Reply #64: Some facts about the end of the Japanese part of WWII [View All]

[Silverhair]

The field commanders of WWII were not against the bomb. They didn't even know about the bomb. It was a super guarded secret, although Stalin seems to have know about it in advance. Truman didn't even know about it until FDR died. So the statement that the field commanders of the time were against it is just so much hooey.


Japan was not "trying" to surrender. You don't "try" to surrender. You surrender. It is very simple. You say, "I surrender". What the Japanese gov't WAS doing was saying, "We will continue fighting unless you give in on these points."

The point they wanted was to keep the emperor in his position. That was a phrase that carried the meaning of keeping all of the gov't of Japan in place. We allowed the emperor to live, but only if he took orders from us. That mean unconditional surrender of the gov't. BIG DIFFERENCE. Of course certain posters here refuse to see that difference.

Far greater fatalities were incurred in the fire bombings of various cities. Both Hiroshima and Nakasaki were on the list, with all the other yet unfirebombed, to be torched. So their populations would have still died, even without the nukes. Over 100,000 were killed in one fire raid on Tokyo itself. The destruction of the remaining cities would have killed several times the total that the nukes did.

The invasion of the mainland was scheduled for November 1945. The Japanese had already deduced where we would have to invade and were fortifing the area. Since they fought determinedly, and since they would have been defending the homeland itself, the battles would have been literally to the last person. Even civilians, including women and children, were being given bamboo spears and were expected to fight. We would have had to killed everyone.

By November we would have had nine A-bombs available.

Regarding the forgivness of war crimes as a condition of surrender. It is impossible to prove a negative, so I can't prove that we didn't. The burden of proof is upon those who maintain it. I have never seen this in any reputable history. It smells like conspiracy theory stuff to me. One certain poster here seems to begin from the premise that America is the most evil nation ever, and accepts only arguements and sites that agree with that notion. I would like to see a REPUTABLE sources for that allegation. No CT sources please.

Consider this alternate history for a moment. Truman decides the A-bomb is just too terrible to use. The war continues. Japanese fatalities are in the millions and USA fatalaties are over 100,000. Every city and town in Japan is firebombed. We force them to surrender with a bayonet at the throat of the Emperor. 60 years pass and the same posters that hate us for using the bomb are hating us for not using a tool that could have shocked the Japanese into surrender.