Posted on 08/06/2024 8:47:24 AM PDT by NorthMountain
Today is August 6, 2024.
December 7, 1941:
August 6, 1945
Lest we forget.
The loss of life from these missions was well in excess of the two nuclear weapons dropped.
Accompanying the conventional firebombing missions were many, many, clear warnings of another, unconventional weapon that was to be much more horrific than the firebombing.
Japan ignored all this; at least the decision-makers did.
Reading the posts back then I got the unmistakeable impression that the US commanders were bending themselves into a pretzel, using every diplomatic channel, to try to convince Japan to surrender. But nothing would convince them.
Shock and Awe. Seeing the nuclear blasts snapped them out of whatever trance they were in.
It absolutely ended the war abruptly. It saved several millions of lives. No doubt.
Moreover, the MAD philosophy adopted by everyone afterward has undoubtedly saved billions of lives.
Japanese Intransigence Provoked the Atomic Bombs
The Atomic Bombs: The Japs Had It Coming
No Apology for Japanese Intransigence
The Kokutai principle played a decisive role for Japanese surrender in August 1945. The Japanese lived within a spiritual/political fabric of Emperor, citizen, land, Bushido, ancestral spirits, government, and Shinto religion. Subjected to this authority, average citizens forfeited individuality to a collective soul defining Japan and awaited the Empire’s decrees. With such national unity committed to Total War beneath the slogan of the “honorable sacrifice of 20 million Japanese lives” the atomic bombs were no longer indiscriminate or disproportional.
By January 1944 Hirohito foresaw inevitable defeat and appointed a Peace Faction. However, his government conducted political kabuki through twenty months of continuous defeats, firebombing of over 60 cities, looming starvation, and 1.3 million additional Japanese deaths.
As the political factions reached impasse, the atomic bombs allowed Hirohito to speak the “Voice of the Crane” in the sweltering palace bunker. The bombs became a force of nature; equivalent to earthquakes or typhoons against which even a god/king was impotent. Only Imperial submission to such a catastrophe could match the disgrace of surrender following 2,600 years of martial invincibility.
Only Hirohito could submit because he held the heaven created Imperial throne. He would bear the unbearable, conclude the war, and transform the nation. The War and Peace Factions could then relent, and no one would lose face. All remained within the fabric of Japanese from all eras who had sacrificed for Emperor and Empire. Only then did Japan contact Swiss and Swedish foreign offices to commence the negotiations leading to surrender.
Partial bibliography:
Hell to Pay, D. M. Giangreco
Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, David Bergamni Target Tokyo: The Story of the Sorge Spy Ring, Gordon Prange
The Secret Surrender, Allen Dulles
Hirohito, Edward Behr
A quote by film director Akira Kurosawa illustrates the transformation of that generation of Japanese people, who before were resigned to the slogan “Honorable Death of a Hundred Million”.
“When I walked the same route back to my home (after the Emperor’s broadcast), the scene was entirely different. The people in the shopping street were bustling about with cheerful faces as if preparing for a festival the next day. If the Emperor had made such a call (to follow the above slogan) those people would have done what they were told and died. And probably I would have done likewise. The Japanese see self-assertion as immoral and self-sacrifice as the sensible course to take in life. We were accustomed to this teaching and had never thought to question it….In wartime we were like deaf-mutes.”
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, Herbert P. Bix
This guy:
Only makes sense in the context of post-war Japan.
There's no problem with a plutonium gun bomb. In fact that's how the Thin Man bomb was designed.
The problem wasn't the design, the problem was that they had done their test measurements (which led to the design) using minute amounts of high-purity Pu-239 produced by Oak Ridge's cyclotrons. But to get the mass they needed for the bomb, they had to use plutonium made in the atomic reactors in Washington.
The problem with the reactor plutonium was it had a higher concentration of Pu-240 contamination than the Oak Ridge plutonium. And Pu-240 has a much higher rate of spontaneous fission than Pu-239, meaning it would have initiated the reaction before the two fissile masses had come together, producing a fizzle rather than a bang.
They could have overcome this with by increasing the speed of the gun but they already were at he pressure limits of the gun's barrel so the only way to increase velocity would have been with a longer barrel. But to get the velocity they needed the barrel would have been longer than could be transported by any bomber they then had, which left the implosion bomb, which was less fussy about Pu-240 levels, as the only alternative.
After Hirohito's surrender recording was made, mid-level officers in Tokyo got wind of it and staged a coup d'etat that was barely suppressed.
Not just 10s of thousands of US soldiers' and Marines' lives were saved by Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but millions of starving East Asians, including Japanese.
The notion that this was done to wave a saber at the Soviet Union is revisionist hogwash. That was mentioned in exactly 1 meeting in the many held to decide about the final conduct of the war.
Maybe the internal face-saving was important, but I still think the biggest factor is that the US demonstrated it had both the means and the will to annihilate the entire Japanese people and give them a death without meaning or honor.
Truman didn't do it, FDR did. He had the entire project mapped out and orders signed before he died, including the order to bomb and keep bombing as more bombs became available.
Truman hadn't even been read on to the bomb project, so imagine his surprise when he's sworn in and right after he's told, "Oh by the way, we have a secret weapon that will end the war." All Truman did was stay out of the way of FDR's plan. The first three devices were the only ones that were hand-built. The rest were made on assembly lines. Some time around the end of 1945 (sources disagree on exactly when), the Washington reactors were making enough Pu-239 to make four more bombs every month. So come January of '46, if Japan hadn't surrendered, they could have been receiving another atomic bomb every week.
Franks has proven to be one of the most reliable and accurate Pacific War historians ever.
At one point Oak Ridge was burning 1/7th of all the electricity in the United States, mostly on centrifuges. Which all by itself is proof that under those condition the Brits couldn't have finished the project in decades. America did it in two years. The Brits didn't have their own bomb ready until 1952, seven years after the war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_Alloys
A shining city on the hill!
We still owe them one for Yoko Ono.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved untold numbers of lives—both Japanese and American—that would have been lost in an invasion of Japan.
They also shortened the war—allowing most American troops to demobilize and go home in 1945—not 1948!
Dropping Atomic Bombs on Japan Was Imperative
We now mark the 77th anniversary of dropping atomic bombs to end WW II. As the Greatest Generation that lived into and through that history dies, we listen increasingly to revisionist asymmetrical analyses expounding the immorality of the atomic bomb decision.
Customary rebuttals extrapolate over 23,000 American and 265,000 Japanese deaths on Saipan and Okinawa to early estimates of 500,000 American and millions of Japanese deaths for mainland invasions. Such estimates could have substantially understated casualties because Kyushu and Honshu at 100,000 non-arable square miles mathematically enables at least 500 vast redoubts; complex fortifications comparable that General Ushijima constructed to inflict most losses on Okinawa.
The American “island hopping” strategy had ended. The Japanese knew the few regions within their mountainous country that could accommodate the huge armies and air forces needed. In preparation, they redeployed veteran Kwantung divisions from China. They mobilized home defense armies by drafting able citizens 17-60 years old for Peoples Volunteer Corps and Home Defense Units. They determined to wage Total War of upmost savagery rather than contemplate the shame of surrender.
If there was any alternative, Harry Truman, Henry Stimson, and George Marshall would end the war immediately. As far as they and the country were concerned the only innocent civilian lives at stake were the American citizen soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen who would invade Japan. The Greatest Generation, their parents, and grandparents would have been enraged to discover a cabal had ignored the nuclear option just to indulge some incestuous moral orthodoxy.
Unknown Japanese Invasion Preparations
The Japanese planned savage battles sacrificing 20 million citizens from a population of 72 million. Secretary of State Henry Stimson commissioned a study in July 1945 that said, “we shall probably have to kill 5 to 10 million Japanese at a cost of 400,000 and 800,000 Americans.”
Yet the Japanese had capabilities planners could never measure. The feeble response to B-29 bombing caused analysts to significantly underestimate the swarms of kamikaze airplanes, boats, and min-submarines, poised to attack the amphibious fleet.
The Japanese were also intent on waging biological warfare. During occupation searchers uncovered large stockpiles of viruses, spirochetes, and fungus spores throughout rural Japan. These biological pathogens had already been tested on several hundred thousand people in Chinese villages and on prisoners of war. Japanese civilian militias were to stay behind advancing Americans to infuse pathogens into food and waters sources, to release infected animals and insects into American compounds, and to infect themselves with choleras and plaque germs.
Harry Truman, Henry Stimson, and George Marshall would pursue any alternative consistent with the Potsdam Declaration to avoid the deaths of countless Americans in protracted ground campaigns following assaults matching D-Day. War weariness had already arisen from the shock of 1,000,000 combat deaths since June 1944 compared to 250,000 in the previous two and a half years.
The Greatest Generation, their parents, and grandparents would have been enraged to discover a cabal had ignored the nuclear option for ending the war simply to indulge some incestuous moral orthodoxy.
Partial bibliography:
Hell to Pay, D. M. Giangreco
The Atomic Bomb and the End of WW II, The National Security Archive
The Making of the Atomic Bomb Richard Rhodes
Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, David Bergamni
Hirohito, Edward Behr
A quote by film director Akira Kurosawa illustrates the transformation of that generation of Japanese people, who before were resigned to the slogan “Honorable Death of a Hundred Million”.
“When I walked the same route back to my home (after the Emperor’s broadcast), the scene was entirely different. The people in the shopping street were bustling about with cheerful faces as if preparing for a festival the next day. If the Emperor had made such a call (to follow the above slogan) those people would have done what they were told and died. And probably I would have done likewise. The Japanese see self-assertion as immoral and self-sacrifice as the sensible course to take in life. We were accustomed to this teaching and had never thought to question it….In wartime we were like deaf-mutes.”
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. Herbert P. Bix
Japanese Biomedical Experimentation During the WW II Era, Sheldon H. Harris, PhD
About Unit 731
https://unit731.org/
Battle of Okinawa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Okinawa
Battle of Saipan
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-saipan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saipan
Cornerstone of Peace (Okinawa)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornerstone_of_Peace
Over 240,000 names recorded including 14,000 from the U.S.A.
“Thank God for the Atom Bomb”
http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/iakh/HIS1300MET/v12/undervisningsmateriale/Fussel%20-%20thank%20god%20for%20the%20atom%20bomb.pdf
Nuking Japan: nobody asked the enslaved
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/04/nuking_japan_nobody_asked_the_enslaved.html
And Free Republic at: https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4228963/posts?page=10
Battle of Okinawa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Okinawa
Battle of Saipan
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-saipan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saipan
Normandy landings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_Landings
Japan geography:
http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/geography/Indonesia-to-Mongolia/Japan.html https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html
Okinawa redoubt was about 100 sq mi
An illustrated guide to the Atomic Bombs
http://www.alternatewars.com/Bomb_Loading/Bomb_Guide.htm
The first is "56". Because that is the number of Chinese Prisoners of War that were alive after Japan surrendered. The Japanese took millions of Chinese POWs but only 56 lived.
But what happened to the rest?
Unit 731.
That is the other number. The records are there. If you care to look. Suggest only having a banana before researching. Why? Because when you throw up it does not burn as badly. And if you go deep enough, you will throw up.
The Empire of Japan was a horror show that went on for 50 years.
Stopping it was a Good Thing.
;^)
The old town was largely made of wood, so the ignition of exposed surfaces facing the kaboom was widespread, and led to a conflagration that followed the chimney effect of the blast. One bomb, one city, done.
And prior to that, allied incendiary bombing had already destroyed 45 Japanese cities.
Despite all that, it took *a second nuke* to convince them to surrender.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4121786/posts
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3191014/posts
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3325241/posts
I did the Hiroshima and Nagasaki keywords, the list was hee-yuge. Here's the VJ Day keyword, sorted:
The fissionable material enabled the US to build twelve operational bombs (IOW, not counting the test shot in NM). Bomb construction was only swift enough to deliver one about every few weeks, but the nuking could have gone on until December, probably with the last one destroying Tokyo.
I recall reading that the ‘idiot proof’ electrical connection for the detonation sequence was seen to have been installed backwards. A couple of the scientists who’d helped design bomb accompanied it to the Far East, and they didn’t wait for orders. Somewhere in theater, before it got loaded, they got out the soldering iron and fixed it.
Otherwise, the inert weapon would have dropped through a roof and killed one guy, and the left would still be bitching about that.
I think it is in a book called “The Rising Sun” by an author named John Toland (or similar) where there is an account of the Tokyo firebombing, of how Curtis LeMay staged it so as to be monstrous as possible, and what it was like on the ground. Like Dresden only worse.
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