be thankful the atomic bombs were detonated on Japan. Millions of Japanese and American (and Cambodian and Chineses and many others) stayed alive because of it, and their descendants are here. And they would not have otherwise been.
We are talking about a bottom estimate of 1.7 million US casualties in an invasion of the home islands (Operation Downfall). And that is a low-ball estimate. And how many Japanese would have died?
It’s hard to say how many Japanese would have died. But undoubtedly more. Far more. Probably at least ten times more. You think Okinawa was bad for civilian and soldiers? Just think of what an invasion of Japan proper would have looked like!
And remember, it took two atomic bombs to get Japan to capitulate. After the first one they still wouldn’t capitulate! So a second one had to be used. Even after that, there was a coup put in motion against Hirohito when it leaked that he was about to surrender.
Read E.B. Sledge’s With the Old Breed to get an idea of what it was like for a Marine on Okinawa and other Pacific islands! On Okinawa alone more than 12,000 Americans died and over 100,000 Japanese died.
And an invasion of the home islands would have been exponentially worse. Yet some people think it would be better for 20 million Japanese to die than use the atomic bombs? Where is your humanity?
To armchair-quarterback look back and fantasize about a different, better outcome is to bask in the faux glow of delusion and moral preening. Let’s try to think more than a millimeter deep, here.
Don’t be a dumb-donkey: A ton of Japanese and Americans are alive today only because of the atomic bombs!