Quote:
Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b
The atomic bombing of Japan was for pure shock value. And yes, one could define it as terrorism. But the firebombing and conventional bombing campaign wasn't getting it done, it was just getting the Japanese more eager to repel the then-coming Allied invasion. Until the atomic bombings, the Japanese were going to fight until the last life.
The atomic bombings were a horrible thing, no question. But they stopped the need for an invasion of Japan, which would have caused a million or more casualties -- on the Japanese side, mostly deaths. It was a horrible act to stop a far more horrible act.
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The atomic bombings of Japan were done for several reasons, only one of which has been mentioned. Shock value was one. The others were as live-fire tests, and as a not-so-subtle message to Stalin. The fact that the arguably more destructive fire-bombing campaign wasn't getting the job done should clue people in to the fact that dropping the atomic bombs did
not shorten the war in the slightest. That many people still continue to believe this common misconception is mostly due to post-war American propaganda and biased historians in the 50s and 60s.
Modern scholars recognize that the actual impetus for Japan surrendering when it did was when the Soviets invaded Manchuria on the same day that the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Faced with daily firebombing raids by the USAAF and an unstoppable land assault (including of the northern Japanese islands) by the Soviets, who didn't care how many troops they lost, some wiser Japanese leaders (about half the inner circle, including the Emperor) decided to end things before they lost to a foe who would never negotiate.
When it was just an Americans invasion the Japanese faced they were perfectly willing to, despite incessant bombing, to continue to fight to the bitter end. But that all changed when the Soviets joined in. The Japanese feared the Russians almost as much as the Germans did. They knew full well the Russians would exact a terrible revenge over their humiliation in 1905. So the Japanese put out feelers to the US and UK about a negotiated surrender that would allow them to keep an Emperor. Something that the Soviets would never have agreed to had the Soviets been allowed longer to grab more turf and gain a bigger say in things.