The Firearms Forum - Gun Community - View Single Post - Should gas have been used in the Pacific?

Xracer · 01-20-2007, 03:28 PM

I can't completely disagree with you PS.....but had we used gas on Iwo, the camel's nose would've been under the tent.

Would we have then used it on Okinawa, which had a large civilian population? Granted, many Okinawan civilians committed suicide rather than face occupation by the "Brutal (they were told) Americans"......but most of them sought shelter in the jungle and in the many caves on the island. Poison gas would've caused horrific civilian casualties.

Additionally, our breaking of the "rules of war" was in response to the Axis powers doing it first (the U-boat warfare, the bombing of London, Coventry, Shanghi)......we didn't do it first.

Maybe a weak argument on my part, but I still feel that WWII was our last "good war". We entered it for the right reasons, we fought it (for the most part) honorably, we played it by the rules (for the most part), we treated enemy POWs within the rules, and we won it. And then we prosecuted the war criminals with fair (again for the most part) trials.

01-20-2007, 03:28 PM	#5
Xracer TFF Admin Staff Mediator Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Minn-eeee-sota, ya, sure, you bet! Posts: 9,144	Re: Should gas have been used in the Pacific? I can't completely disagree with you PS.....but had we used gas on Iwo, the camel's nose would've been under the tent. Would we have then used it on Okinawa, which had a large civilian population? Granted, many Okinawan civilians committed suicide rather than face occupation by the "Brutal (they were told) Americans"......but most of them sought shelter in the jungle and in the many caves on the island. Poison gas would've caused horrific civilian casualties. Additionally, our breaking of the "rules of war" was in response to the Axis powers doing it first (the U-boat warfare, the bombing of London, Coventry, Shanghi)......we didn't do it first. Maybe a weak argument on my part, but I still feel that WWII was our last "good war". We entered it for the right reasons, we fought it (for the most part) honorably, we played it by the rules (for the most part), we treated enemy POWs within the rules, and we won it. And then we prosecuted the war criminals with fair (again for the most part) trials.