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 theres 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.
Fred Kirby - Atomic Power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIO-oa39WAo
Oh, we could have continued to bomb them at will, they had no ability to resist. We could also have blockaded with subs or from outside the range of most of their aircraft.
But the total number of Japanese who died would have been much higher, and the Soviets would have gotten a much larger foothold in asia
The Japanese were hot on the trail of an atom bomb too. Delaying would have been disastrous. Not to mention the
enormous cost to our economy of decades of blockade.
Besides, the anti-bomb people have already moved on: they now claim the war was practically over before the bombs were dropped (and they claim our generals knew it!), and they didn't stop the war anyway.
Yeah. Revisionists...
If not for the A-Bomb, I may have never been born, my dad was to be a part of that invasion force.
Thank God for the Atom Bomb!
Todays revisionist pukes can go hump a hill. Retards.
Well, the Japanese Emperor thought he’d ended the war because of the bomb. But I guess some history professor knows more about it.
Japanese peace feelers were a joke. This professor of history engages in wishful thinking. Maybe he should look over the records that remain of the discussion by the Japanese Cabinet at the time the bombs were dropped. The “peace faction” was in serious jeopardy of being assassinated by the army if they had been exposed.
I used to think that blockade was an alternative. But the digger I deep into the actual conditions of that time the more I’ve come to believe that the bombs, horrible as they were, were necessary.
God help us all. What a planet.
Bump
Who was going to finance the million men to enforce the year long blockade? We did, after all have a very long supply line. It costs lots to deploy and army and navy that size.
Would our “allies” the Russians stay put?
Does not sound practical.
The planning for the landing assumed that the 1st Mar Div would not exist after D+10...
Country would not have tolerated the time needed for a blockade to be effective. Had Japan refused to capitulate the Soviets would have extended their land offensive in Manchuria and possibly attempted an invasion of Hokkaido. And my uncle had just completed basic and infantry training and was on a train to San Francisco with troops who would board transports for the Philippines to prepare for the assault on Kyushu. Till the day he died he celebrated Aug 6.
Yeah. A funny kind of “blockade” where thousands of Allied soldiers and sailors were being killed each week. They can save me the phony moral posturing. The revisionists are arrogant moral and physical cowards. I’m sure they also decry the excesses of the rough men in blue who enable them to sleep peacefully at night. The ease with which they condemn our sailors and soldiers to death are sickening. Moral frauds. They have no moral superiority. Quite the opposite.
They had thousands of kamikazis to drop on ships. Lotsa sailors would have died.
My Dad’s infantry battalion was in conquered Germany and was preparing for movement to the Pacific theater.
I’m here because of the Bomb. No regrets, and the Pope & Japanese can take their guilt-a-rama elsewhere.
My Grandfather was a Corporal in the 6th Marine Division in the Pacific during WWII. He would have had to go to Japan if not for Truman dropping the A-bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You’ll never hear me complain about us dropping the A-bomb on Japan.
The Japanese had thousands of suicide boats ready to blow up U.S. ships in Japanese coastal waters.
I always asked World War II veterans, including vets who fought against the Japanese, if they approved Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. I got the same response 100% of the time, yes. One Marine Corps WWII combat veteran told me in 1980 “If not for the atom bomb we would still be fighting the Japanese today.”
“I believe one million casualties for our side was the prediction for an invasion of Japan.”
Yes, and whatever the casualties for American troops, multiply that several fold for the number of Japanese who would have died, including possibly millions of civilians, as the Japanese high command would have seen to it that the civilians be given light weapons for home island defense.
“Not a joke what I am seeing in Beirut is unbelievable. Reminiscent of 9/11 and Hiroshima.”
Texas City, Texas 1947. A ship filled with ammonium nitrate exploded just like what happened in Beirut.
Man, the Bataan march and labor camp was hell on earth. So many things about WWII, like Bataan, the murderous amphibious landings, Normandy, the sailors eaten by sharks, the attrition/deaths of the air war over Germany, etc, just makes me want to bite nails into when I see the NFL/NBA/MLB national anthem kneelers.
So much sacrifice has been poured out for us AND them. There is no excuse for them to be so blissfully ignorant about what has been done for them. I know they have walked a different path that I do not understand, but you want to talk about being offended . . . by God I am offended to the bottom of my soul when they kneel. Thousands upon thousands laid down their lives for the freedom of expression they enjoy. How does one kneel when you think about the magnitude of sacrifice that has gone before them??????????!!!!!!!!!!!
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