65 years ago today, the city of Nagasaki became the second (and so far the last) target of an atomic weapon.
Japan surrendered six days later.
I wrote about this a year ago. I think that those who believe that Japan would have folded without an invasion are wrong. Operation Downfall would have cost millions of lives, lives which were spared when the reality that one airplane could destroy an entire city sank into the Japanese leadership.
I also believe that if atomic weapons had not been used then, they would have been used later, quite possibly during a confrontation between the Americans and the Soviets, possibly during a confrontation when both sides were so armed. Without the two atomic bombings of Japan, the damage and devastation of such weapons would have been a theory and, in the heat of a conflict, the "oh, it won't be so bad" theorists would have prevailed and millions would have died.
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5 comments:
I agree completely with your theory and viewpoint. One of the American Admirals who prosecuted the war said (in all seriousness), "When we get done, Japanese will only be spoken in Hell!"
Whether they want to admit or not, the Bomb actually saved them, or at least that's my view...
All The Best,
Frank W. James
Hi Frank, nice to see you stop by.
It's hard to be sure that the Japanese wouldn't have surrendered without an invasion, but it's hard for me to believe. My father had just completed his training in B-29s when the war ended. If it had gone on a few more months, he probably would have been flying missions over Japan.
Dreadful a thing as it was, it may have saved a lot of lives, including quite a few of us who hadn't yet been born.
Thanks for that, really, too many of us on the left only think about this issue with their hearts, not their brains.
My dad, a WW2 Marine was on the ships heading for the invasion of Japan.
nuff said
and
The two bombs ended the war, the Japanses were fanatics (ask the Chinese who had millions of their people massacared by the Japanese)
I'm not saying I'm glad we dropped it, but that it had to be done...
also we would have dropped it on the Germans but they surrendered...
FDR supposedly asked if the bomb was available when the Battle of the Bulge began. But the 509th had just been formed and they were in no way ready to go.
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