You have some more reading to do, Sarge. The last WWII mission wasn't a B-29 atomic strike. And it may have done as much to end the war as the two A-bomb missions did. AND it helped keep the Soviets from occupying parts of Japan.
The Last Mission: The Secret History of World War II's Final Battl
The real hard underlying truth is that the two bombs prevented the Japanese people from being virtually annihilated and reduced to the same status of today’s North Korea.
One has only to read the Japanese accounts of the dire circumstances of the home islands population. They were on the verge of starvation. Rations were drastically reduced with no food being imported. They were eating acorns when they could find them. Pulling up ditch weeds for food. Their young men were already dying in untold numbers. The losses of another million or more would have left with with a stunted postwar population with little chance of recovery for generations.
And the Japanese War Council was telling them to gather rocks, to sharpen sticks and farm tools to fend off the coming invaders. This across the land that had been devastated by the huge regular convenional bombing raids that did far greater damage with their incendiary loads. Their industrial base was crumbled into dust. An American naval blockade would have denied them fuel, food, and raw materials. Totally cut off from the rest of the world and winter coming on, a winter that would have killed many, many more. Freezing, starvation and disease was what was in store for them.
The Japanese should mark August 6 as the day that ended the insane war set upon them by their Emperor and his General Staff. Every post war advance and their economic rebirth with the attendant improvement in their health and living standard stems from those two bombs. They weren’t the last bombs but they signaled the end,
My advice for the Japanese is to kneel and bow to the rising sun in the east on August 6 and thank whatever god they worship for the mercy extended to them by the USA.
Oooo, that looks GOOD!
Right title, right link, wrong illustration.
Thank you.
I learned something new today.
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summarized from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raids_on_Japan#Atomic_bombings_and_final_attacks
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August 6th-Hiroshima was bombed
August 9th-Nagasaki was bombed
August 9th & 10th-B29s attack an oil target and a factory in Tokyo
August 10th-Japanese began negotiations about the terms of surrender
August 13th-B29s drop copies of the Japanese conditional offer to surrender over Japanese cities
August 14th-828 B29s and 186 fighters attack Iwakuni, Osaka, Tokoyama, Kumagaya, and Isesaki
These were the last attacks conducted against Japan by heavy bombers
August 15th-at noon, Hirohito made a radio broadcast announcing surrender