Replies

I was assigned to the Camp Zama complex outside Tokyo in 1965. The war had been over for 20 years and they had pretty much rebuilt the place. I couldn't help but look at some of the Japs who were 40-50 years old and wonder if these guys were among those who had committed some of those horrific atrocities in China and throughout "the greater east Asia co-prosperity sphere."

Google "Operation Downfall." That includes "Operation Coronet" and "Operation Olympic." These show the Order of Battle of U.S. forces for the invasion and occupation of Japan. Fortunately for us, the A Bomb intervened and saved a whole lot of lives on both sides.

I've come to believe that Coronet and Olympic would never have happened ... the casualty projections were too high and after Okinawa the American and British leadership knew very well they were accurate. And would be completely unacceptable to the public.

So the real case to be made is that nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved millions of Japanese lives. Those on the islands who would have been killed when the nation was starved into submission courtesy of the naval blockade, and those on the mainland serving in the Kwantung Army who would have been killed by the Soviets.