We did not drop the bomb on "Japan." We dropped it on a specific target in Japan.
I have argued elsewhere that dropping the bomb on a city was wrong. It should have been dropped on a military base, naval base, airfield, or some other military target.
Because bombs could not be dropped with pinpoint accuracy on German targets in WW II, the much-touted "precision bombing" of plants producing war materiel degenerated into indiscriminate "city busting." When the atomic bomb became available, no one thought twice about using it on a city. Yes, the aim point at Hiroshima was a steel mill, but the target was a city full of noncombatants: children, the elderly, people in hospitals, etc. Under the Just War Doctrine, they were not legitimate targets. But after our practice in Germany, no one even thought about such things. Instead of 1000 planes equaled one city, it became one bomb equaled one city.
One doesn't have to argue that the choice was between using the atomic bomb and not using it at all. The choice was between using it on a legitimate target, and using it on an illegitimate target. I argue we made the wrong choice.
Following the war, radar bombing became quite accurate. Because I was assigned to Wright Field and working on navigation equipment, I was assigned to take a one-week course in radar bombing at Mather AFB in California. We didn't drop any actual bombs, but the "drop" was scored by radar on the ground at the target site. My "drop" was scored as having landed within 100 yards of the target, the north west corner of an American Can Company plant on the West Coast. Not good enough for high explosive bombs, but entirely adequate for nukes. I still have the coin bank can the company awarded to any bombardier who came within a certain distance of the plant.
So nice to be an arm chair general with 20/20 hindsight isn’t it?. Hiroshima was a military target as it was an army base and communications center. I am sick and tired of hearing this nonsense. The Japanese launched a war they had ever intention of winning. They attacked us and took a gamble. They lost. Tough sh!t for them.
Then again...
Japan’s entire culture was so strongly
Behind this fight that it was obvious
The U.S. needed a Knockout Punch.
Military Targets?
Every square foot of Japan.
>I have argued elsewhere that dropping the bomb on a city was wrong. It should have been dropped on a military base, naval base, airfield, or some other military target.
It wouldn’t have achieved the necessary shock effect that destroying a city did.
Thank you for your perspective.
While I understand that innocents died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we have to balance that, with perhaps millions, on both sides, who would have died if we had been compelled to mount a conventional invasion of Japan to end the war. The fact is, it was a gamble, a calculated risk, taken by President Truman, to order the use of the bomb. History tells us that it brought the war to a swift conclusion.
I think that the Just War Doctrine must have gone out the window, as we were fighting opponents who didn’t believe in such doctrines.