As cold as this sounds, it was about saving lives. The war COULD have ended without nukes. However, the cost of lives, both Japanese and Allied would probably have doubled for the entire war. Why?
My father-in-law was a Marine who served at Iwo Jima. He was one of the few (7000 out of 24,000 Marines) who walked off that rock. That was in April of 1945. By July, he was part of a massive military force headed for mainland Japan to invade them and end the war, similar to D-day in Europe. While on the way there from Hawaii, we dropped the one atomic bomb - AFTER WARNING Japan this would wipe out a full city. The Emperor didn't belive we could do that. We showed them it could be done.
Still, nothing came from the Imperial military. 2 weeks later we dropped #2. After a couple hundred thousand deaths, they finally got the message and surrendered. After their unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor, the US was going to settle for nothing less than an unconditional surrender.
And that military force that was headed for Japan with my father-in-law? Their mission was changed from an invading force to an occupying force, since one of the conditions of surrender was the total disbanding of the Japanese military.
President Truman faced a terrible choice. The decision he made ended the war and saved hundreds of thousands of American service members' lives. It was already known from the island fighting that the Japanese were a fanatical enemy. And the American generals knew that the Japanese people would fight to the death if an invasion of the main Japanese islands had to be done to end the war. President Truman made the only decision any Commander-in-Chief would make in war time: He valued American lives over those of the Japanese. That is war. It's terrible. But he had his priorities right. And remember also, the Japanese were so fanatical that they did not surrender after the first bomb was dropped. America never asked for war with Japan. Japan launched an unprovoked attack on the American navy and started the war. The United States finished it.
It was really the Soviets declaring war on Japan that made the Japanese surrender. They weren't even gonna surrender after the 2nd bomb either... damn crazy fanatics.
Operation Downfall would have been worse. The USA at the time was dealing with crazy fanatics that wanted to continue fighting till the last man dropped dead. That's how brutal and crazy the Japanese army was like. I'm willing to bet if Japan had developed the bomb first, they wouldn't have issued warning like the USA did. They would have just dropped them without warning just like when Pearl Harbor was bombed.
In the end, they're allies and USA's economy is in debt.
Not really but they were warn about facing total destruction if they didn't surrender. Unlike Japan, that did a sneak attack at least the USA informed them first and told them a bunch of times to surrender. Also, they surrender after the Russia (then the Soviet Union) declared war on them right after Nagasaki got bombed. They were more afraid of a Soviet invasion. Russia for sure wasn't going to be as generous as USA after the war ended.
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Yes. The Japanese killed 35 million people during ww2
Yes the Japanese did, I am saying this and my grandmother is 100% Japanese my mother was born in Japan.
They bombed Pearl Harbor. They tortured POW. They Wouldn't have given up, it was their spirt to either fight and die, or commit suicide besides being captured. The nuke showed us what could happen to people if it were dropped. Without dropping it, no one would have known what happens to human flesh after being nuked. Since we know the power, since that point on, every country has hesitated using nukes because through WW2 we know the devastation they cause.
"but was it necessary to kill millions of innocent peoples to end up a war"
That's exactly what was prevented. The atomic bomb killed roughly about 200,000 people, not millions. Millions would've died if the war had to be ended by army forces instead. Besides, they had an 11 day warning prior to the drop to surrender; they did not respond.
@SkittleMayn "Millions would've died if the war had to be ended by army forces instead." That's what the US army top said. They were eager to try out their new bomb.
@jacquesvol Okay? I don't see a connection with the topic at hand. I don't care who profits here. We're talking about weighing the lives of hundreds of thousands vs. the lives of millions.
no they didn't deserve it and yet most people seem to forget about the bombing of Hiroshima but when it comes to the twin towers most of the world calls it a "terrifying terrorist attack" when only 5000 people died, yet when the united states bombs 2 cities and over 200,000 civilians die, people call it "payback" or "that's what they get"
It wasn't about ending a war, the peace talks were already in progress. It was about the US demonstrating their firepower, both to test the destructive potential of the nuclear bombs as well as to strengthen their position of a superpower post-war, especially to deter conflict with Russia.
Japan would have capitulated long before the atomic bombings, but the west refused to budge on their terms of Hirohito being removed from power and possibly tried as a war criminal.
"Millions" of people weren't killed by the atomic bombs. It was a few hundred thousand (still a lot). The alternative (which had already been decided on by the battlefield commanders before they learned about the top-secret A-bomb) was massive napalm carpet bombing of all cities until Japan surrendered. Now, THAT would have cost MILLIONS of lives. The A-bombs were the lesser and more humane of the two choices.
Those people who were killed by the atomic bomb did not deserve to die but it was necessary to end the war otherwise It'd e much worst. The Japanese went mental and went into savage mode when the Korean and Chinese chose NOT to surrender.
No they didn't. The United States just didn't want Russia to help overtake the Japanese & share the credit, & wanted to show the world not to fuck around with them.
No it wasn't. Japan was ready to surrender. Truman did it anyway for power balance reasons against the USSR. Targeting 200 000 civilians with nuclear weapons is only okay if they did that to you. America owes Japan an apology for that.
Edit: Japanese weren't ready to surrender. Also: was not the bombs that ended the war but the USSR declaring war on Japan. 200 000 civilians killed by Truman didn't convince Japan.
No, but brute force is the only way to make unrelenting people quit
Japanese people usually have a strong sense of honor. If the US didn't drop the nuke im sure they would have drafted citizens and make them fight for their country.
Exactly. Even if they would have knocked out all the USA carriers, the same results would have happened. The only difference is war would have ended 2 years later (maybe in 1947 instead of 1945). Japan had already sealed its fate by attacking the USA since day 1.
I find it funny that they thought USA would sue for peace just like China and Russia did long ago. I guess they were so clueless about American culture.
Say they don't deserve it to the "comfort women", to the babies tossed on bayonets for fun, to the millions experimented on by unit 731, and to the millions others that were killed by the Japanese in a war Japan started.
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