FJP Veale’s Advance to Barbarism, quote extensively in the essay Hal quotes, is described on Amazon.com as: “Perhaps the most devasting of all the revisionist debunking of the
International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg and the other post-WWII
trials.” This doesn’t immediately discredit the analysis, but should raise questions about it.
More
importantly, there does not appear to be much evidence (if any) for
Pavlik’s or Veale’s claim. The Japanese thought that the Pearl Harbor
attack could keep the US away from the Pacific while they built their
empire by taking from the US, French and British. I could go on, but
this should begin to make clear that Pavlik’s argument is flawed
because his facts are.
Also you can check the Wall Street Journal‘s editorial today for a better perspective on why the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki may have been the right idea.
