"Ended WWII and Changed the World" Topic

An atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroyed the city, killing 140,000 people. A second bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II and the country's nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.

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Paul Fussell's famous essay, "Thank God for the Atom Bomb."

I had a colleague once who was a combat correspondent in the USMC during WW2 and he survive the hell of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Je said he recalled a company muster and the CO gave a speech about the upcoming invasion of Japan. The officer said it would be tough, look at the man to your left and right -- chances are, they aren't coming back. He thought, hey, I'm somebody else's right and left guy! Then they heard some superbomb forced the Japanese to surrender and he said at that moment he knew he would live. He would say, "Thank God for Harry S Truman and the Atom Bomb."

There is also the hard fact that thousands of Japanese civilians were dying every day from starvation and malnutrition related illnesses. It's impossible to know the full extent*, but the verified cases indicate a catastrophic situation. Had the Allies paused bombing raids and delayed the invasion of the mainland there still would have been a massive amount of death and suffering for the Japanese. It took the Allied occupation forces the better part of a year to stabilize and reverse the situation, and that was with the logistical framework in place to support the largest seaborne invasion in history.

*rural areas were imprecisely or under-recorded, bombing raids obscured cause of death in many cases, etc.

Ask any of the Allied POWs who were still alive in 1945 about the use of the A bomb. Any other outcome they would all have been massacred by their captives.

I think the notion that starvation was going to force the Japanese to surrender, is incorrect. The Japanese were already preparing to throw their civilians into combat armed with spears, so I doubt they were concerned about the ones who died of starvation. The military would have made sure that the 'important' people, like the government, the military, the factory workers , and the farmers got enough to eat. Everyone else, the old, the very young, women, could starve or survive on their own. Eventually Japan would have reached a population that they could sustain and the war would have gone on. An invasion, or the Bomb were the only things that were going to end it.

In August, 19145, the Air Force command in the Pacific issued an order reprioritizing strategic targets, and the Japanese railroad system was moved right to the top of the list. It was already carrying a heavier-than-designed load, because of the wholesale destruction of Japanese shipping, but the Allies had learned from the successful destruction of the German rail network, and were specifically trying to eliminate the nation's transportation capabilities. That would have been pretty catastrophic, and it's effects hard to control.

Scott, you misconstrue my meaning. I was arguing that the bomb saved lives. Every day the Japanese delayed surrendering meant thousands died without the Allies having to fire a shot.

After all the rhetoric, etc. dropping the A-bombs was the right thing to do. Regardless, of what some of the liberals, left and many intellectual academics, etc. say. They don't understand that after all the losses in the past 5 years of war. The bombs had to be used to kill some to save many, many, more. A horrific situation that any leaders can face.

Some say the estimates of Allied losses, mostly US, if the Japan mainland was invaded. The numbers are much too high, for whatever reasons. E.g. 1 million vs. 100,000 or 10,000 or ? But IMO at this point any more Allied loses would be too many at this late date of the war.

+1 Legion 4.

double mega plus 1 to Legion 4.