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US industrial production beat Japan. 108 U.S. Aircraft Carriers bearing down on the Main Islands had a little bit to do with surrender.

cromulent 12y ago
108? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_by_country#Numbers_of_aircraft_carriers_by_country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_by_co...
- tosseraccount 12y ago
  See header. Table doesn't include "escort carriers". U.S. was producing 1 escort carrier per week; and escort carriers did engage in combat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar (6 very surprised US escort carriers take on Imperial Japanese Navy Center Force) British Pacific Fleet had 8 additional carriers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Pacific_Fleet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Pacific_Fleet
  - AnimalMuppet 12y ago
    OK, but you made the claim for 108 carriers. Source?
    - tosseraccount 12y ago
      (sorry) I forgot. Some military chat site debated it and some guy calculated the number of carriers available for Japan assault. There were ~27 big carriers available.
    - mikeash 12y ago
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_in_World_War_II http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_in_World_War... claims 99 carriers at the end of the war, counting both types. I'm not sure where 108 comes from, but it's close.
      - AnimalMuppet 12y ago
        Well, tosseraccount said that the US was building one escort carrier a week. If the invasion would have taken place 9 weeks after the actual end date of the war (plausible), the US could have had exactly 108 carriers at that time.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
kryptiskt 12y ago
Yeah, this was the silliest headline for this item yet. The Pacific Fleet, the Marines Corps and the US Army had a rather bigger role in winning over Japan than both Stalin and Little Boy.
justin_vanw 12y ago
Of course, but not the timing. The story around the bomb is that it convinced the Japanese to surrender without a land invasion of the home islands. Certainly if we didn't have a large conventional military, which is pretty much the exact same as saying the Japanese were winning the war, then they wouldn't have been surrendering, since countries don't surrender just before winning (usually). The question is whether they surrendered specifically out of fear of nuclear weapons, or weather it was because the Soviets invaded Manchuria. I'm sure neither was great news, but it is not clear why they would be especially worried about the Soviets declaring war, I mean they were at war with us and not surrendering for years, and we had 108 Aircraft Carriers!

cromulent 12y ago

108? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_by_country#Numbers_of_aircraft_carriers_by_country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_by_co...

tosseraccount 12y ago
See header. Table doesn't include "escort carriers". U.S. was producing 1 escort carrier per week; and escort carriers did engage in combat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar (6 very surprised US escort carriers take on Imperial Japanese Navy Center Force) British Pacific Fleet had 8 additional carriers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Pacific_Fleet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Pacific_Fleet
- AnimalMuppet 12y ago
  OK, but you made the claim for 108 carriers. Source?
  - tosseraccount 12y ago
    (sorry) I forgot. Some military chat site debated it and some guy calculated the number of carriers available for Japan assault. There were ~27 big carriers available.
  - mikeash 12y ago
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_in_World_War_II http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_in_World_War... claims 99 carriers at the end of the war, counting both types. I'm not sure where 108 comes from, but it's close.
    - AnimalMuppet 12y ago
      Well, tosseraccount said that the US was building one escort carrier a week. If the invasion would have taken place 9 weeks after the actual end date of the war (plausible), the US could have had exactly 108 carriers at that time.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

kryptiskt 12y ago

Yeah, this was the silliest headline for this item yet. The Pacific Fleet, the Marines Corps and the US Army had a rather bigger role in winning over Japan than both Stalin and Little Boy.

justin_vanw 12y ago

Of course, but not the timing. The story around the bomb is that it convinced the Japanese to surrender without a land invasion of the home islands. Certainly if we didn't have a large conventional military, which is pretty much the exact same as saying the Japanese were winning the war, then they wouldn't have been surrendering, since countries don't surrender just before winning (usually). The question is whether they surrendered specifically out of fear of nuclear weapons, or weather it was because the Soviets invaded Manchuria. I'm sure neither was great news, but it is not clear why they would be especially worried about the Soviets declaring war, I mean they were at war with us and not surrendering for years, and we had 108 Aircraft Carriers!