[TheDon]

"Everybody knows on the left and the right that Japan was finished at the time the bomb was dropped," Leeper said.

Everybody except the Japanese. Even after the atomic bombing of two Japanese cities, the military still did not want to surrender. Only the emperor was able to stop the military, and only just barely.

Leeper is just another "war never solved anything" nut.

[goldstategop]

War solves the problem of aggression. Try explaining that to liberals ignorant of history.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[mainepatsfan]

There was an attempted coup to prevent the “shame” of defeat.

[muawiyah]

Note: My next immediate posting. The Japanese government (army and navy included) surrendered AFTER they determined they'd been hit with both an uranium and plutonium bomb.

That's the reason for the delay ~ to send out the investigatory team to verify the type of bombs used.

The background reason for Truman's decision was quite simple ~ any country that had the capability of investigating these events and determining which type of bombs were used could make them given enough time.

The war had to be ended by all means ~ not just 2 million troops were at stake ~ hundreds of millions of Americans, Europeans and Asians' lives were at stake should the Japanese complete their own atom bomb development program and restart their conquests.

They need not have built a single bomb to be a real threat in the nearterm future.

[weegee]

Does Leeper condemn Japanese Imperialism and Nazi Imperialism (and Islamic Imperialism) or just American “Imperialism”?

[boop]

Yeesh, didn’t this “journalist” ever hear of Iwo Jima? The Japs weren’t going to tolerate an invasion of their homeland. Period. Look what lengths they went through just to defend a crappy rock.

[Captain Rhino]

Agree. A lot of Americans, Japanese, and others do not know that a very significant portion of the Japanese Army had not been engaged. Understandably, the Imperial General Staff fell that they still had the means to inflict punishing blows on the Allies if they could just come to grips with them.

In August 1945, General Yamashita, cut off from reinforcement and resupply for 9 months, still had significant numbers of Allied troops tied up actively combating him in the Philippines. The determined Japanese defense of both Iwo Jima and the Philippines demonstrated that the Japanese had adapted their defensive tactics to Allied offensive tactics and could organize the defense to inflict significant casualties even when their efforts must ultimately end in defeat.

Here are links to two articles that give good detail to the situation being faced by both sides and the casualty issue:

OLYMPIC VS KETSU-GO : http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/war.term/olympic.html

(Operation DOWNFALL (the invasion of Japan) was divided into two phases: Operation OLYMPIC, the invasion in late 1945 of Kyushu,the southernmost of the four main islands making up mainland Japan and Operation CORONET, the invasion of the Kanto Plain outside Tokyo in the spring of 1946. Of the two, only planning for OLYMPIC was essentially complete when the war ended in August 1945. Completion of CORONET planning depended, in part, on the results of the earlier operation and lessons learned about Japanese defensive tactics. In the description of OLYMPIC, note that atomic bombs were to be made available for use by commanders at the operational level. KETSU-GO was the name of the Japanese plan for the defense of the mainland.)

CASUALTY PROJECTIONS FOR THE U.S. INVASIONS OF JAPAN, 1945-1946: PLANNING AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS:
http://home.kc.rr.com/casualties/

As for the peace/surrender negotiations, the Japanese were going to drag those out as long as possible to exact what concessions they could while continuing to furiously built up their defenses. Without the atomic bomb to knock the legs out from under the die-hard determination of the Japanese military and give the Emperor the opening needed to order an end to the war - and to do it quickly, the Allies were going to invade. President Truman's decision to use the bomb as soon as it was available was a political decision. It just might give the proud, stubborn Japanese the face-saving excuse they needed to surrender and it would give President Truman political cover with the American people when Operation OLYMPIC casualty figures began to be reported. This is the "inevitable" factor that the now-resigned MoD was referring to.

Stalemate was not an option. Combat-ready, trained, and equipped forces can't be held in absolute readiness indefinitely. Delay just makes the defenses stronger and the price paid to overcome them higher. The invasion would have produced very significant Allied (primarily American) casualties and would most probably have led to the annihilation of Japan’s culture and people.

Based on the comments from Mr. Leeper that you quoted, I somehow doubt that these “facts” make it into presentations that his organization makes. Fine. Just as long as they are recognized for the left wing, once-again-making-excuses-for-America’s-enemies propaganda that they are.