Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
Last thing's first. They were training to become soldiers, and you are right, they didn't have weapons. That's why they were sharpening bamboo sticks to uses as spears.
Invasion: You can't simply divide the estimate number of deaths over number of days you invade. In an invasion you don't have the same death toll on day 1 as you do on day 15. On D-Day 10,000 soldiers (out of an invasion of 150,000) were killed in just a few hours. The invading force would have been much higher, and so would have the casualties on both sides. Keeping the random number 3 months (though I doubt they planned on it taking that long) I would say half of the deaths would have occurred within the first 1/4 of that time period. That's 3 weeks and 250,000 deaths. Still higher than Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Good military leaders don't get into situations where "the death tolls increase and increase and increase for NO REASON". Switching strategies mid-stream ALWAYS leads to higher death tolls, so you have to engage in a winnable plan. That's just military strategy.
So I am afraid that option wouldn't have been on the table very long.
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Last thing's first as well... I see, so that's the reason why Bush is still in Iraq? hmmm, that makes sense, don't change to a better plan because its guranteed to cost you more deaths than the plan you are on now...?????
You're not getting the point i'm trying to make. This idea was off the top of my head in a couple of seconds... With careful planning, and real strategy, an A-bomb could have been a last resort... Just like it is now... Please, tell me, why doesn't Bush use them right now? Civilians are attacking american soldiers... oh sorry, civilians fighting back/attacking = soldiers... i forgot...
Joint Chiefs of Staff in April made a study saying a 90-day (the 3 months i was talking about) Olympic campaign would cost 456,000 casualties (the rougly 500,000 we've been talking about)
In a conference with President Truman on June 18, Marshall, taking the Battle of Luzon as the best model for Olympic, thought the Americans would suffer 31,000 casualties in the first 30 days (and ultimately 20% of Japanese casualties, which implied a total of 70,000 casualties).
Anyway, i'm gonna stop here because this isn't getting anywhere... The point that you're not seing is Truman made a mistake... A HUGE mistake that even officials in America called it a cowerdly act to save american lives and to show off power when the japanese were on the brink of defeat anyway!!!
Here's a quote from an american!!!!
"In 1945 Secretary of War Stimson, visiting my headquarters in Germany, informed me that our government was preparing to drop an atomic bomb on Japan. I was one of those who felt that there were a number of cogent reasons to question the wisdom of such an act. During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives."