was it right to use the atomic bomb?

Question

was that too extreme or was it better than having millions dead by trying to invade japan?

Answer 1

At that time, mid 1945, war weariness had set in., in the US, the cry "Remember Pearl Harbor" didn't ring as it had three and a half years earlier, especially since so many, many Americans had already been killed in the war, and more and more people were tired, fed up, grieving, and willing to accept a negotiated peace with Imperial Japan, rather than the unconditional surrender Roosevelt had said he intended to get.

Perhaps I should make a point of saying that this wasn't the same Japan we know today. This was a Japan controlled by a highly aggressive, ruthless regime that had no regard for human life, Japanese or otherwise.

At the same time, after Nazi Germany had been defeated, Stalin had transferred a large part of his Red Army from Europe to the Far East, declared war on Japan and had already seized Japan's farthest northern islands. There was a genuine fear in Washington and London that the Soviets may continue their southern drive on Japan and turn it into a Communist satellite regime.

Operation "Olympic" was the Allies plan to launch a direct assault on the Japanese home islands. It promised to be a bloodier campaign than the already agonizing campaigns in the Pacific, seizing islands from much smaller Japanese garrisons, who proved they meant it when they promised to fight to the death!

Projected Allied losses were estimated at one million dead.

Arrayed against the US, British and Australian forces were 23 million Japanese, and while it's true that most would be armed with perhaps no more than bamboo spears, but even with bamboo spears, hordes of attackers, charging and fighting with fanatical courage, it would be very grim for the assault troops once the ammunition gave out.

On top of that, the Japanese had at least hundreds of kamikaze aircraft yet available, and the kamikazes did do considerable damage to US and Allied naval forces around Okinawa. Plus they had five thousand "special attack" speedboats. Suicide attack boats packed with explosive.

There was no intention or ambiguity on the part of the Japanese concerning surrender. That, was completely out of the question. There would be no surrender, no mercy to the invader.

Truman and his staff had only one option left, and so the first nuclear launch order was given.

The attack was psychologically devastating to the Japanese. A single aircraft, with a single bomb, destroying an entire city. Even so, there were many in the military elite who insisted that there should be no surrender. The Americans, they reasoned, had only enough parts for one atom bomb, and no more than that.

Meanwhile, the Imperial Navy's best and brightest were working on a similar weapon of their own, and were very, very close to completing it. Far closer than the Germans were.

The Americans struck again. One aircraft, one bomb, another city.

Amazingly, while the second attack had proved that there was more than one bomb available, and had psychologically broken many in Tojo's clique, there were still some who were prepared to face national suicide rather than surrender, if that was what it had to be.

Hirohito, the Emperor, intervened. He gave the surrender order.

The people were devastated, broken, up until that moment, they had been told continuously that the war was being won. If new ground wasn't being gained, certainly the Americans and others were being held at bay, and would eventually see the foolishness of this war, and come to a negotiated peace.

There was nothing left. The Emperor was God, or a god, and it was a deeply ingrained part of the national identity that said that when he spoke, he was to be obeyed.

Without question.

Only hours before, according to some historians, the Imperial Japanese Navy held their own first nuclear weapons test. It was successful.

So the Japanese surrendered.

Now, it's a hard question, a half million Japanese were killed in the two nuclear attacks. There was little warning other than that a single American B-29 heavy bomber was on it's way. Tens to hundreds of thousands were injured, or suffered radiation sickness, and many more were born with terrible birth defects.

On the other hand, a conventional assault could have cost a million American, British and Australian lives, and certainly at least as many Japanese, if not more, millions more. The Soviets would have eventually gotten involved, uninvited of course, as well.

Granted, there was likely very little thought that an atom bomb would be dropped on any European city, that was taboo. A form of racism perhaps...

Nevertheless, the moral dilemma. A half million Japanese, versus possibly several million, or upward, and a million of ours and our allies bravest too.

Lives lost, versus lives potentially lost, that weren't.

Answer 2

How many times are the liberal historical revisionist going to ask this question. Before long these idiots will have the Congress of the United States apologizing to Japan for making Pearl Harbor such an easy target...

The true history is that the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa sealed the fate of Japan in regards to dropping the atomic bomb. The Japanese resisted so well during Iwo and Oki that it was estimated an invasion of mainland Japan would cost an estimated 1 million US casualties.

I guess it may be unfortunate we did drop the bomb on Japan. Look at all the idiots we have in the US who would not be around today if their ancestors would have died in an actual invasion of mainland Japan...

Answer 3

"Truth" and "history" are the reserve of the victor.

Multiple declassified documents show beyond any doubt that Japan was already trying to surrender and had sent multiple diplomatic messages through the Russians to the US, which had been ignored.

The use of the atomic bomb was, therefore, unnecessary in the defeat of the Japanese. I suggest the real reason for it's use was to send a clear signal from the US to the Russians, who had been very busy shipping back captured Nazi scientists to their own laboratories.

Where do you think the Russians got the A-bomb from? Why do you think they were first into space? nazi scientists, pure and simple.

Did you know the two bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were of significantly different design, composition and using different triggers? Kind of makes it look like an experiment - which produces the most death and destruction?

Answer 4

A loaded question, that is. First off...there was little chance, actually no chance of 'millions dead' if Operation Downfall had been deemed necessary. Most figures that people have come across through various sources are totally inflated...a post-war fiction. When you consider that the total number of estimated dead (which includes ALL Allies) in the Normandy campaign is approx. 60,000...believing that the invasion of the Home Islands would have cost 'millions' is simply ludicrous.
In addition, I think that most of those informed on such matters will tell you that Germany was able to put up a much more effective defense than Japan ever could....and we had, by the summer of 1945, already resolved the Axis issue in Europe.
So, in truth, it was unneccesary for the US to ever really consider landing any troops on the Home Islands...for the Japanese were already beaten, even before we nuked them. A total naval blockade combined with strategic bombing would have resolved the whole thing in a matter of weeks...if not less time.
Using the Bomb, from Truman's viewpoint, was an opportunity to show off...just gravy, if you will.

Answer 5

According to the Japanese, they had a workable atomic bomb which they would have used in thier own suicidal defense. That and the experience on Saipan where the women threw thier children off a cliff and then jumped after them, should indicate that we could have expected more than a million American Casualties and about 20 million Japanese.

Answer 6

Yes. An invasion would have cost ten times as many lives. The Japanese were preparing for suicide attacks using teenage boys. They had already shown their willingness to do that in their Kamikaze air attacks. Remember that it was their religion. The Emperor was their God. The bombs convinced the Emperor and his government to surrender.

We have the same problem with another religion, Islam, and their suicide attacks. At least that is on a much smaller scale than it would have been in Japan.

And all you Leftist bleeding hearts and America-haters can just stick your heads up your behinds and smell your brains. Such sophmoric drivel stinks so bad it must be hard for anyone to be around you.

Answer 7

The japanese had standing orders to destroy all POWs and any evidence of their existence if even ONE allied boot landed on the mainland of Japan.

My Grandfather was one of those POWs, kept in a slave labor camp for 2 of the 3 1/2 years since he was captured.

So, quite selfishly, using the atomic bombs saved his life, and in turn, mine.

But like many have said before, the Japanese would not surrender. 26,000 defended Iwo Jima, but only about 1,000 survived. And that was just a speck in the middle of the ocean.

No, the Japanese would not have surrendered through any other means unfortunately.

Answer 8

Better them than us. I'm just kidding. My opinion, if we hadn't bombed Japan, I know the Axis was getting pretty close to completing their own atomic bomb. So I think it was right to use the atomic bomb. Stop the war before it got too far.

Answer 9

Its complete rubbish to say it saved more lives than it took when in fact it depends which angle you are really looking at it from. If from the point of American lives rather than Japanese lives it would do for you to understand that a lot of people actually prefer the cultured Japanese to the uncouth Americans and since the Americans have been on the "winning" side, the world has been in a worst state. Another assumption is that America is better now that it would have been if ruled by Emperor Hirohito. Well I don't agree with that one either

Answer 10

The history had its own decision, there is nothing for us to discuss right after so many decades. Of course it was a great choice to use the nuclear bomb, otherwise the war would not stop soon and millions would continue suffering...