History Main / NuclearWeaponsTaboo

* The original ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' setting, Strangereal, is supposed to be an alternate universe of our Earth with approximately equal level of technological advancement. However, the only nation that apparently has ever developed its own nukes is Belka (essentially an alternate UsefulNotes/NaziGermany) and even then their warheads counted in ''single digits'', not the thousands that world powers possess in RealLife today. For this reason, Strangereal's two superpowers Osea and Yuktobanian (counterparts of the US and Soviet Union) could duke it out in ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'' in what would have basically become WorldWarIII in our world, without risking a nuclear apocalypse. In fact, when Belkan remnants try to use their remaining nuclear warheads in that war, the hostilities soon cease and everyone gangs up on the Belkans instead. That ''Ace Combat'' was developed by the Japanese company Bandai-Namco probably explains things. In fact, the reason the ''Ace Combat'' world erupts in large scale conflicts every few years is precisely because concepts like MAD and nuclear deterrence do not exist. Nations do not have the devastating power that nukes provide to counter-act aggression[[labelnote:*]]the various superweapons designed to shoot down asteroids supposedly fill the role nukes do, but completely fail at it due to A) always being a complete secret until someone tries to use it to end a war, and B) being unable to turn the tide far enough to actually win the war before the protagonist blows it up and saves the day[[/labelnote]], and wars erupt as a result.
** Belka is the only nation stated to have ''used'' nukes in a war. During the events of ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'', in an act of desperation, they resorted to dropping nukes on 7 of their own cities to try and delay the allied advance. The rest of the world was ''horrified'' at this, and may explain the world's preference for other types of weaponry. Backstory seems to suggest that nuclear weapons were not developed until the 1980s, instead of the 1930s and 1940s as in real life. Though nuclear power was apparently developed much earlier (nuclear submarines and reactors exist), which leads to a bit of a headscratcher as to why the technology was weaponized so late - presumably there was never any conflict on a large enough scale with a desperate enough situation before then to necessitate trying it (seeing as the Belkan War of 1995 is more or less ''Ace Combat''[='=]s World War II).

** ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown''[='=]s DLC mission set features a submarine capable of firing nuclear warheads as many as 5,000 kilometers away. It so happens that said submarine is commanded by an [[InsaneAdmiral absolutely psychotic naval Captain]], Matias Torres, who wants to accomplish [[ImprobableAimingSkills absurdly long-range shots]] that murder millions of people, [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist all under the guise of trying to frighten nations into ending the Lighthouse War]].

On one hand, the aversion to nuclear weapons in Japan is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the apparent fixation on the bombing tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan was the aggressor, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though not a majority) Westerners who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war (or at least greatly helped to end it) in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''four'' years and counting and would have cost many more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly conventional invasion (and in fact likely made their conquests less efficient and more costly) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions. In essence, the sheer scale, horror, and outright sadism of the two actions cannot be compared. Also while the US has generally downplayed the more ethically questionable motive for the bombings, they have never outright denited then. Japan on the other hand ''has'' actively denied many of their war crimes to the point many Japanese citizens are ignorant of them. [[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, the aversion to nuclear weapons in Japan is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the apparent fixation on the bombing tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan was the aggressor, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though not a majority) Westerners who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war (or at least greatly helped to end it) in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''four'' years and counting and would have cost many more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly conventional invasion (and in fact likely made their conquests less efficient and more costly) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions. In essence, the sheer scale, horror, and outright sadism of the two actions cannot be compared. Also while the US has generally downplayed (but never outright denied) the more ethically questionable reasons for the bombings, Japan ''has'' actively denied many of their war crimes to the point many Japanese citizens are ignorant of them. [[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, the aversion to nuclear weapons in Japan is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the apparent fixation on the bombing tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan was the aggressor, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though not a majority) Westerners who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war (or at least greatly helped to end it) in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''four'' years and counting and would have cost many more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly conventional invasion (and in fact likely made their conquests less efficient and more costly) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions. In essence, the sheer scale, horror, and outright sadism of the two actions cannot be compared. Also while the US has generally downplayed the more ethically questionable reasons for the bombings, Japan has actively denied many of their war crimes to the point many Japanese citizens are ignorant of them. [[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

* The "Jignix" bomb in ''MD Geist: Death Force''.
* ''Manga/PsychicSquad'' appears to have a nuclear ''everything'' taboo, instead having "Neo-Clear" power plants. Which the BigBad promptly steals [[strike:nuclear]] Neo-Clear fuel from and sells it to the "Al Lugia Liberation Front" to make bombs. I wish I was making this up.
** Despite all this it appears that lazy naming aside, Neo-Clear is actually something different as no fallout or even much damage results from one of the bombs. Though that may be to do with the Major containing the blast as he saw a local girl who bore a striking resemblance to Kaoru about to be caught in it. Needless to say, this annoyed him, resulting in the ''[[YourHeadAsplode messy]]'' deaths of the terrorists.

** ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown''[='=]s DLC mission set features a submarine capable of firing nuclear warheads as many as 5,000 kilometers away. It so happens that said submarine is commanded by an [[InsaneAdmiral absolutely psychotic naval Captain]], Matias Torres, who wants to accomplish [[ImprobableAimingSkills absurdly long-range shots]] that murder millions of people, all under the guise of trying to frighten nations into ending the Lighthouse War.

** ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown''[='=]s DLC mission set features a submarine capable of firing nuclear warheads as many as 5,000 kilometers away. It so happens that said submarine is commanded by an [[InsaneAdmiral absolutely psychotic naval Captain]], Matias Torres, who wants to accomplish absurdly long-range shots that murder millions of people, all under the guise of trying to frighten nations into ending the Lighthouse War.

On one hand, the aversion to nuclear weapons in Japan is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the apparent fixation on the bombing tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though not a majority) Westerners who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war (or at least greatly helped to end it) in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''four'' years and counting and would have cost many more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly conventional invasion (and in fact likely made their conquests less efficient and more costly) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions. In essence, the sheer scale, horror, and outright sadism of the two actions cannot be compared. Also while the US has generally downplayed the more ethically questionable reasons for the bombings, Japan has actively denied many of their war crimes to the point many Japanese citizens are ignorant of them. [[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

* There's a very odd RetCon example in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "Genesis of the Daleks". In the previous Dalek stories, it had been repeatedly stated that the mutations that led to the Daleks were the result of a nuclear war on the planet Skaro. In the definitive origin story "Genesis", however, the word "nuclear" was never used and all the usual effects depicted in the story that one would associate with nuclear weapons (mutation, explosives that kill the slaves forced to handle them within a few days, massive destruction) were ascribed to mysterious "chemicals". It almost looks as if there was censorious ExecutiveMeddling. The vast majority of fans, and subsequent canon writers, keep "Genesis" as the definitive origin but tacitly replace all references to "chemicals" with "nuclear" or "radioactivity" again.

* Also inverted in [[Series/StargateSG1 Stargate: SG-1]] and [[Series/StargateAtlantis Stargate: Atlantis]] where the USAF makes use of nuclear weapons in several episodes of each.

* In the ''Manga/GiantRobo'' [[OriginalVideoAnimation OVAs]], the shameful secret of Giant Robo wasn't that it was a massive engine of destruction commanded by the will of a twelve-year-old boy, but that it was powered by a nuclear reactor.

* In the ''Manga/GiantRobo'' {{OVA}}s, the shameful secret of Giant Robo wasn't that it was a massive engine of destruction commanded by the will of a twelve-year-old boy, but that it was powered by a nuclear reactor.

* The first ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' movie, ''Film/{{Gojira}}'', is a parable about nuclear weapons, with Godzilla having been created by US nuclear tests (a fact left out of [[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters1956 the version of the film that was re-edited for U.S. release]]). Said parable is almost entirely lost in the sequels.

The UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki killed 200,000 people and [[TropeCodifier established]] that UsefulNotes/NuclearWeapons were in the same category as chemical weapons (used in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI) and biological weapons (tested by the Japanese on [=POWs=] and Chinese civilians in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII). Within just a few years of the bombings, media coverage of them resulted in what Nina Tannenwald has dubbed ''The Nuclear Taboo'' (2007): a reluctance to use nuclear weapons, regardless of the practical benefits, [[BadPowersBadPeople because it makes the user look evil]]. After all, there is no denying that biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons kill people in a number of horrible ways -- and that they are usually ranked in that order of horribleness.

'''Rex''': Try working ''that'' into a CatchPhrase.

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'': While nuclear missiles ''are'' used, they're very much a SlapOnTheWristNuke (even taking UnitsNotToScale into effect), most ''buildings'' will survive getting hit by one. The reason for this is the backstory: An entire planet was reduced to glass and desert by an interstellar missile barrage of 1000 Apocalypse-class missiles. The aftermath was that such huge nukes were banned, but the smaller ones are permitted. Ironically, Arcturus Mengsk has absolutely no problems with nuking his own planet again if necessary (despite the bombardment being what caused him to rebel against the Confederacy in the first place).

* In the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' franchise, the ability of the Metal Gear machines to launch nuclear weapons is basically the reason they are "bad," though they at least expand upon this in the games to make a reason for this--they use a large [[MagneticWeapons railgun]] to fire warheads as sub-orbital artillery, which means that, since the warheads were not ever technically part of a nuclear missile package, they don't violate several otherwise applicable treaties: "Loophole nukes" of a sort. Also, since these weapons can't be detected the way normal nukes are,[[note]]Lacking the massive, highly conspicuous rocket launches to accelerate them into a ballistic trajectory like ICBMs, or the slower, vulnerable bomber aircraft like traditional payloads which can be detected via radar[[/note]] which completely destroys the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction; any country with a REX derivative can launch a nuke at another country and be guaranteed that there will be no retaliatory strike, because there's no way to determine where it came from or that it's even happening until the nuke hits. And if you have an entire ''squadron'' of the things to launch the attack simultaneously...

* In the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' franchise, the ability of the Metal Gear machines to launch nuclear weapons is basically the reason they are "bad," though they at least expand upon this in the games to make a reason for this--they use a large {{railgun}} to fire warheads as sub-orbital artillery, which means that, since the warheads were not ever technically part of a nuclear missile package, they don't violate several otherwise applicable treaties: "Loophole nukes" of a sort. Also, since these weapons can't be detected the way normal nukes are,[[note]]Lacking the massive, highly conspicuous rocket launches to accelerate them into a ballistic trajectory like ICBMs, or the slower, vulnerable bomber aircraft like traditional payloads which can be detected via radar[[/note]] which completely destroys the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction; any country with a REX derivative can launch a nuke at another country and be guaranteed that there will be no retaliatory strike, because there's no way to determine where it came from or that it's even happening until the nuke hits. And if you have an entire ''squadron'' of the things to launch the attack simultaneously...

On one hand, the aversion to nuclear weapons in Japan is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the apparent fixation on the bombing tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though not a majority) Westerners who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''four'' years and counting and would have cost many more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly conventional invasion (and in fact likely made their conquests less efficient and more costly) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions. In essence, the sheer scale, horror, and outright sadism of the two actions cannot be compared. Also while the US has generally downplayed the more ethically questionable reasons for the bombings, Japan has actively denied many of their war crimes to the point many Japanese citizens are ignorant of them. [[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars: Days of Ruin'' refers to ''Nemesis'' missiles (''Climax'' in the European version) that were installed in both main countries by the IDS. They share a lot of similarity with the Cold War nukes the US and USSR were amassing, and ''might'' be in fact nukes, but the game leaves that open to interpretation, as they never launch.

The UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki killed 200,000 people and [[TropeCodifier established]] that UsefulNotes/NuclearWeapons were in the same category as chemical weapons (used in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI) and biological weapons (tested by the Japanese on [=POWs=] and Chinese civilians in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII). Although the lethal potential of biological weapons was only known to the USA, which pardoned and employed Japan's bioweapon specialists, the horrific nature of chemical and nuclear warfare was plainly evident to everyone. Within just a few years of the bombings, media coverage of them resulted in what Nina Tannenwald has dubbed ''The Nuclear Taboo'' (2007): a reluctance to use nuclear weapons, regardless of the practical benefits, [[BadPowersBadPeople because it makes the user look evil]]. After all, there is no denying that biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons kill people in a number of horrible ways -- and that they are usually ranked in that order of horribleness.

On one hand, the aversion to nuclear weapons in Japan is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the apparent fixation on the bombing tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though not a majority) Westerners who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''four'' years and counting and would have cost many more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly conventional invasion (and in fact likely made their conquests less efficient and more costly) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions. In essence, the sheer scale, horror, and outright sadism of the two actions cannot be compared. Also while the US has generally downplayed the more morally questionable reasons for the bombings to present them in a more positive light, Japan has actively denied many of their war crimes to the point many Japanese citizens are ignorant of them. [[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, the aversion to nuclear weapons in Japan is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the apparent fixation on the bombings that treats Japan as an innocent victim tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though not a majority) Westerners who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''four'' years and counting and would have cost many more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly conventional invasion (and in fact likely made their conquests less efficient and more costly) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions. In essence, the sheer scale, horror, and outright sadism of the two actions cannot be compared. Also while the US has generally downplayed the more morally questionable reasons for the bombings to present them in a more positive light, Japan has actively denied many of their war crimes to the point many Japanese citizens are ignorant of them. [[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, the aversion to nuclear weapons in Japan is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the apparent fixation on the bombings that treats Japan as an innocent victim tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though fortunately not a majority) in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''four'' years and counting and would have cost many more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly conventional invasion (and in fact likely made their conquests less efficient and more costly) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions. In essence, the sheer scale, horror, and outright sadism of the two actions cannot be compared. Also, while the US has tried to present its reasonings for the nuclear bombings in a more positive light than entirely accurate (the "predicted" costs of the planned conventional invasion have steadily gone up since the war ended with little basis in reality) Japan has tried to deny many of the crimes altogether, to the point many Japanese citizens are unaware of them. [[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, the aversion to nuclear weapons in Japan is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the apparent fixation on the bombings that treats Japan as an innocent victim tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though fortunately not a majority) in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''four'' years and counting and would have cost many more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly conventional invasion (and in fact likely made their conquests less efficient and more costly) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions. In essence, the sheer scale, horror, and outright sadism of the two actions cannot be compared. Also, while the US has tried to present it's reasonings for the nuclear bombings in a more positive light (the "predicted" costs of the planned conventional invasion have steadily gone up since the war ended with little basis in reality) Japan has tried to deny many of the crimes altogether, to the point many Japanese citizens are unaware of them. [[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.

On one hand, the aversion to nuclear weapons in Japan is understandable given the mark they made on their history. That said, the apparent fixation on the bombings that treats Japan as an innocent victim tends to come across as blatant efforts to not only deflect from the fact that Imperial Japan had been the aggressor in the Pacific War, but to also deflect from their extensive war crimes and associated atrocities in Asia and the Pacific such as the aforementioned bioweapon testing, with the total amount of victims from these atrocities being estimated at least a dozen million.[[note]]The exact figures are lost to time, mainly due to the fact that one of the last major actions of the Imperial Japanese Military was to ''purge'' as many documents regarding their...less than wholesome activities as possible, to avoid having it be used against them in trials for war crimes.[[/note]] Not helping matters is that outside of the most directly affected countries such as UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, [[UsefulNotes/SouthKorea the two]] [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Koreas]], UsefulNotes/PapuaNewGuinea and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the world public has generally been left in the dark about these atrocities because the West's need for a Far East ally in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ultimately has enabled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cover-up_of_Japanese_war_crimes numerous attempts]] to white-wash Japan's role and conduct in the Pacific War. To add insult to injury, even many (though fortunately not a majority) in the West who ''are'' aware of Imperial Japan's atrocities falsely see the atomic bombings as morally equivalent to said war crimes.[[note]]Generally speaking, this sort of "eye for an eye" mindset, or the concept of comparing war crimes in general, tends to fall apart under examination--discounting the obvious that wartime atrocities are not something that one should callously compare like baseball cards. As terrible as both the bombings and Imperial Japan's war crimes are, the fact of the matter remains that the former was a decisive action that ended the war in lieu of a conventional battle that would have extended the conflict already going on ''four'' years and counting and would have cost many more lives, and is still well-documented today, while the latter was a much more extensive ''series'' of actions, each of which could have warranted a war crimes tribunal on its own and had much more personal, jingoistic motivations which were decidedly ''not'' an alternative to a costly conventional invasion (and in fact likely made their conquests less efficient and more costly) and which there is much less documentation about even today due to the Imperial Japanese Military, as mentioned above, doing their damnedest to destroy as much evidence as possible to avoid responsibility for their actions.[[/note]] Needless to say, any apologia for Imperial Japan's atrocities is typically not well-received by countries whom were victims of said atrocities, to say nothing of the former Allied [=POWs=] and their relatives and descendants.