Using the bomb saved lives though. Using it twice was overkill perhaps, but a ground invasion of Japan would’ve caused so many more casualties. I would remind you previous napalming of Tokyo killed more than both the nuclear weapons.
Their culture was fight to the death, it would’ve been magnitudes worse with a ground invasion.
including all the issues from radiation decades later? Honest question, but things like that often get overlooked. E.g aftermath of 9/11 cleanup has killed more than 9/11.
It doesn’t really matter if you only add up casualties and extrapolate what a prolonged conventional war would have caused. Conventional raids killed hundreds of thousands of people too and most of it happened in the last 5-6 months of the war. Single raids like the Tokyo firebombing caused close to or maybe above 100k casualties in one night. It’s not difficult to arrive at estimates in the millions for another year of conventional bombing.
Where the argument fails is that there is no way Japan wouldn’t have surrendered anyway with much of its industry destroyed, half of its urban areas destroyed, the blockades, the USSR entering the war, etc. The atomic bombs sped it up by a few weeks at most.
I think you mean using the bomb saved American lives. Because hundreds of thousands died because of said bombs. And they were overwhelmingly civilians.
Using the bomb saved lives though. Using it twice was overkill perhaps, but a ground invasion of Japan would’ve caused so many more casualties. I would remind you previous napalming of Tokyo killed more than both the nuclear weapons.
Their culture was fight to the death, it would’ve been magnitudes worse with a ground invasion.
including all the issues from radiation decades later? Honest question, but things like that often get overlooked. E.g aftermath of 9/11 cleanup has killed more than 9/11.
It doesn’t really matter if you only add up casualties and extrapolate what a prolonged conventional war would have caused. Conventional raids killed hundreds of thousands of people too and most of it happened in the last 5-6 months of the war. Single raids like the Tokyo firebombing caused close to or maybe above 100k casualties in one night. It’s not difficult to arrive at estimates in the millions for another year of conventional bombing.
Where the argument fails is that there is no way Japan wouldn’t have surrendered anyway with much of its industry destroyed, half of its urban areas destroyed, the blockades, the USSR entering the war, etc. The atomic bombs sped it up by a few weeks at most.
I think you mean using the bomb saved American lives. Because hundreds of thousands died because of said bombs. And they were overwhelmingly civilians.
There were other options besides nukes or ground invasion. Yes napalming Tokyo was also horrific, targeting civilians is never okay.
What other options were available? Genuinely curious.
Negotiation. Concessions. Whatever ends killing of innocents.