War is hell, but the 200k dead from the a-bombs was certainly preferable to the
tens of millions who would have died if they hadn't been dropped and the Allies forced to go ahead with the planned land invasion of Japan. It's also highly likely that while the US was struggling with tackling Southern Japan, that the Soviets who had already invaded Japanese controlled Manchuria and Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands would have moved further into Northern Japan, and today we would have a communist North Japan much like North Korea. What the Japanese politician said was true and it's a shame he lost his job because of the ultra-nationalist backlash. The people that saw to his demise are the same ones who still deny that
Comfort Women existed, even though there are many who survive today.
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Operation Downfall was the overall Allied plan for the invasion of Japan near the end of World War II. The operation was cancelled when Japan surrendered following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Soviet Union's declaration of war against Japan.
Operation Downfall consisted of two parts — Operation Olympic and Operation Coronet. Set to begin in November 1945, Operation Olympic was intended to capture the southern third of the southernmost main Japanese island of Kyūshū, with the recently captured island of Okinawa to be used as a staging area. Later, in the spring of 1946, Operation Coronet was the planned invasion of the Kantō plain near Tokyo on the Japanese island of Honshū. Airbases on Kyūshū captured in Operation Olympic would allow land-based air support for Operation Coronet.
Japan's geography made this invasion plan obvious to the Japanese as well, who were able to accurately deduce the Allied invasion plans and adjust their defense plans accordingly. The Japanese planned an all-out defense of Kyūshū, with little left in reserve for any subsequent defense operations. Casualty predictions varied widely but were extremely high for both sides: depending on the degree to which Japanese civilians resisted the invasion, estimates ran into the millions for Allied casualties[1] and the tens of millions for Japanese casualties.
Unbeknownst to the Americans, the Soviets were preparing to follow up their invasions of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands with an invasion of the weakly defended island of Hokkaidō by the end of August, which would have put pressure on the Allies to do something sooner than November. On August 15, the Japanese agreed to surrender, rendering the whole question of invasion moot.[32]
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Read about the planned invasion here: Operation Downfall - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
