If we had invaded the Home Islands (Operation Olympic?) it would have been an unbelievable bloodbath.
Posted on 08/06/2012 6:08:40 AM PDT by BO Stinkss
On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world's first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.
U.S. President Harry S. Truman, discouraged by the Japanese response to the Potsdam Conference's demand for unconditional surrender, made the decision to use the atom bomb to end the war in order to prevent what he predicted would be a much greater loss of life were the United States to invade the Japanese mainland. And so on August 5, while a "conventional" bombing of Japan was underway, "Little Boy," (the nickname for one of two atom bombs available for use against Japan), was loaded onto Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets' plane on Tinian Island in the Marianas. Tibbets' B-29, named the Enola Gay after his mother, left the island at 2:45 a.m. on August 6. Five and a half hours later, "Little Boy" was dropped, exploding 1,900 feet over a hospital and unleashing the equivalent of 12,500 tons of TNT. The bomb had several inscriptions scribbled on its shell, one of which read "Greetings to the Emperor from the men of the Indianapolis" (the ship that transported the bomb to the Marianas).
There were 90,000 buildings in Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped; only 28,000 remained after the bombing. Of the city's 200 doctors before the explosion; only 20 were left alive or capable of working. There were 1,780 nurses before-only 150 remained who were able to tend to the sick and dying.
According to John Hersey's classic work Hiroshima, the Hiroshima city government had put hundreds of schoolgirls to work clearing fire lanes in the event of incendiary bomb attacks. They were out in the open when the Enola Gay dropped its load.
There were so many spontaneous fires set as a result of the bomb that a crewman of the Enola Gay stopped trying to count them. Another crewman remarked, "It's pretty terrific. What a relief it worked."
There has been a series of pictures circulating on the net showing Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and Detroit on the same day. Then there are pictures of both. The message is very clear: Democrat rule is much worse than an atomic bomb.
My friend, Joe P, was convinced these bombs saved his life. He went to his grave swearing Truman was one of the greatest presidents of all time.
If we had invaded the Home Islands (Operation Olympic?) it would have been an unbelievable bloodbath.
“From the invasion of China in 1937 to the end of World War II, the Japanese military regime murdered near 3,000,000 to over 10,000,000 people, most probably almost 6,000,000 Chinese, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Indochinese, among others, including Western prisoners of war. This democide was due to a morally bankrupt political and military strategy, military expediency and custom, and national culture (such as the view that those enemy soldiers who surrender while still able to resist were criminals).”
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP3.HTM
“unfortunately”? I think not!
Heroes all.
Yes, and no. There was the "gadget", an atomic "bomb".
Granted, not fit for dropping, probably not fit for moving. And it was plutonium, not uranium.
But still...
Had Little Boy and Fat Man not been dropped, the 20th Air Force would have spent the next three months, up until the invasion scheduled for early November, 1945, trying to burn the entire country of Japan to the ground with napalm and magnesium. Remember, from the bombing of Tokyo in March 1945, they could kill 100,000+ in a single night.
Then, the invasion itself would have probably looked like this:
http://www.webwizpro.com/1945InvasionofJapan.html
Little Boy and Fat Man saved the lives of TENS OF MILLIONS of Japanese.
The story here is the arrogant stubbornness of the Japanese Emperor that it took two bombs before he surrendered. He didn’t believe the U.S. had more than one and was willing to gamble the lives of 200,00 of his own worshippers on that erroneous belief.
It is amazing how well they rebuilt the city. One of the truly charming things about it is their streetcar system. It looks like they spent megabucks collecting top antique quality street cars from all over the world, each with its own decor and international look.
In reality, when it became trendy to scrap street cars for highways back in the 1950's and 1960's, the leadership of the city got them donated (in most cases) or purchased for scrap metal prices by charming them out of the former owners with the line "Wouldn't you like to help rebuild Hiroshima with a permanent living memorial to your fair city?"
Of course, I never brought up the atomic bomb, but the most common refrain from the locals was 'it was an unfortunate consequence of getting involved in that stupid war.' Even the A-bomb museum, which has a rotating exhibit on the lower floor of that building and permanent exhibits on the upper floors, had a display that particular day showing the extremes the military dictatorship was going to in those last days to brainwash the children and train them to fight to the last person.
Even after Nagasaki had been bombed and the Emperor decided to surrender, there was still a faction in the Japanese army that attempted to stage a coup to prevent the surrender ... to force the entire nation to fight to the death.
Using the bomb on Japan may very well have made my life possible.
My father was 17 at the time and thanks to high school ROTC a fully trained pilot.
If not for the bomb when he turned 18 in November he may have been off for Japan.
“it took two bombs before he surrendered”
That and the fact that the Soviet Union had just declared war on Japan. A ground invasion on two fronts with massive ground forces from Russia scared him as much as another A-bomb did.
there were two different bombs. The device at Trinity site and Nagasaki were plutonium bombs. The Hiroshima bomb was u235.
More Accurate Headline: Aug 6, 1945: American bomber begins the final process that rapidly ends the bloodiest conflict in history - saves the lives of millions by preventing mass starvation, disease, and retributions - prevents more than one million additional allied war casualties
My dad had mostly recovered from burns suffered in a crash landing in India (he was a Hump pilot in the C-B-I Theater.)
He had been notified that qualified pilots would be needed in late 1945 and agreed to return to the service.
Fortunately, this didn’t happen. He met my mom in ‘45 and the rest was history.
They deserved it.
Besides, it wasn’t worth a single American life to take Japan, if we could nuke it instead.
Wish we’d done that with Ashcanistan.
A family friend stationed in the Pacific at the time felt the same way. His son told him once that the bomb shouldn’t have been dropped. He immediately said “Then I wouldn’t be here”.
I think the Japanese realized - one plane, one bomb, one city. Also Nagasaki was where the torpedo’s used at Pearl Harbor were built. What goes around comes around. Karma is a bi**h.
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