Invasion of Japan: A look at why we dropped the bombs on Aug 6th, 45

[Rams]

http://www.kilroywashere.org/006-Pages/Invasion.html

This should help those who never understood why President Truman ordered the bombs dropped.

An excellent but, lengthy read.    I highly recommend it.

[Oss]

Thanks for the good read !

[Patrick]

Yet there are some that think we should apologize.

[Jess from VA]

Look at their wartime atrocities (from the 30s forward).  They earned every megaton, and saved us a million man invasion.

Apologize my azz.

[John Schmidt]

I sent the link on to my daughters, this is something they never learned in school.

[Robert]

Look at their wartime atrocities (from the 30s forward).  They earned every megaton, and saved us a million man invasion.

Apologize my azz.

 

Totally agree the article is a good read.

[hukmut]

Just another example of what is NOT taught in school.




Ride safe

[Rams]

Just another example of what is NOT taught in school.

Ride safe

Probably the one thing my dad would tell me the most about that time frame of his life and WWII was how much he thought of President Truman.   Said Truman's decision to drop those bombs was what kept him from being shipped to the Far East.   His unit hadn't even gotten back to the states yet.   He had just been brought up from a 1st Sgt to be the acting Sgt Major and knew of plans to reinforce and re-equip for loading out.    Dad was a tanker and was ready to come home.     He wouldn't talk about much of WWII but, he sure did like Truman.     I didn't know a lot that was in that read but, now I understand a lot better what he hinted at.   You're right, we didn't learn all that in school and we should have.    

[Master Blaster]

Yet there are some that think we should apologize.

Yes our president is preparing to do just that with yet another apology tour, Japan and Vietnam this time.  He has to hurry, don't have much more time to junket around the world tearing down America on our nickel.

[Rams]

Yet there are some that think we should apologize.

Yes our president is preparing to do just that with yet another apology tour, Japan and Vietnam this time.  He has to hurry, don't have much more time to junket around the world tearing down America on our nickel.

Not to change the direction of this thread (cause I think it's pretty important folks read that link) but, I believe he still gets to travel on our dime and, he'll have SS protection to travel with him.  

 Back to our regularly scheduled program.  

More good information located here: http://www.kilroywashere.org/004-Pages/Trinity/Trinity.html#WinIwoJima

[Willow]

It was a lot of reading.  I skimmed over most of it.  The short version is there were fewer people killed in the dropping of the two bombs than would have died, Japanese and American, in an invasion of the Japanese homeland.

I spent eighteen months in Japan and did a fair amount of riding around on two of the islands.  My opinion is that an invasion, even by a much superior military force, would have lasted years and would have resulted in a great deal of deaths on both sides.

The United States went out of her way to try to give the occupants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the opportunity to exit the target cities and reduce the atomic bombing to basically a demonstration of capability.  I could be wrong on that detail.  It may have been only one city that was warned.

It was a tough decision for Harry Truman.  The story is he knew little or nothing about the A-bomb until FDR's death.   

[Rams]

The United States went out of her way to try to give the occupants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the opportunity to exit the target cities and reduce the atomic bombing to basically a demonstration of capability.  I could be wrong on that detail.  It may have been only one city that was warned.

According to this website: http://www.kilroywashere.org/004-Pages/Trinity/Trinity.html#WinIwoJima
both cities were warned.   Read something about a leaflet drop, may or may not have been here.

Millions on both sides were saved by dropping those bombs.   

[solo1]

My neighbor, Bill, and I were talking awhile back. He had taken the Honor Flight and I knew that I was going to so he loosened up about his duty in WWII.

He was a paratrooper ending up in Okinawa.  He told me that he wouldn't have been talking to me if the bombs hadn't dropped.  His outfit was briefed on the invasion of Japan. He was told that American casualties would be terrible.  He told me that he would be always grateful to President Truman for saving his life.

It has been the policy of all of the US presidents to never visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki, as that could be taken as an apology, which is never needed.

Now, the POTUS intends to visit Hiroshima and use his last remaining power to screw things up(AGAIN) .  I'm sure that he'll do his best to apologize (AGAIN) for the US. What an ........................... (fill in the blank)

[hubcapsc]

The United States went out of her way to try to give the occupants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the opportunity to exit the target cities and reduce the atomic bombing to basically a demonstration of capability.  I could be wrong on that detail.  It may have been only one city that was warned.

According to this website: http://www.kilroywashere.org/004-Pages/Trinity/Trinity.html#WinIwoJima
both cities were warned.   Read something about a leaflet drop, may or may not have been here.

Millions on both sides were saved by dropping those bombs.   

I watched Fat Man and Little Boy the other day (a movie, not history)
and read several bits about the Manhattan Project first so I could
enjoy the movie more... there's a part of this Wiki page that says
the cities were not warned of the Atomic bombs, though all the
cities that were firebombed were warned...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki

-Mike

[solo1]

When I was going through basic combat medic training in 1952, we viewed a then top secret (behind closed doors) government documentary about dropping the two bombs. The movie showed in depth the results of radiation on the populace of both cities but also, as I remembered it, it was said that the populace was warned with leaflets. Take it for what it's worth.

The effects of radiation and the power of both bombs was evident.  However, it was still worth it.

[The emperor has no clothes]

When I was going through basic combat medic training in 1952, we viewed a then top secret (behind closed doors) government documentary about dropping the two bombs. The movie showed in depth the results of radiation on the populace of both cities but also, as I remembered it, it was said that the populace was warned with leaflets. Take it for what it's worth.

The effects of radiation and the power of both bombs was evident.  However, it was still worth it.

[LandElephant]

When I was on deployments to MCAS Iwakuni in the 70;sand 80;s I toured the museum at Peace Park in Hiroshima.  It was eye opening on showing the effect of the two bombs.  But one piece of information I got out of the walking tour was that Hiroshima was a large supply depot with sea access.  Although the Japanese didn't know the bomb was coming they moved much of the Army out of Hiroshima and force the women and children to stay.

One of the reasons Hiroshima was chosen was that it was a city in a bowl shaped geography that the Americans could study the effects of the explosion and radiation.

Charlie Morse
Land Elephant

[Jess from VA]

On the first nuke use issue, it should be noted that Curtis Lemay's firebombing/incendiary attacks on every major city in Japan caused more damage and personal injury by far than our first two puny nukes did.

Lemay was a a true warrior, and nearly as hard on his men as he was on the enemy.  Of course he later stood up the first ready alert nuke bomber force the world had ever seen (later integrated with missiles and boomer subs).

I had the pleasure of meeting him briefly at March AFB shortly before his death.

The face of combat leadership.

[Rams]

Although the Japanese didn't know the bomb was coming they moved much of the Army out of Hiroshima and force the women and children to stay.

One of the reasons Hiroshima was chosen was that it was a city in a bowl shaped geography that the Americans could study the effects of the explosion and radiation.

Charlie Morse
Land Elephant

Charlie,
I won't say you're wrong but, what you posted goes against a lot of what I've been told and have read about the dropping of the bombs.   I would suggest that there were flyer droppings and the military did move their troops, left civilians to be smoked and burnt alive while they maintained a fighting force.   Of course, I could be wrong but, those two targets had military logistical value and were definitely targeted for a reason.

[Jess from VA]

Hiroshima went as planned.  Due to crosswind, the bomb missed the aiming point, the Aioi Bridge, by approximately 800 ft (240 m).  Twelve American airmen were imprisoned at the Chugoku Military Police Headquarters located about 1,300 feet (400 m) from the hypocenter of the blast.  Most died instantly, although two were reported to have been executed by their captors, and two prisoners badly injured by the bombing were left next to the Aioi Bridge by the Kempei Tai, where they were stoned to death.  Later reports indicated that 8 US prisoners of war held in Hiroshima Castle and executed as part of a medical experiments program prior to the bombing were reported by Japanese authorities as having been killed in the atomic blast.  

The primary target for the second drop was Kokura.  The Yawata Steel Works there burned coal tar to produce heavy black smoke.  They made three runs at the target and could not see it to drop, and were getting (more accurate) antiaircraft fire, and were lower on fuel because of a failed fuel transfer pump.   So they moved on to Nagasaki as the secondary target, but it was obscured by clouds.  A break appeared, and they dropped, but it detonated nearly 3 km (1.9 mi) northwest of the planned target, and the blast was confined to the Urakami Valley, and a major portion of the city was protected by an intervening hill.

At least eight known POWs died from the bombing and as many as 13 may have died, including a British citizen, Royal Air Force Corporal Ronald Shaw, and seven Dutch POWs. One American POW, Joe Kieyoomia, was in Nagasaki at the time of the bombing but survived, reportedly having been shielded from the effects of the bomb by the concrete walls of his cell. There were 24 Australian POWs in Nagasaki, all of whom survived.

Condensed from Wiki: