Dropping atomic bombs on Japan by the most conservative of estimates saved over a million lives. The optimistic invasion plans expected at least .5 million American deaths and over 1 million Japanese deaths. The actual number would have been much higher. The Japanese were ordered to fight to the death. In the battle of Okinawa just before the planned invasion, all 100,00 Japanese had been killed. American casualties were over 70,000.
Who knows how many total casualties would have resulted from an invasion of Japan. But it would have likely been in the millions.
The atomic bombs forced Japan to surrender and allowed Japan to rebuild its country after WWII.
Obama is ignorant. His constant bad mouthing of America and patriotic Americans is disgusting.
Obama has never sacrificed anything for America. He has no right criticize patriotic Americans.
About the president in japan.
In college I worked on the paint crew. Often Jack, the retired boss, would come back and help out. Jack had fought in the Pacific in WWII and would tell me some of his war stories. We were talking about thanksgiving plans one day when jack said he would pray at dinner. Jack wasn’t a religious guy so I asked what he would be giving thanks for.
He said, “Every year I thank God for the atomic bomb”. His group was in training for the invasion of Japan when the bombs were dropped and Japan surrendered. Jack and the guys knew the odds of surviving the invasion were slim.
“So you are thankful the bomb saved your life?”
He replied, “Yes, but more than that. We knew they were training women and children to attack us. We were more afraid of having to live the rest of our lives with having killed little kids than the fear of our own deaths.”
The bomb was terrible, but the military was planning on possibly a million US casualties and several million more Japanese soldiers and civilians. In fact, the army ordered so many purple hearts that they are still today awarding medals from 1945.
I had two uncles who fought in the Pacific. One in the navy and served at that time on the USS Missouri. The other in the Marines.
The one in the Marines said that they were told that when the time came, they were to be given envelopes to put all their personal effects..ALL OF THEM. And were to write their last letters back home. After Okinawa, they knew what was in store. When they found out that these bombs were dropped, they knew it was over and partied for days.
They both guessed that well over 200 thousand US service men and women would have been killed in a invasion of the main islands.
A good thing not only that it shortened the war and on net saved many lives, American and Japanese, but we did it when we had a monopoly and there was no possibility of retaliation or escalation from any quarter. We showed those things can do for all the world to see and guaranteed they would not be used again at least up to now. Had we dropped them while other countries also had them the chances of a real nuclear exchange would have been much higher.
Obama would have let 250,000 GIs get killed, 500,000 get wounded, and 10 million more Japanese get killed just so that he could feel morally superior. Obama said that people’s morality had to evolve as fast as technology evolved. In other words, he thinks that dropping the bombs was immoral. So he wouldn’t have done it. He would have let all of those needless deaths occur, so that he could feel superior to the GIs and everyone else. All of those lives get sacrificed for his ego.
If you want a good, detailed description in fiction of the proposed invasion the Japanese Islands and you can find a copy; read David Westheimer’s novel Death Is Lighter than a Feather.
The alternative was a full attack of the starving country including nightly attacks by hundreds of B-29s carrying firebombs.
There were many ways to look at the pressures to drop the bomb.
1. It was total war. You use the weapons you have.
2. The financial cost to invade Japan would have left us bankrupt.
3. If we hadn’t done it, and we invaded there would have been a revolution once the American people found out we had it, and did not use it.
4. The personnel cost to invade would have been huge.
5. The Japanese race would have been practically erased from the face of the earth if we invaded.
6. If we continued the blockade, millions of Japanese would have starved to death.
7. Had we not dropped the bomb, the war would have lasted several more months. The balance of power in the Far East would be very different. The Soviet Union would have controlled Korea, half of Japan and a good chunk of China.
8. The direct deaths of the two bombs were much smaller than the firebombing in the previous several months.
When you compare what would have happened to the Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese civilians, we did them a favor by dropping the bomb.
Yep...we have not had a world war since.
It was a good thing then and it still is today, and that fact will not ever change.
Screw Obama.
Acts of Terrorism and Atrocities by the Japanese in WW II are documented in many places.
I will never ever forget. Truman was right. I reject those who would re-write history...and anyone who whines about the internment camps. Learn how The japanese treated prisoners and POWs. Savages.