When We Dropped The Atomic Bombs…..

[Stewy]

(04-13-2023, 09:26 AM)BFritz21 Wrote: 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?

The Japanese had 10,000 short range kamikaze fighters ready to hit every kind of landing craft (not Navy fighting vessels) coming at the Southern Island.

Every Japanese citizen (elderly, man, woman, child) was being trained to fight with everything they had, and to the death, every step of the way, and by all reports, from the US and Japan, they were prepared to do it.

The Japanese homeland build up and the experience of fighting a dug in and determined Japanese enemy on Okinawa, lead to astronomical estimates for causalities and dead, which is what convinced the President to use the bomb.

Note that yes this is from a Wiki, but it mesh's with several documentaries, and books that I have read.  Post war documents detailing Japan's preparation and determination to repel an allied invasion, showed that the larger estimates were probably under estimated as well.

Quote:On 15 June 1945, a study by the Joint War Plans Committee,[17] who provided planning information to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, estimated that Olympic would result in 130,000 to 220,000 U.S. casualties, with U.S. dead in the range from 25,000 to 46,000. Delivered on 15 June 1945, after insight gained from the Battle of Okinawa, the study noted Japan's inadequate defenses due to the very effective sea blockade and the American firebombing campaign. The Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General of the Army George Marshall, and the Army Commander in Chief in the Pacific, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, signed documents agreeing with the Joint War Plans Committee estimate.[18]

The Americans were alarmed by the Japanese buildup, which was accurately tracked through Ultra intelligence.[19] Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson was sufficiently concerned about high American estimates of probable casualties to commission his own study by Quincy Wright and William Shockley. Wright and Shockley spoke with Colonels James McCormack and Dean Rusk, and examined casualty forecasts by Michael E. DeBakey and Gilbert Beebe. Wright and Shockley estimated the invading Allies would suffer between 1.7 and 4 million casualties in such a scenario, of whom between 400,000 and 800,000 would be dead, while Japanese fatalities would have been around 5 to 10 million.[20][21]

While it's easy to stand back and condemn the use of the bomb in retrospect, at the time is saved potentially over 10 million lives.  However, if the President had had hindsight into the long lasting effects of the radiation, fallout and long lasting political ramifications of using the bomb, he probably would have been faced with the single most excruciating decision in the history of the world.