I suspect the 5-10 million figure is low. We had complete control of the air over Japan. There is not one drop of oil or coal mined in Japan. Before we sent one soldier to Japan we would have fire bombed every city in Japan. Their industry and medical facilities would become non existent. Hunger and disease would have killed millions. We would have then killed millions more when we invaded.
The atomic bomb saved Japan from total destruction.
Actually Japan had coal. It used to produce 50 million tons, but I think it is rapidly depleting it reserves and is currenlt mining under 20 million tons per anum.
You point bears repeating, with amplification.
Curtis LeMay was charged with developing a plan for the bombing of Japan before LeMay was aware of the atomic bomb.
His plan was to firebomb a new city in Japan every other day or so, starting from the north of the main island, working his way south. The projected invasion was supposed to be towards the end of September.
The estimated civilian casualties in Japan from LeMay’s plan was to be about 1+ million killed, 10 million injured or without homes - before one US serviceman set foot on the main island. After the infantry hit the shores, we expected at least another million Japanese to be killed, and at least 100,000 US soldiers/Marines to be killed, with at least a half million casualties.
Every Purple Heart that has been issued to US uniformed servicemen since WWII has come from the supply of Purple Hearts we ordered for the invasion of Japan. We’ve not run out yet. We didn’t expect the invasion to go easily, even after burning their cities to the ground.
The people who blovate about the US use of atomic bombs on Japan is simply ignorant of history, or rather, ignorant period. They assume that the war would have somehow magically ended without large loss of Japanese lives, in complete contradiction to the established facts and stated intents of the Japanese militarists.
The revisionists who decry the use of the atomic bombs like to ignore the fact that we had a plan in place, with logistical support, planes, ordnance, etc, that was created before we knew the atomic bombs would succeed. These people seem to think that we didn’t, that in absence of the atomic bombs, something else that the unconditional surrender of Japan was going to happen. It wasn’t. The way in which Pearl Harbor was attacked, coupled with the way that the Imperial Army had conducted itself in warfare in the Pacific, sealed Japan’s fate. There was no alternative to unconditional surrender, and the US was willing to kill as many Japanese, both in uniform and civilians, as necessary to attain full and unconditional surrender.
Second point that needs to be made: Even after the US had dropped two atomic bombs, the militarists came very close to overthrowing the emperor and seizing all control of the government. Even after being bombed with horrific new weapons twice, the militarists were ready to fight to the death. It was by luck and narrowly decided circumstances that the emperor’s words were broadcast to the population of Japan.
The Japanese got lucky when we bombed them twice with atomic bombs and shocked the emperor into over-riding the militarist who were willing to sacrifice the entire Japanese nation for their fantasy of victory even when they were crushed. Had the militarists successfully deposed/overthrown the emperor, many, many more Japanese would have been killed.