think if you are going commit to coming to power to the extent he did you have to want something to change. I think his driving motive and what got him started was the idea that Germany needed to be respected again, and the Treaty of Versailles no longer control them, he wanted Germany’s pride back.
The atomic bomb I believe was justified. I think that for militaristic strategies and the safety of the American people the bomb was necessary. I liked the idea of issuing a warning, bc I think the civilian lives that it cost in Japan was an atrocity, but in the interests of the US it was the right thing to do.
Well in my opinion Germany diverting its resources from nuclear to V rockets was a poor, poor move for them. If they concentrated on the atom bomb and got it before we did then it would've been a different story. But to answer you're question it's probably because they knew they didn't have the time or resources to invest in researching/building the atom bomb so they decided to go with the V1-2 rockets but hey that was a fail too since investing in all those V1-2 rockets were far too expensive for Germany during the time of the war since Germany didn't have the resources and rockets had an inadequate guidance system. Second in the beginning maybe just maybe it was to restore Germany to great glory but in the end it was just for his own personal interest. If Hitler was really trying to help Germany he wouldn't have targeted the Jews. Third while people may argue dropping the atom bombs saved soooooo many American soldiers lives from actually storming the Japanese mainland it was still not necessary I understand why the US did it but it still doesn't justify it, however as I said before war is a crime and dropping the atom bomb just adds more to that statement.
ReplyDeleteThe Germans invested a lot of money in this new technology because this was kind of a huge part of their strategy. Blitzkrieg was reliant on the German ability to make an invincible military force that could defeat others easily and quickly. They wanted to get any advantage they could to gain military superiority. I think Hitler's primary goal was to expand Germany as an empire, he thought that weeding out the Jews was making his empire stronger and that was why he was doing it. I don't think it was the other way around, expanding his empire to get rid of more Jews. Also, I have always kind of held the not-so-popular opinion that the atomic bomb was justified. At least the first one, because the Japanese were warned and it is cited to saved hundreds of thousands of lives in the long run. However, I think bombing civilian areas was wrong.
ReplyDeleteDuring WWII there was an insane amount of new development for war technology, the Germans were finding their niche for this technology. The rockets and jets made sense because they caused destruction without risking lives and because they would work well the Blitzkrieg military strategy (like Kaitlyn said).
ReplyDeleteHitler's first goal was for personal glory, and his secondary goal was for glory for Germany. These two goals went together, if Germany gained glory, Hitler gained glory. "Exterminating" the Jews was like a side-project for him, something he'd been meaning to do but it wasn't his main goal. Probably in part because he knew that most of the world wouldn't support him so he did it quietly.
Dropping the atomic bomb was a radical decision and I find what Kaylan said very intriguing, as the general consensus has always been that it was used simply to end the war. Obviously there was a lot more at play here. It's impossible to determine exacly what would've happened and when but I'm not sure if I support it.
I believe the Germans concentrated on rockets and jets so much, because they were more concentrated on pushing back the advancing allies than creating a super weapon to bring a country to its knees. I believe that Hitler's intentions were to make a name for himself. He had a lot of anger towards those who wronged him in his past. He masked this by saying that he wanted to bring Germany back to glory. the U.S. was justified in dropping the bomb.
ReplyDeleteI think the Germans invested so much time and resources into building the bombs because they needed were trying to defend against the allied powers. I also think that Hitler's main priority, whether he knew it consciously, was to glorify himself. In order to do this he needed to first re-glorify the country he was dictator of - Germany. And I do not think the US was justified in dropping the bomb and killing thousands of innocent civilians. Two wrongs don't make a right.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like Germany would have invested so much time and resources into building rocket and jet technology because of the strong offensive against them. Germany was singled out because of the proximity of it to Allied forces attacking from the west. Jets seemed to be the least practical for the time, though, because most of them were shot down, even by Canada, eh.
ReplyDeleteI think Hitler's main goal of the war was to make Germany a successful, powerful nation, enough that the rise of Germany would give him the name as the most powerful leader to rule the world.
I don't believe the U.S. dropping the Atom Bombs on Japan were a justtified necessity, but they were very effective in making Japan submit to U.S. power. The Japanese Supreme War Direction Council almost concurred to end the fighting on August 9 when the second bomb was dropped.