Was the atomic bombs necessary to end the war with Japan?

[Gutter Chris]

Yep

Was a good plan

Deserved it , ended the war and it put the ruskies on notice that the us is not to be fucked with .

I also think because we dropped them then and saw what it was about that it is a major reason why they havent been dropped since and you dont get that kinda horror just from a test site

 

[loyalyolayal]

Not sure there's a clear answer. An American can say "yes, we saved countless American lives". The parent of a child that was dematerialized would beg to differ.

Again, the tokyo air raids had more casualties than the 2 atomic bombs combined. And the Japanese will not go down without a fight so it's going to be a long, torturous campaign for both sides and Russia loomed.

 

[ralphc1]

History is written by the winners. The atomic bombings saved US lives but replaced them with the lives of Japanese civilians

We killed more Japanese civilians in the fire bombing of Tokyo than with the atomic bombs.

There is no way to tell how the war would have progressed without the atomic bombs. There were reports that the Japanese military wanted to fight on even after the bombs were dropped. There was supposedly a plan to overthrow the emperor. The Russians were supposed to join in the fight against Japan but they waited to actually commit.

 

[Strychnine]

Yes.

I was stationed on Okinawa for four years and the Okinawans there were told that Americans would drink their blood and eat their children. Remember that there was no internet back then, radio was very localized, and you weren't going to get the New York Times sent to your mailbox easily.

Remember, the Emperor is a divine being and he can never be wrong...

The schoolgirls of Japan (children/elderly, etc) were told and given instruction on making spears out of bamboo to stop the invading Allied troops. Conservative estimates totaled casualties in the 250K+ range.

Was dropping the bombs good or bad? Way above my pay grade, but yet, here we are, and I'm just an old fart on the interwebs...

 

[Pugilistic]

There were too many of factors at play to really know for sure.
The military and civilian government of Japan were not in agreement. The military leadership was ready sacrifice every single japanese and fight to the literal end. Some elements of the Japanese government wanted to surrender before the bombs. Some wanted to fight after the bombs. Some people argue that the soviets entering the war pushed Japan to surrender in contrast to the usual narrative that the atomic bombs pushed them to surrender. It seems to me it was a combination of everything.

Korea definitely benefited from it. I don't know much anything but if the atomic bombs made the Soviets think twice about making moves, it was perhaps a necessary evil.

 

[Aegon Spengler]

Imagine the first bomb had been a dud and didn't go off? Just 'plunk' - landed there and the Japanese scooped it up and waited to use it...

crazy to think about.

To answer TS's question I think this is a nice piece that goes over it.

 

[Phr3121]

Japan did have a small nuclear weapons program like the Germans. Do you think they would have thought twice about nuking Hawaii again if they had the chance? The Germans were sending Uranium to Japan by U-boat prior to the end of WWII.

"It may be called the most macabre joke of history: Several hundred kilograms of enriched Uranium intended by Nazi Germany for Japanese atom bombs, instead it wound up as part of a U.S. atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima on 6 August of 1945."

 

[the ambush]

 

[IloveTHIS]

Back to back world champs do what they want regardless of necessity

 

[Frank23]

I think that the allied forces would have beaten Japan without atomic bombs. However, there would have been a lot more deaths.

It was time to send out the closer.

 

[Striderxdj]

I said yes as the ramifications of operation downfall would have lead to potentially millions of deaths, potential Soviet occupation of Japanese territories, and I think it likely the war may have continued with everyone against stalin... good or bad, it would have been much longer.

 

[Phr3121]

"Was the atomic bombs necessary to end the war with Japan?"

or

"Was the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, United States, necessary for Japanese control of the Pacific?"

 

[Wrath of Foamy]

or

"Was the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, United States, necessary for Japanese control of the Pacific?"

I didn't know that the Japanese civilians, women and children were directly responsible for Pearl Harbor and the atrocities of their military and government.

My answer is simply, I don't know. I'm just glad that Japan is what it is today.

 

[GSP_37]

A threat via crayon drawing would have sent the same message.

 

[moreorless87]

Although I think the focus on the atomic bombings alone is perhaps misplaced, I mean a similar number of(mostly civilian) people were killed in the firebombing of Tokyo in one night.

 

[Double Dragon]

I heard Pearl Harbor was a cooperative effort between the US and Japan because both wanted to study the effects of the atom bomb on a civilian population. Given what we now know, I wouldn't be surprised if that was 100% true.

 

[CWMMA]

Necessary? No, but it got the US it’s quick unconditional surrender that it wanted.

 

[CWMMA]

I heard Pearl Harbor was a cooperative effort between the US and Japan because both wanted to study the effects of the atom bomb on a civilian population. Given what we now know, I wouldn't be surprised if that was 100% true.

 

[Double Dragon]

Well the theory that America knew about the imminent attack on Pearl Harbor has its own wikipedia page

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Harbor_advance-knowledge_conspiracy_theory

and there is a lot of evidence to suggest the Japanese "ruling elite" weren't even bothered about the attack

https://nationalpost.com/news/did-the-atomic-bombings-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki-really-end-the-war

The minutes to Japanese war meetings barely mention the bombings
For his 2011 book Hiroshima Nagasaki, Australian historian Paul Ham pored over the minutes of high-level Japanese meetings and discovered that the country’s ruling military elite had a shocking indifference toward the atomic bombings. On Aug. 9, Japan’s six-member supreme war council was meeting in a bunker under Tokyo when word was first received that Nagasaki had been destroyed. Engrossed in discussions about the Soviet invasion, the assembled men did not seem to care. “A runner comes in and says ‘Sir, we’ve lost Nagasaki, it’s been destroyed by a new ‘special’ bomb’ … and the sort of six Samurai sort of said, ‘thank you, and run along,’

Why is that? perhaps it's because they knew the 2 bombs were coming and there wouldn't be any others. Who wouldn't shit a brick in that situation especially if you have no clue when and where the next bombs are going to drop?

Silly theory I know, but it has some legs if you believe some of the many different accounts from that time

 

[Takes_Two_To_Tango]

@MXZT, who is the cute chick in your avatar? 1950s style. I like that.

Oh that's Anne Baxter. She's awesome, she was in The Ten Commandments and All About Eve. Which is probably her most memorable roles.