04-13-2023, 10:23 AM
(04-13-2023, 09:26 AM)BFritz21 Wrote: I don’t even remember making that!
Covid brain!
lol
I figured that the answer would probably be because their Air Force had been destroyed, but then you have to wonder why we’d even drop the bombs?
What movie was that where they said it was just to scare the Russians? Outbreak?
There are some theories that the U.S. dropped the bombs partially due to the Soviet Union, yes. The two countries didn't trust each other. However, that isn't the primary reason. The Japanese knew that the war was lost and were struggling internally on how to deal with this. The country was destroyed and starving. There were individuals in the government that wanted to fight until the last man and there were individuals who wanted to surrender. The Japanese contacted the Allies to negotiate a truce but the Allies would only accept complete, unconditional surrender. This didn't sit well with the Japanese as they wanted Emperor Hirohito to stay in power. This was at a time where many people worshipped the Emperor, and he was likely to be tried for war crimes and executed if he was removed from power.
The United States wanted to use these new bombs and end the war as quickly as possible. The most common fact you'll hear quoted about the decision to drop the bombs is one about the number of Purple Hearts manufactured in preparation for a mainland invasion of Japan. Since the invasion never happened, these Purple Hearts were put into a stockpile and we still have not gone through that stockpile. So, all of the injured in the Korean War, Vietnam War, Desert Storm, Afghanistan/Iraq were still not enough to exhaust that supply. The casualty estimates were in the millions. A struggle that U.S. leaders faced was related to the bombs themselves - they had these immensely powerful bombs that could maybe end the war quickly. If they didn't use them and millions of people died fighting the war further, how would that be received? The opportunity was there. It was believed that the Japanese would fight to the last man, and there were some in the Japanese government who were certainly ready to do so.
Regarding the Soviets, it has been argued that the U.S. also dropped the bombs to display the immense power and destruction they can cause. I've seen people argue that this is a major reason why no more atomic bombs have been dropped to this day. If the U.S. didn't drop them, would the Soviets have dropped them on another country? There's no way to know but it is a possibility.
