Posted on 08/06/2020 1:52:10 PM PDT by Pelham
Arthur T. Hadley said recently that those for whom the use of the A-bomb was “wrong” seem to be implying “that it would have been better to allow thousands on thousands of American and Japanese infantrymen to die in honest hand-to-hand combat on the beaches than to drop those two bombs.” People holding such views, he notes, “do not come from the ranks of society that produce infantrymen or pilots.”
And there’s an eloquence problem: most of those with firsthand experience of the war at its worst were not elaborately educated people. Relatively inarticulate, most have remained silent about what they know. That is, few of those destined to be blown to pieces if the main Japanese islands had been invaded went on to become our most effective men of letters or impressive ethical theorists or professors of contemporary history or of international law. The testimony of experience has tended to come from rough diamonds--James Jones’ is an example--who went through the war as enlisted men in the infantry or the Marine Corps.
Anticipating objections from those without such experience, in his book "WWII" Jones carefully prepares for his chapter on the A-bombs by detailing the plans already in motion for the infantry assaults on the home islands of Kyushu (thirteen divisions scheduled to land in November 1945) and ultimately Honshu (sixteen divisions scheduled for March 1946). Planners of the invasion assumed that it would require a full year, to November 1946, for the Japanese to be sufficiently worn down by land-combat attrition to surrender. By that time, one million American casualties was the expected price. Jones observes that the forthcoming invasion of Kyushu “was well into its collecting and stockpiling stages before the war ended.”
An essay by Paul Fussell, a wounded combat veteran of the war in Europe, who in August of 1945 was expecting to be hurled into the coming invasion of the Japanese Home Islands.
“I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
“I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Who needs an A bomb?
A shipload of fertilizer will do it.
Not a joke — what I am seeing in Beirut is unbelievable. Reminiscent of 9/11 and Hiroshima.
I believe one million casualties for our side was the prediction for an invasion of Japan.
Why is Wuhan L4 still around? It should have been incinerated weeks ago for the damage it caused to CIVILIZATION. What the heck did we bomb Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Dresden for?
Who is running this crapshow, WHO?
Or we could have just blockaded and slowly starved millions to death without much risk to any Americans.
Not that I have any moral qualms about what we did, but there WAS an alternative besides dropping it on a city.
Might have taken a few years or a decade, but simply starving them with a blocade.
Something the world has forgotten, we invented the first
bomb...and then we used it. Don’t make us use it again!
I thought this was about Portland and Seattle
Beirut was indeed bad but not even remotely similar to even a small tactical nuke. .22 caliber compared to a 105mm howitzer isn’t even comparable.
Don’t know if there was a prediction for Japanese casualties, but it probably would have been in the TENS. OF. MILLIONS.
Nice but not that simple. There’s plenty of evidence to support what this author is arguing and there’s plenty of evidence to support alternative outcomes.
This article is reasonably good overview. There’s also an excellent in depth analysis (which I couldn’t find right now) on MacArthur’s view that the Japanese would have accepted peace but for the US refusal to consider a negotiated surrender. Little did he know (but Truman knew it) that the Japanese had contacted the British to discuss surrender.
Yes. My Dad was a chief on board CV 14 Ticonderoga. They were going to convert Navy personnel to infantry for the invasion. Being a big, stout guy, they had already told him he would be carrying a BAR. Not unreasonable to think he could have been one of the million. The Bomb is probably why I am here today. I think it was a net lifesaver for both sides, by a huge margin. It makes me swallow hard to think of what the alternative would have been.
That was maybe 2.5kT
Hiroshima was 15kT and Nagasaki was 21kT.
Tsar Bomba was 50+ MT.
We have ICBM’s with MIRVs of higher than Nagasaki threshold individually.
Would a blockade have taken away their war making capabilities? Wouldn’t they still have been able.to run their armaments factories? And send kamikaze pilots to attack the ships blockading the islands?
Thank God For The Bomb - Ozzy Osbourne
[Verse 1]
Like moths to a flame
Is man ever going to change?
Time’s seen untold aggression
And infliction of pain
If that’s the only thing that’s stopping war
[Chorus]
Then thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb [x3]
Nuke you, nuke you
[Verse 2]
War is just another game
Tailor made for the insane
But make a threat of their annihilation
And nobody wants to play
If that’s the only thing that keeps the peace
[Chorus]
[Verse 3]
Today was tomorrow, yesterday
It’s funny how time can slip away
The face of the doomsday clock
Has launched a thousand wars
As we near the final hour
Time is the only foe we have
When war is obsolete
I’ll thank God for war’s defeat
But any talk about hell freezing over
Is all said with tongue in cheek
Until the day the war drums beat no more
[Chorus]
I’ll thank God for the bomb [x3]
Nuke you, nuke you
Beirut was equal to 240 tons of TNT, or 1/4 kiloton, 10 times a MOAB. Tactical nukes range from 10 to several hundred kilotons.
If a tactical nuke had hit Beirut, there would be no cameras left to record it.
Yes.
It would have cut them off entirely from their fuel supply. You can't make war without fuel.
You'll find an excellent overview of that issue in this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Over-Leyte-Philippine-Destruction/dp/0451473612
Incidentally, much of the information on the Japanese planning for the defensive Battle of Leyte (including great stuff on the Japanese thinking of fighting to get better surrender terms and also on the ineffectiveness of the US blockade based on the Philippines) was either unearthed or first analyzed in the 40 years since the posted article was published.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.