“Any reasonable historian who looks at the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan
1.) The planned U.S. invasion of Kyushu (Olympic) in Fall 1945 would have been one of the greatest catastrophes in military history, not least because the Japanese knew precisely where and when it was coming. The follow up on Honshu in 1946 (Coronet) would never have happened because the US U.S.
2.) The often reported estimate of 30-40,000 U.S.
3.) Once the invasion was canceled, as it would have been, the alternatives were continued fire raids, like the one in March 1945 that killed 100,000 in Tokyo
4.) Meanwhile, thousands of Chinese civilians and Allied POWs were dying daily as long as the war lasted…
5.) If it had turned out that tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers were being killed while the U.S. was failing to use a war winning weapon, the Secret Service would probably have taken the lead in lynching Truman in the White House garden…
6.) The argument is not that the bombs saved millions of U.S.
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When I was in college, I did my thesis on the survivors of the USS Houston. What I learned was that the Japanese were under orders to kill all POWs. So, in essence, the lives of many Allies were saved by dropping the bombs. Japan has never apologized for the atrocities committed against the POWs they were holding and Americans held prisoner were forbidden by OUR government from suing Japan and not only that, in the early 2000s, the American's who survived Japanese POW camps were finally given back pay for the promotions they were eligible for during their incarceration without interest.I was fortunate to meet some of the survivors in March 2002 at the annual reunion of the survivors and the "Next Generation." Such gentlemen and they seemed to not hold grudges about what happened to them. I was honored to meet them.
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