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There are deep complexities to the war with Japan. The willingness of Japanese pilots to use kamikaze tactics provides evidence that they'd fight until the end

There are deep complexities to the war with Japan. The willingness of Japanese pilots to use kamikaze tactics provides evidence that they'd fight until the end costing, as you said, untold lives in the conflict. But we also cannot escape the fact that the majority of the people affected by Little Boy and Fat Man were civilians. I believe that we could have chosen targets which properly demonstrated the futility of continued military resistance, without the need for the civilian deaths which we incurred by bombing cities.

Animats 3y ago
Read "Japan's Longest Day", by Kazutoshi Hando and the Pacific War Research Society, which goes into great detail about how the decision to surrender was made. Many of the key players were still alive when this was written in the 1960s, and many were interviewed. The surrender almost didn't happen. A sizable fraction of the Army leadership wanted to fight on, and tried hard, in a near-coup, to block the Emperor from issuing the surrender proclamation. The US plan for invasion, "Operation Downfall" [1], called for what planners expected to be an invasion with a million casualties on the American side alone. It was scheduled for 1 November 1945. On the Japanese side, "The Glorious Death of One Hundred Million" was a slogan. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall
- Animats 3y ago
  There is a movie version of "Japan's Longest Day".(1967). It's from Toho, and the Internet Archive has a subtitled version. This is a reasonably accurate account of the decision to surrender and the infighting around it, entirely from the Japanese side. Parts of the Army desperately wanted to continue the war. The war faction attacked the Imperial Palace, killed people there, tried to kill the Prime Minister but couldn't find him, and burned his house. The senior Army leadership's thinking was not insane. They realized ultimate defeat was inevitable. If the Allies invaded and suffered high casualties, Japan might be able to negotiate better terms than unconditional surrender. The Emperor rejected that plan. The Minister of War and the Army chief accepted that decision. Some junior Army leaders still wanted to take that path and revolted. The revolt was violent but unsuccessful. It was a close thing. All this was after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Before that, surrender was not seriously considered. [1] https://archive.org/details/japans-longest-day-1967 https://archive.org/details/japans-longest-day-1967

Animats 3y ago

Read "Japan's Longest Day", by Kazutoshi Hando and the Pacific War Research Society, which goes into great detail about how the decision to surrender was made. Many of the key players were still alive when this was written in the 1960s, and many were interviewed. The surrender almost didn't happen. A sizable fraction of the Army leadership wanted to fight on, and tried hard, in a near-coup, to block the Emperor from issuing the surrender proclamation. The US plan for invasion, "Operation Downfall" [1], called for what planners expected to be an invasion with a million casualties on the American side alone. It was scheduled for 1 November 1945. On the Japanese side, "The Glorious Death of One Hundred Million" was a slogan. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall

Animats 3y ago
There is a movie version of "Japan's Longest Day".(1967). It's from Toho, and the Internet Archive has a subtitled version. This is a reasonably accurate account of the decision to surrender and the infighting around it, entirely from the Japanese side. Parts of the Army desperately wanted to continue the war. The war faction attacked the Imperial Palace, killed people there, tried to kill the Prime Minister but couldn't find him, and burned his house. The senior Army leadership's thinking was not insane. They realized ultimate defeat was inevitable. If the Allies invaded and suffered high casualties, Japan might be able to negotiate better terms than unconditional surrender. The Emperor rejected that plan. The Minister of War and the Army chief accepted that decision. Some junior Army leaders still wanted to take that path and revolted. The revolt was violent but unsuccessful. It was a close thing. All this was after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Before that, surrender was not seriously considered. [1] https://archive.org/details/japans-longest-day-1967 https://archive.org/details/japans-longest-day-1967