We need that ‘not this shit again, guy.
including civilians, more people died in the battle for Okinawa
Everything you need to know about the dropping of the atomic bomb can be found in Richard Frank’s book, “Downfall.” He had access to Japanese, as well as American, archives & memoirs as well as the post-war recollections of Emperor Hirohito.
*Casualty projections were all over the map, from 100,000 to 1 million for the US, up to 10 m for the Japanese.
*Ketsu-Go, the Japanese plan for national suicide, was already being put in place and civilians given what equipment there was and training as to how to become bushido jihadist suicide bombers. They were totally down with it, as seen in the suicide bomber #s on Okinawa. The plan for “one man, one ship” exchange was fully in place. Suicide torpedoes were already being built.
*Through Okinawa, the number of Japanese troops who surrendered, despite obvious evidence their units were destroyed and they had no hope of winning, was almost ZERO. On Iwo Jima, fewer than 2,000 prisoners (almost all wounded) were taken out of a garrison of 20,000. There was no evidence, anywhere, that the Japanese civilians on Hokkaido or any other island would actually surrender.
*Here’s the amazing thing about the numbers: everything Truman saw was really, really LOW. He never was briefed on total air, infantry, support, naval casualties, or those of just ordinary but predictable accidents. Thus he decided on the LOWER estimates.
*As late as 2 days after the Hiroshima bomb, Japanese council records show that the council was split on whether to accept the Potsdam Agreement (it took unanimous consent to do anything).
*The government sent Dr. Nishina to Hiroshima to confirm it was an atomic bomb. When he did, he was asked, “How long til we can get one?”
*The Soviets entering the war was important for two reasons: First, it ended the fantasy that Japan could reinforce the home islands with China-based troops, and second, it ended any hope that the Japanese could get the Russkies to pressure us to accept anything less than “unconditional surender.”
*Finally, the decision to retain the emperor ran COUNTER to all US public opinion polls. It was taken because MacArthur and Nimitz thought it would be easier to disarm and control the civilians if the emperor went along with the plan.
*Even after Hirohito decided (following the Nagasaki bomb) to surrender, groups of “dead-enders” tried to assaswinate him and put a harder line guy in.
The bombing saved many, many JAPANESE lives.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is profoundly ignorant of history, in particular the history of the battle of Okinawa, and conditions in Japan at the time.
I heard that Hiroshima and Nagasaki had two of the largest Christian populations in Japan. Don’t know if it’s true.
BS!
More leftist historical revisionism...
Speaking as someone who was 12 years old when the bombs were used, there was nothing but national joy and elation that a zillion of those slant-eyed bastards were wiped out...
We (Mom, brother, and I) felt, for the very first time, that we'd see Dad come home alive...
He had been a Marine since February 1942...
Not a bad quick factual recounting of the event. Something rarely seen on these type articles, no revisionist BS.
It saved my Pop’s life.
After the Rape of Nanjing, no one should care one fkng bit about Japanese civilians ...
The combined casualty count from the 2 bombs ( about 225,000 people mol) was NOT the greatest “atrocity” in WW2.
It gets more attention because it was the first use of a new technology to kill a large number of people all at once in seconds, instead of the slower process of firebombing them,mass gravity bombing them, blowing dikes and flooding flooding them, lining them up beside pits and running marathon executions, gassing them in chambers, raping torturing and bayonetting them ( a Japanese specialty), slow death by exposure and starvation in prison camps and forced labor camps ( 70,000 died fast at Nagasaki, 30,000 european civilians died slowly in Dutch East Indies prison camps and up to 800,000 Koreans forcibly sent to labor in Japanese mines and factories also died slowly)
I didn’t see China today, which had 20-35 million people killed by Japan, choosing 6 August to bring up accusations on Russia ….
Btw, the Japanese military council did NOT surrender after Hiroshima.
Only after Nagasaki.
It should be interesting to note that after the two A-bombs were dropped the US continued to pound Japan with conventional bombs till the surrender.
The Japanese government brought what happened to the Japanese people at Nagasaki and Hiroshima on themselves when they decided to cowardly sneak attack Pearl Harbor early on a Sunday morning.
THAT is all anyone needs to know.
The damage to Hiroshima was limited compared to the total destruction of Tokyo and I think Yokahama as well
Had the Germans or Japanese developed the bomb first, there would have been no hesitation to use them on London, Sidney, New York, San Francisco or anywhere else they could target.
But for the bombs, my dad would have moved from the European campaign to the invasion of Japan, which would have put my own existence in jeopardy. So yes, I see no problem with the bombs.
I mean, they started it at Pearl Harbor. We finished it, and it was not easy.
The Japanese invaded China.
Everything else is moot.
So that was the cause of the noise I heard back then....
The Japanese started the war and we ended it.