I am in the camp that blames FDR for this unconditional surrender notion and believe his surprise announcement at Casablanca resulted in the unnecessary deaths of millions of people and made the use of two atomic weapons inevitable. Great men at the time of that little act of self aggrandizement thought the worst of it and predicted many would die as a result. Churchill, in order to preserve the appearance of Allied unity, grudgingly went along with it – after the fact – and it proved to be poor judgment. Stalin thought FDR a madman for it.
Truman could have reversed FDR’s foolishness, but for the political price he thought he would have to pay to do so. While Nagasaki “accomplished nothing” neither did the firebombing of Tokyo, the bombing of Dresden, nor Sherman’s march to the sea. All were employed in a desperate effort to end bloody wars. Had Japan not raped Nanking and bombed Pearl Harbor, those babies in their cribs and Japanese Christians would have been spared. Who are you to judge through the lens of retrospect, accusing only American efforts, any unconditional force used to bring that war to an end? Nobody at the time had all the facts you believe you have.
The NappyOne
True....but I don't subscribe the the theory of collective guilt e.g. a baby in a crib is just a baby in the crib. The Japanese Christians in Nagasaki were always a key segement of the peace/anti-militarist sentiment in Japan. What useful point was served by killing thousands of them?
Of course, deaths of innocents are inevitable in war but this was different. The dropping of the bombs represented INTENTIONAL killing of civilians to promote terror thus violating all the ancient rules of war as Japan had done at Nanking.
As to your other point, plenty of high placed Americans at the time thought that the dropping of the bombs was senseless (and were not afraid to say so before the fact) including Eisenhower and George Marshall. In his meeting with a Truman staff member at the time, Ike said "the Japanese were ready to surrender and it was not necessary to hit them with that awful weapon." I agree entirely with your general point about unconditional surrender. Truman could have reversed the policy and, in fact, partially, but belatedly, did so in agreeing to keep the emperor.
Nagasaki accomplished the realization by the Japanese government that they could no longer insist on their list of unacceptable conditions for surrender.
The traditional claim that Japan refused to surrender after Hiroshima is not true. The claim that the bombing of nagasaki was gratuitous is not true.
neither did the firebombing of Tokyo,
The firebombing of Tokyo is what started the Japanese government discussing the topic of surrender "with honor" in the first place.
the bombing of Dresden,
While the level of carnage that actually occurred at Dresden was completely unforeseen, the original stated objective of the Dresden bombing did accomplish its goal: to disrupt the Nazis' efforts to reinforce their Eastern Front and prevent the Soviet Belorussian Front and Ukrainian Front from linking up.
nor Sherman’s march to the sea.
The purpose of the March was twofold: (1) to demonstrate to the people of the Confederacy that Union armies could operate at will in their heartland and that their own armed forces could not defend them and (2) to isolate Lee from Johnston. Both missions accomplished.
Good points,, and also many actions throughout the War contributed almost nothing to the war except to assure the continuation of British and French colonies after the war. Countless died to make sure the colonial possessions remained in the fold.
Most of the operations in the Mediterranean were designed to protect British possessions in the middle east. Same for most of the actions in SE Asia.
American airmen in India observed that the English seemed more interested in maintaining the colonial order there, than in taking actions that might free india, even if it would help the war effort.
Much of late WWII was actually the battle to re-establish the pre-war colonies in Indochina, China, the middle east, and Africa.
Europe created decades more misery and millions more dead AFTER WWII because they wanted to continue their dictatorships around the world.
If we hadn’t dropped Fat Man and Little Boy on Japan, Japan would have been divided just like Korea, and we would have fought in a Japanese Civil War against the Communists, a war that would have made the Korean Conflict look like a walk in the park.