Atomic bomb survivors want an apology from Obama.

[Jon-Erich]

Soundwave said:

Jon-Erich said:

Oh yeah, the Russians had every intention in moving in on Japan. The atom bombs not only brought a quick surrender but it also sent a message to the Russians to stay away. The Emperor and his advisors also feared the Russians but the extreme right-wing element of the Japanese imperial army who were encouraging citizens to fight to the death and were also trying to take over the government while holding the Emperor hostage didn't give a shit about the Russians. But again, history was on Japan's side. What happened in Germany and Korea could have easily happened in Japan. It didn't. As I said before, out of all the terrible decisions that were made, the ussage of the atom bombs were the least terrible. If anything, they saved Japan.

If the US did drop nukes on Japan for the main purpose of showing up the Russians though ... it's hard to look at that event as anything other than a massive war crime. 

The narrative that dropping the nukes to prevent a ground war do seem to be a bit dubious considering the US had Japan at that point completely cut off and surrounded without the ability to resupply itself. 

Trust me, the US and the Allies had already committed plenty of war crimes in Germany long before those atom bombs were dropped. Nobody who was involved in WWII walked away with clean hands. 

 

 However, the ground invasion was planned for November of 1945 and was expected to last well into 1946. It was known as Operation Downfall while the exact date of the operation (November, 1945) was known as X-Day. While Japan had no way of resupplying itself, the government their had started to train civilians on the basics of hand to hand combat and had also told them to start removing metal pipes from their houses and sharpen them into usable weapons. They were getting to that point of desperation. Japan also had a defense force that was still fairly well equipped. Much of their Navy had been destroyed as well as the Air Force, giving the US free reign of the skies and surrounding sea but the army was the main problem. The idea from the extreme right-wing element of Japan was that surrender wasn't an option while the more reasonable people within the government thought the US and allies would want to agree to what they saw as more reasonable surrender terms. The plans had been drafted without consideration for the atomic bombs sinc ethe bombs was kept a secret from almost everybody and were still technically on the table after the bombs were dropped.