This Day in History

[Webstral]

I know a lot of people call into question the use of the Bomb on two Japanese cities. One has to wonder, though, whether it would be better to kill ten or a hundred times as many women and children in a more decentralized fashion. There is every reason to believe that the fighting for the Japanese home islands would have been every bit as bloody as Okinawa. The death toll among Japanese civilians would have been catastrophic—even compared to the death toll from strategic bombing to that point. A million American soldiers, a half-million British soldiers, four million or more Japanese soldiers, and 10 million or more Japanese civilians… To me, there’s no real choice. If you can save these lives by taking 100,000 in a spectacular fashion, take the 100,000 and call it bargain.