[Dilbert San Diego]

I’ve heard liberals say that we should have staged a demonstration of the power of the atomic bomb at some uninhabited location. And had we done so, the Japanese would have been shocked and awed by the demonstration, and would have surrendered, without seeing Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed.

Liberal comedian/commentator Jon Stewart stated that we should have dropped the first bomb offshore, then warned Japan that the next one would be dropped on them, if they didn’t surrender.

If I recall correctly, the Japanese didn’t surrender immediately after Hiroshima. They wanted to fight on. After Nagasaki, they started to re-think things.

[dfwgator]

But what about all the poor whales?

[dfwgator]

They only surrendered because the Emperor told them to.

And they almost got to the Emperor before he managed to go on the radio.

[zek157]

I've heard the same thing too. In response I always say we already firebombed so many cities that it was getting difficult to find a nuke target that had not been hit. Paper and wood construction made dozens of Dresden's possible. The entire north/south transportation system was gone along with the cities. Shipping was nonexistent. During the winter of 1945-46 the nation would have starved as the rice harvest would not have been transported to any remaining population centers.

Bottom line we burned more with “conventional” firebombs that with fusion.

As it was there was a military faction that attempted to stop Hirohito from surrendering and continue the war. It was stopped the night of Hirohito's announcement.

[zek157]

The Kyūjō Incident was an attempted military coup d'état in Japan at the end of the Second World War. It happened on the night of 14–15 August 1945, just prior to announcement of Japan's surrender to the Allies. The attempted coup was put into effect by the Staff Office of the Ministry of War of Japan and by many from the Imperial Guard of Japan in order to stop the move to surrender. The officers, in an attempt to block the decision to surrender to the Allies, killed Lieutenant General Takeshi Mori of the First Imperial Guards Division and attempted to counterfeit an order to the effect of occupying the Tokyo Imperial Palace. They attempted to place the Emperor under house arrest, using the 2nd Brigade Imperial Guard Infantry. They failed to persuade the Eastern District Army (Japan) and the high command of the Imperial Japanese Army to move forward with the action. Due to their failure to convince the remaining army to oust the Imperial House of Japan, they ultimately committed suicide. As a result, the communique of the intent for a Japanese surrender continued as planned.

[Fresh Wind]

I’ve heard liberals say that we should have staged a demonstration of the power of the atomic bomb at some uninhabited location. And had we done so, the Japanese would have been shocked and awed by the demonstration, and would have surrendered, without seeing Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed.

If we had had more bombs, that might have a worth a try. But we only had two, and we had to make them count. Thank God that two were enough.

[Leaning Right]

I’ve heard liberals say that we should have staged a demonstration of the power of the atomic bomb at some uninhabited location. And had we done so, the Japanese would have been shocked and awed by the demonstration, and would have surrendered, without seeing Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed.

I've read that argument, and I actually agree with it. Would Japan have surrendered after seeing an uninhabited island nuked? Almost certainly not, but it would have given the USA the moral high ground, and perhaps set an example of how nations should behave.

I also understand the arguments against it. There were only a limited number of A-bombs. And a dud A-bomb would have done nothing but strengthen Japanese resolve. And lastly, 1945 was not an ideal time to be concerned about any moral high ground.

[Fledermaus]

It’s true, they didn’t want to surrender after Hiroshima. Truman demanded an unconditional surrender and Hirihito came up with “conditions” so we said “FU” and dropped Little Boy on Nagasaki and told them the next one (we didn’t have a third one yet though) would be on Tokyo.