Estimates I’ve seen have Hiroshima at 135,000 and Nagasaki at 64,000, but there are numbers all over the map so you could well be right.
I guess the main point is to put them in context of the huge numbers of deaths from conventional fighting and bombing at the very same time. The atomic bombs focused Japan’s attention because of the spooky nature of one weapon doing so much damage in an instant. The death toll itself is something Japan seemed to willing to accept with resignation. Glory for the Emperor.
“Estimates I’ve seen have Hiroshima at 135,000 and Nagasaki at 64,000, but there are numbers all over the map so you could well be right. ...”
” ... The death toll itself is something Japan seemed to willing to accept with resignation. ...”
Great uncertainties accompany estimates of fatalities.
The best to date indicate some 80,000 were killed outright at Hiroshima. In the years since, 30,000 to 40,000 deaths have been attributed to long-term complications from injuries sustained in the attack.
Groups opposed to atomic bombs (and groups opposed to American power generally) have been relentless in attempting to lump every death in Hiroshima since 6 Aug 1945 under the category of “caused by The Bomb”, which has created more uncertainty than ever.
Estimates of immediate deaths at Nagasaki run from to 40,000 to 50,000.
Bear in mind that radiation sickness was little understood in 1945. And the problems of fallout (local materials caught in the detonation and caused to be radioactive, falling out of the atmosphere onto surroundings) were not anticipated at all.
We owe Pelham our thanks for noting a vital point: among themselves, Japanese apparently make no great fuss over losses to the atomic bombings. But they seem to enjoy their success in portraying themselves as victims of the heartless (racist, etc) Americans.
In this, they have been assisted by many Americans - Progressive, religious, scientific, paleo-conservative, libertarian, academic, whatnot - who seem unaware they are being played.
One cannot but respect Japanese exploitation of victimology; it is a feature of the age, after all.
But we owe it to forbears, and posterity, to describe posters like Arthur McGowan as what they really are: moral doofuses, and arrogant nitwits.