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A-Bomb
Ambrose
Member Posts: 3,222 ✭✭✭✭
79 years ago today, the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, starting a quick end to WWII. It is common for revisionist historians to claim that act was racist, unnecessary, and cruel. I have to wonder; if the Allies had invaded Japan, with the huge casualties on both sides that would have resulted, and it was later discovered that we had that bomb and did not use it; what would opinions be then?!
Comments
Should the A-bomb have been dropped? Well......let's just ask the people of China, Philippines, Burma, all of those little islands. What do you suppose they would say.
The Japanese would have fought to the death following their leader orders and no doubt taken way more American life's even one more would have been too many
They made the right choice at the time to save way more lives than lost
Was It wrong to take out major cities and the population of innocent people
Again, it ended the war, and Japan started it and refused to surrender
Desperate times called for desperate acts
All the lost family and friends and seeing what they were doing to captives
Yes it was the right decision
May all the innocent victims on both sides RIP
Firebombing in Japan was far more destructive than the A-Bomb. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were more about sending a message to Russia than anything else, as well an attempt to hasten surrender before Russia invaded Japan from the north and seized territory for communism.
I really get riled up when I hear folks talking about the poor citizens of the Gaza Strip being killed. We are talking about a war here, not a neighborhood argument. They don't want to talk about the firebombing of Dresden, the use of agent orange, the wipe out of entire villages in nam since the cong used women and kids as suicide bombers, and Hamas building tunnels and other facilities under hospitals, schools, and private houses offering innocent citizens as shields. When Israel left the strip years ago to have the citizens elect a government they chose Hamas. I'm not the first to say that war is hell.
Those bombs may have saved my Dad's life. He was in China at the time.
Probably rotated to Japan if there had been a need.
Ending a war always reduces the death and suffering.
Many of us on here are old geezers and our dads were WW2 vets.If the bomb had not been used and our dads had invaded Japan,many of us may not be here because dad would have never came home.
bubbyb, my dad was in WW2 and you are correct. B.T.W., I and not a geezer!
May l suggest a great book called ''Killing the Rising Sun'' by Bill 0'Reilly. ln that book Truman Was quoted to say he was prepared to kill ALL the Japanese people if need be to make them surrender. He going to do it thru chemical weapons. A large percentage of the gas was made and stored in Anniston Alabama. Japan was wise to surrender
Sadly ,given the Japanese mindset , it was necessary. It ended the wad without the need for tens of thousands of US casualties.
l
First dead don't talk but they do vote. Second US wouldn't be in a pickle with China if the Japos kept it. Also no Korea or Vietnam war.
A lot of countries have them now. In the not-so-distant future they will be used again. Not sure I would want to live in a big city right now.
When the subject comes up it's important to remember Japan had nuclear and biological weapons programs.
Occupying forces definitely did find signs of a Japanese nuclear program. Besides that, they were exchanging supplies and technology with Nazi Germany via cargo submarine. They had copies of the Panther (decided it would use too much steel,) ME262, and ME163. It is possible they had received nuclear secrets from the German program as well.
They had at least two means of delivering a weapon. There were a few Japanese subs which could launch three or two torpedo bombers at sea. Perhaps they could also have carried one nuclear bomber or rocket. They also had sent stratosphere-riding balloons with incendiary bombs as far as the suburbs of Detroit. Perhaps a larger balloon could have carried a bomb or perhaps the small ones could have spread biological weapons.
The 3-bomber subs were at sea when Japan surrendered. They jettisoned their planes into the sea and surrendered without them. We will never know where they were going or what sort of plane they were loaded with.
It was unclear at the time what the state of Japan's WMD programs was.
May I suggest all of Bill O'Reilly's books….I especially enjoyed them all. Don't get me started on JFK and Patton. Read it yourself.
I don't think we should have dropped the bombs, nor do I think we would have to invade.
When you look at the ships we had at the Ulithi anchorage, a simple blockade would have accomplished the task of ending the war. Japan has no natural resources, thus relying completely on imports for survival. They had virtually no Navy or Air power left and soon would have ran out of fuel for those entities. The death toll may have been higher on the island than caused by the A bombs however, as starvation and incendiaries could have been used with great effect. I also don't believe the war would have gone on much longer and the losses to our military would not have continued.
I believe this approach should have been tried first. If the Japanese would then not surrender, warn them of total annihilation and follow through.
Hind sight
B17-P51 - A siege at the sea? Basically starve them "in". That would've been a long wait and lots of US boats. I wonder if the body count would've been higher or the same? You know because the Japos wouldn't lay down.
I would think the bombs were dropped as much to stop Stalin from further land grabs as to get the Japanese to surrender.
Remember, Truman stated that we would only accept Unconditional Surrender until it became apparent that Japan would fight on without conditions. The longer Japan was in the war, the more of Mongolia, the Kurils, Korea, even China itself would under Soviet Control.
Japan was no longer a threat outside of areas it controlled. A little punishment for their stupid war was good for the folks at home, and a little nuclear holocaust was good to keep Uncle Joe thinking.
Brad Steele
Well summarized, Don! The Cold War was already spooling up before WWII even ended, and with Russia poised to enter the Pacific fight after Yalta, the U.S. wanted to minimize the territory that would eventually be under communist occupation and control.
Folks focus on the Japanese casualties from the A-bombs. However, can you imagine the atrocities and casualties that the Russians would have inflicted on the Japanese people if they had invaded and swept down from the North? We can only estimate, but pressing the surrender via the bombs may likely have been the more humane path for the Japanese in the end.
As posted the huge fire bombing raids were a lot worse
At least 20,000 American lives were saved by not having to invade Japan. The whiners always forget the several million savage acts created by the Japs on civilians and POWs in China, and elsewhere. They were far worse than the Nazis.
My dad was in he Army Air Corps in China when the bomb was dropped. He probably would have been killed in the invasion of Japan.
The Japanese believed in The Warrior's Code, Bushido. Bushido was the Way of the Samurai and it went back a thousand years. In the mind of the Japanese soldier or pilot, every one of them was Samurai and the greatest end they could have was to die for the Emperor in battle. It was unthinkable to surrender. Suicide was far, far better than surrender.
You have an entire country, from 80-year-old geezers down to little 10 year old kids that will refuse to surrender.
It is a strong possibility that my younger brother would not exist had we not dropped Fat Man and Little Boy. Thank God the buck stopped on Harry's desk.