History revisionists state that the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki was immoral and unnecessary. They purport that the Japanese government was ready to surrender before this, albeit with little to no evidence to support this supposition.
Had American troops been forced to fight conventionally on the Japanese mainland, earlier battles in 1945 provide a vivid reminder of the facts that President Harry Truman was dealing with:
Battle of Iwo Jima – 21,844 of 22,060 Japanese troops killed
Battle of Okinawa – 95,000+ of 120,000 Japanese troops killed
Update: Jon Stewart vs. Bill Whittle h/t Sooke
Martin B 9:34 am – The Chinese brutalized by the Japanese – as opposed to who? Mao??
All I know is, we’ve been safe and warm, for 67 years, because Truman did what had to be done. Unfortunately, these threats have to be reinforced, from time to time, to remain effective. That time is drawing near. Who will have the stomach to do what Truman did?
Yesterday on Dennis Prager he talked about Truman’s grandson being in Japan for the memorial of the bombing of Nagasaki. He was disgusted that the ‘kid’ was there. The grandson works with a peace group…
“As terrible as it was, at least it ended the war.”
I will let my late mother-in-law’s words speak for me. She was there; close enough to be officially considered a survivor by the Japanese government. My father-in-law was supposed to have worked in the shipyards, but had traded days off with an unfortunate co-worker. Further improving their luck, they had gone to forage for firewood when the bomb exploded.
Meanwhile, my uncle (US Marine Corps) had just survived the invasion of Okinawa and my dad was an Army Air Corps fighter pilot who would have been deployed from Europe to support the invasion.
If not for the bomb, my life would have been different, or not been at all.
You would have stood at the “hypocentre” of the bomb, unless you were actually on an aircraft high over the city when you passed over the centre.