If you’ll look again at the article, I specifically state that I do not excuse Japan’s atrocities in the least.

But atrocities committed by one side does not excuse atrocities committed by the other side…especially when those atrocities are committed against a nation that is no longer able to effectively resist.

The point you try to make would be like sentencing a murderer to be murdered in the same manner as he murdered his own victim. While that sounds like justice, statistics show that in the larger picture it does nothing to lower the rates of violent crime and homicide.

I would suggest, then, that you ask yourself whether you want eye-for-an-eye justice (as you seem to support) or do you want to minimize the likelihood of it happening in the future? Because what kept Japan from rebuilding and hating America wasn’t the firebombing or the atomic bombs, but the Marshall Plan that we used to help them get back on their feet, just as we did with Italy and (what was then called) West Germany…and they are all now peaceful and prosperous nations who look favorably towards America.

There’s a Filipino saying: “If someone throws a rock at you, throw back a piece of bread.” It took me a long time to see the wisdom in that saying. The slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians wasn’t necessary to win the war. The Marshall plan was crucial to winning the peace.