Served great purposes.
- Ended the war without 1,000,000 estimated American casualties and up to 25,000,000 Japanese. Estimates from Operation Coronet.
- Kept the Soviets out of any Japanese territory.
- Showed the world major powers could no longer engage in unrestrained warfare against one another.
- Launched the atomic age for civilian and naval purposes.
Very good list. a yes reasons.
The nature of the force used scared the hell out of the world population and supported nuclear arms control that worked for75 years.
Still it took 2 bombs to convince the Japanese to surrender
I used to believe all that nonsense, but no longer.
The Japanese would have surrendered in June or July if we would have agreed to let them keep the emperor. But, no, we had to demand unconditional surrender, until we could drop the bombs, and then decided to let them keep their emperor.
Read McArthur and LeMay on the topic.
Prolonging the war allowed the Russians to send troops to North Korea and China. This permitted the communist takeover of both countries, thanks to the US State Department.
“Kept the Soviets out of any Japanese territories”. Exactly what do you call the islands that Russia took and still keep, their manifest destiny?
Forrestal might not have “committed suicide” if he had enough support.