Why Nagasaki or Hiroshima?

[David Floyd]

We were talking about what the Soviets stole, not what the US stole. I'll concede the US essentially stole the RoK if you concede the same for the Soviet Union and the DPRK.

[Q Classic]

...

"stole" ?

does the fact that korea was itself an independent nation until japan annexed and occupied it (against the wishes of the koreans, by the way) not count for anything?

[David Floyd]

No, it does, and that's the point. Neither the North nor the South got true independence after the war - the North got a brutal Soviet backed dictator, and the South got a somewhat less brutal US backed one.

[Patroklos]

Your Chegrits,

Civilians are military targets in total war, and we did target them in the larger cities. The fact that we chose cities that were not the best for total body count means that the "bodies" were not the target.

-Pat

[Q Classic]

but you do realize the phrase "stole from japan" in reference to korea is extraordinarily offensive?

[Spec]

Is that how the cold war started? How did it start?

Spec.

[Q Classic]

well, it's not where it started, but it, along with east and west germany, was the frontline.

[Spec]

Originally posted by David Floyd
...after it became clear that Stalin would not live up to his agreements...

Is THAT the reason why the cold war started? How did it start?

Spec.

[chequita guevara]

Q³,
I thought Korea was a Chinese colony before the Japanese took it in the Sino-Japanese war of 1895. All my old maps show it bein part of the Chinese Empire.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Spec
Is THAT the reason why the cold war started? How did it start?

Spec.

Depending on which ideologue you listen to, the Cold War began when the Soviets blockaded Berlin or when the Allies began thinking about how to deal with the USSR after the war. (If you read George Kennan's work, he pretty much taks credit for starting the Cold War--he worked for the US state Department).

The reason it began is simple, communism and capitalism are incompatable systems. Each needs to destroy the other. The Cold War was inevitable since the Allies wanted to destroy the USSR, and the USSR's mere existence was a threat to the capitalists, as their own workers could always point to the USSR as an alternative model of organizing society (even after the truth about how bad things in the USSR were came out).

[Q Classic]

obviously, your maps were wrong.

korea has always been an independent nation from its founding almost 5000 years ago, except for a brief period while it was under mongol rule.

it did pay tribute to china for much of its later years, but in the earlier periods, it controlled almost all of manchuria as well as the peninsula.

korea was never a colony until the japanese raped it.

korea was never part of china. the people do not share a same culture.

[chequita guevara]

Lots of people don't share China's culture, that doesn't mean they weren't ruled by China. Take Vietnam for example, or Tibet.

[Q Classic]

of course. but korea was not a colony of china. entirely separate dynastic line. china had treaties with korea, as one would have with any other foreign nation, not a colony.

[chequita guevara]

Tributary state then?

[Q Classic]

it did pay tribute to china for much of its later years, but in the earlier periods, it controlled almost all of manchuria as well as the peninsula.

see above.