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> What surprised me most how many citizens didn't feel that its use was inhuman. It's all about context. At that point in history, the Japanese forces had alre

> What surprised me most how many citizens didn't feel that its use was inhuman. It's all about context. At that point in history, the Japanese forces had already murdered millions of non-Japanese. Furthermore, firebombing campaigns on Japan caused way more civilian casualties than the atomic bombs. The Japanese leadership was ready to sacrifice millions in a possible ground invasion. Fortunately, the war stopped at "only" two atomic bombs, there were more to come...

PhasmaFelis 8y ago
> Fortunately, the war stopped at "only" two atomic bombs, there were more to come... Not for a while, I think. We only had two bombs at the time. IIRC it would have taken months (weeks?) to build another. The implication that we could just keep dropping a bomb every three days until surrender was a bluff, albeit a very strong bluff.
- zeroname 8y ago
  > Not for a while, I think. We only had two bombs at the time. IIRC it would have taken months (weeks?) to build another. It wasn't that far off: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki#Plans_for_more_atomic_attacks_on_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_a...
rtpg 8y ago
> The Japanese leadership was ready to sacrifice millions in a possible ground invasion This point in particular comes up a lot , but there is scant actual evidence for it. By this point in the war, the constant firebombing had destroyed any sort of infrastructure allowing for such a strong defense. Contemporary US military estimates of a ground invasion get nowhere near those casualty numbers
- zeroname 8y ago
  > This point in particular comes up a lot , but there is scant actual evidence for it. There is scant evidence for this (honest question)? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall#Operation_Ketsug%C5%8D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall#Operation_K... > Contemporary US military estimates of a ground invasion get nowhere near those casualty numbers That's pretty irrelevant, because hindsight is 20/20. Given the conduct of Japanese in the war, it wouldn't have seemed implausible at the time. The soviets sacrificed millions of their people to repel the Nazis.

PhasmaFelis 8y ago

> Fortunately, the war stopped at "only" two atomic bombs, there were more to come... Not for a while, I think. We only had two bombs at the time. IIRC it would have taken months (weeks?) to build another. The implication that we could just keep dropping a bomb every three days until surrender was a bluff, albeit a very strong bluff.

zeroname 8y ago
> Not for a while, I think. We only had two bombs at the time. IIRC it would have taken months (weeks?) to build another. It wasn't that far off: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki#Plans_for_more_atomic_attacks_on_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_a...

rtpg 8y ago

> The Japanese leadership was ready to sacrifice millions in a possible ground invasion This point in particular comes up a lot , but there is scant actual evidence for it. By this point in the war, the constant firebombing had destroyed any sort of infrastructure allowing for such a strong defense. Contemporary US military estimates of a ground invasion get nowhere near those casualty numbers

zeroname 8y ago
> This point in particular comes up a lot , but there is scant actual evidence for it. There is scant evidence for this (honest question)? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall#Operation_Ketsug%C5%8D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall#Operation_K... > Contemporary US military estimates of a ground invasion get nowhere near those casualty numbers That's pretty irrelevant, because hindsight is 20/20. Given the conduct of Japanese in the war, it wouldn't have seemed implausible at the time. The soviets sacrificed millions of their people to repel the Nazis.