Posted on 08/06/2025 8:24:29 AM PDT by whyilovetexas111
Dad was in the Philippines with the SeaBees, building a huge armor and motor repair depot for the expected invasion of Japan. He was literally on his way to Okinawa with his unit to do something similar, when the war ended.
Yes, that’s obvious!
But, paradoxically, even Japanese are a lot better off. They should thank us for the bombs!
Soviets had no chance. They had no sealift capacity. You need ships. Big ones configured for sealift. This is still true today. Airlift will not bring in enough heavy gear, supplies, etc.
It took the Emperor to order surrender. Even then some of the Imperial Army tried to stage a coup.
Correct. And Japanese historians such as Asada have confirmed we were WAY WAY LOW in our estimates of casualties, as they had moved an entirely new division into the southern island alone.
My father was on a minesweeper that was going to be sweeping mines out of Tokyo harbor. He said that, had the bombs not been dropped, he would not have made it back alive.
You’re right.
Nagasaki and Hiroshima are thriving cities today.
My Dad was serving on an escort carrier in the Pacific at the end of the war. Prime target for kamikazes.
You’re right.
Operation Downfall: What If The US NEVER Dropped The Atomic Bomb & Invaded Japan? | History Undone
Summary: The A-bombs saved lives not just in the Allied countries, not just Japan, but in many asian countries that were Japanese occupied and starving. Literal cannibalism was starting to break out.
Maybe the Russians would have made out better - that's about it.
My Dad was serving on an escort carrier in the Pacific at the end of the war. Prime target for kamikazes.
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That’s right. And they had more kamikazes ready for that than they had used before.
One of the first things Gen. MacArther ordered after the Japanese surrender is that all propellers be removed from all the Japanese planes.
Well, you have to consider that they probably didn’t believe initial reports, and found even secondary confirmations to be a bit fantastic. When the reality of Hiroshima is finally hitting home, Nagasaki is hit.
Beyond the shock of those, not knowing how many more would come, or where?
It was a very good thing they did not know that there was only one remaining core available, and no more after that for quite some time.
“No bomb. We’ll agree to a ceasefire with Japan. They’ll withdraw from some territories but otherwise they would have their empire somewhat intact. “
And that would have satisfied who??
Not China, not Korea, not Russia, not any part of Indo-China Japan was allowed to keep, not Taiwan, and likely not the Philippines.
Your “solution” would have merely set up East Asia for another Asia-wide war.
My Dad was a non-combatant (ordnance supply and maintenance) in New Guinea and the Philippines. Even so, he might not have survived an invasion of Japan.
The soviets just crushed the japs in manchuria and then invaded and occupied the kuril islands and sakhalin island. They would have invaded hokkaido , the northern island of japan , but Truman threatened to use A-bomb on russkies if they did. I think between our unrestricted submarine warfare against japan, firebombing of population centers and the soviet attacks, we could have waited until the buzzards stopped cleaning up the dead and occupied a largely empty , and very quiet japan.
Maybe the Russians would have made out better - that’s about it.
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You know, that’s right!
That’s probably why there has been such an outrage in the media.
The media were in cahoots with Stalin, and are still enamored in communism, so they still spread the communist propaganda about the bomb horrors.
You’re right. Good post.
War was hell for civilians in Asia in WWII. It was hell for civilians for what the Japanese did in China, what they were always doing in Korea, what they did in Southeast Asia. It was hell for civilians in Japan before the atomic bombs were dropped, with the allied fire bombing. The civilians casualties of the U.S. fire bombing of Tokyo exceeded the casualties of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. War is hell, not just for the soldiers, but for civilians as well.
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