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Originally Posted by Ryzorian
The US calculated 1.1 million American dead and 4 to 6 million Japanese dead for the invasion of the Japanese main islands, set to begin in 1946. That was a conservative estimate based on casualties from Okinawa. Truman wanted to try to avoid that, and yet still force Japan to surrender, that was one of the decideing factors to drop the bombs.
They required undamaged cities to show the destructive power of these weapons, the US also wanted to demonstrate the willingness to utilize such weapons to win, if that's what it took to convince Japan about it's hopless situation. ( That's why the second blast).
In the end it was a numbers game, 300,000 Japanese dead verse 1,100,000 American and 4,000,000 to 6,000,000 Japanese dead. It's an ugly choice, wich would you make?
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The US Army did not require "undamaged cities", on which to drop the bombs as by late 1945 there were no such thing in Japan. Hiroshima was not even an intended target, the bomb was dropped there only because the primary target was covered by clouds. No one was entirely sure the bombs would even work, which is why two were loaded onto planes almost simultaneously.
The dropping of the bombs remains a sore point among Japanese, particularly those who were young during the war, or who were born after it. Over the years Japanese history books have graphically described the dropping of the atomic bombs and the firebombing of Tokyo, while glossing over Japan's own acts during the war. To some Japanese it is as though the world were at peace in 1945 and America decided all at once to bomb Japan into oblivion. These people are the ones who protest most vocally each August, and who demand apologies from America for the dropping of the bombs.
Was the dropping of the bombs necessary? Absolutely. Why? For several reasons. First, the Japanese were committed to die rather than to surrender, which was proven at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Being committed to die is one thing, but the process of killing was costly, both to the Japanese and the American soldiers charged with the job. Every yard of land was fiercely contested, and paid for with blood. Second, there was the Soviet Union, which was pushing quickly toward Japan with an eye on adding it as a satellite nation. The Soviets were still angry Japan's defeat of the Russian Navy a few decades earlier. The first shots in the soon-to-come Cold War were already being fired, and the allies did not want the Soviet Union's influence to expand any further than it already had. And yet another reason is that America wanted to be the first to develop atomic weapons and produce them. Scientists before the war knew that it was possible to make an atomic bomb, Hitler had tried, but his nuclear facilities were destroyed before any serious development took place.
Japan had no qualms about weapons of mass destruction, and they worked hard to develop chemical and biological weapons. For those of you who are unaware, chemical weapons
are far more destructive and long-lasting than nuclear weapons. Japan used such weapons during the war, and it is estimated that Japan's chemical/biological weapons killed as many as 400,000 people. Had Japan had atomic weapons at their disposal during the war, they would used them without a second thought.
Ironically enough, one of Japan's largest poison gas factories was built on Onukushima in Hiroshima prefecture. Though Japan was a signatory to the 1925 Geneva Protocol which outlawed the production of chemical/germ weapons, Japan began construction on the factory in 1928.
Before I hear any more about the atomic bombs, I would love to hear Japan admit to their own acts of mass-murder in the war, and apologize for them.