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Was Dropping the Atomic Bomb Necessary? Considering the Context

• jleyank 11y ago
  The blockade would have been effective, assuming the Allied Nations were able to keep the ships and planes on station. The effect on the Japanese from mines and closing their harbours would have been horrendous. Note that bombing inflicted far worse damage on Tokyo than Hiroshima. It just took a few hundred planes and a few trips rather than one plane and one trip. The bomb was efficient, but firebombing was just as "spectacular" when the conditions were right. Granted, the bomb sent a horrible and significant message, but there were many examples of the horror of large-scale strategic bombing in WW II. If the land invasion of Japan was attempted rather than blockade, the casualties would have been almost unimaginable. There would have been no quarter offered or taken and no noncombatants. One estimate had the US Marine Corps dying on the first day or two of invasion to secure the beach (3 divisions each landing). They were already considering tactical nuclear weapons. If the Kamikazes were more successful than anticipated, I imagine the stigma of chemical weapons would be insufficient to prevent their use. The Allies had to end matters before the home population tired of war. The Japanese knew and planned on this.