If it hadn't been for that bomb and the one that followed they were estimating a million casualties. That would have truly been a tragedy.
Very well said and correct.Tragic that it had to come using the A-Bomb but absolutely the correct decision at that time. I bear no guilt as an American for that, I feel the Japanese set in motion a terrible chain of events, and stuck to that chain to the bitter end, thus causing this unfortunate necessity.
Study the battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa if you want to see the horrors of nationalist fanaticism that US leaders had to soberly contemplate as they made the decision invasion or try these new weapons.
Someone above said one million casualties - that was GEN MacArthur's estimate of US military casualties, the estimates for Japanese casualties were in the several millions.
You may also want to consider that actual death tolls were far worse from the fire bombings of Japanese cities than from the atomic bombs.
Finally, I leave you with these quotes:
I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.
General William T. Sherman
and
“It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.”— Robert E. Lee
The impact of the lightning Soviet advance comes through in the words of Japan's wartime prime minister, Kantaro Suzuki, urging his cabinet to surrender.
He is quoted in Hasegawa's book as saying, "If we miss (the chance) today, the Soviet Union will take not only Manchuria, Korea and Sakhalin, but also Hokkaido. We must end the war while we can deal with the United States."
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