My father was on Mindanao in the Philippines when the war ended. In addition to bottling up the remnants of the Japanese forces on the island, his 31st Infantry Division (”Dixie”) was gearing up as part of the planned invasion of the Japanese homeland. Estimates of U.S. losses alone were 1-2 million. He was not counting on coming home. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed that, and I’m here today because of that decision.
God bless the memory of Brigadier General Paul Tibbets.
My father also had trained for the invasion of Japan. He told me the bomb probably save his life.
Was going through my fathers v mail during the war. We compiled all of them into two volumes. The letters in June and July were filled with comments preparing his parents and girlfriend (later to be my mom). Reassuring them that before he would be sent to the Pacific he would probably get a furlough since he had been overseas since Nov of ‘42.
Unexamined by historians, is what the American attitude would have been regarding the loss of 2 million of our sons, husbands, and fathers.
I think we would have wound up applying the "Carthage option" to Japan: total genocide.
Does anyone here seriously disagree?
The Japanese were not about to surrender. They were ready for an invasion. They had built many kamikaze planes, made of wood and fabric and thus the proximity fuses wouldn’t detect them. They had the entire population trained to use spears. Their motto was “100 million souls for the Emperor.” They meant it. The bombs gave Hirohito an acceptable excuse to surrender. Even then a palace revolt nearly upended the surrender. Thank God for the Atomic Bomb.