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The fire bombing of Tokyo is a good reminder of the impending horrific death and damage Japanese cities would have suffered if we had preceded an invasion of the home islands with carpet bombing, both explosive and incindiary. Hordes of B29s would have killed large numbers of civilians in a protracted preparation to an amphibious invasion, not to mention naval bombardment. It would have been horrific.*****************
I honestly don't believe world war is possible today for that reason. It is like Einstein said, "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
World War 3 would be the last war, and everybody knows it.
Nuclear weapons are the only "defensive" weapons feasible for the West. Iraq demonstrated why conventional occupy and hold of rogue countries does not work well, without massive commitment of resources. I would add the excellent analysis by Edward Luttwak in the August 1982 issue of Commentary Magazine (link). As Edward Luttwak explained in this article (quote is two paragraphs of 28 page article):
Quote:
Originally Posted by Edward Luttwak in Commentary - August 1982
In the face of an offensive threat by an armored-mobile army (unless the defenders are vastly superior in sheer strength), one of two conditions must obtain to make a successful defense possible: either the defenders must be ready and willing to attack first, in order to disrupt an offensive preemptively; or else the defense must have considerable geographic space in which to maneuver and fight in a defense-in-depth strategy. If NATO had the political will, the training, and the organization to strike first in the face of massing Soviet forces, the latter could not safely form up in deep columns for the attack and would instead have to dilute their strength to form a defensive array of their own. This option is purely theoretical in NATO’s case. It is impossible to imagine that so many diverse governments would agree to let their national forces engage in a preemptive attack to anticipate a Soviet invasion before the outbreak of war. More likely, in the face of a Soviet mobilization and a build-up of divisions opposite NATO, there would be demands for negotiations to settle the crisis by what would no doubt be called “political means,” i.e., eager concessions.
***********
And since NATO is a defensive-only alliance, the Soviet army could concentrate its forces in powerful offensive thrusts aimed at narrow segments of that front.
I always offer this proof that the atomic bomb was necessary to defeat Japan quickly and with the least amount of casualties on both sides.
Here is your proof.
Any sane nation would have stopped fighting after one atom bomb completely vaporized a large, populous manufacturing city. That it took a second atomic bomb to convince Japan to stop fighting, proves how stubborn they were and how reluctant they would have been to surrender without the use of the atom bomb.
It's even worse than that. Any completely sane nation would have stopped fighting once the enemy had secured bases from which long-range bombers could attack their homeland. This happened in June 1944 when the U.S. seized the Marianas.
Any mostly sane nation would have stopped fighting once their naval forces have been defeated to the point that they could no longer offer any defensive capability, let alone an offensive one. This happened in October 1944 when the U.S. won the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Any reasonably sane nation would have stopped fighting once their capital city had been burned to the ground by enemy air raids. This happened in March 1945 when Tokyo was firebombed into ashes.
Any even slightly sane nation would have stopped fighting once nearly all of their major cities had been destroyed, and they could no longer import food or raw materials because their merchant marine had been sunk, and they couldn't even provide their factories with domestic coal because the Hokkaido-Honshu ferries had been sunk, and enemy warships stood off the coast and shelled their factories with impunity, and their population was facing imminent starvation. All of this had happened by early August 1945.
If Japan's leadership had been even slightly sane, they would have thrown in the towel by this point (if not long before), and Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have survived the war intact. (And maybe Toyama would have survived too, instead of having a stunning 99 percent of its buildings burned out on a firebombing raid on August 1, 1945.)
But they didn't. They were determined to fight on to the end, being perfectly willing to sacrifice the lives of untold numbers of Japanese civilians. The blood of the victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and in all of the other destroyed cities is on their hands, and theirs alone.
And once again we see how an authoritarian government steeped in death cult fanaticism and mindless devotion to the leader absolutely destroys itself. If Japan had succeeded with its creation of a slave empire in Asia only the military elite, the monarchy and the Zaibatsu would have reaped any benefit.
Disagree. USA made the 'choice' to drop the bombs. Please refrain from playing the childish mindset of 'you made me do it. '.
USA is 100% accountable and responsible for the effects this bomb had on a nation.
No.human deserved that atrocity set upon them.
Those bombs saved countless lives.
.. American soldier ones.
Handling the japanese attacks on America in ww2 Is a snap for this generation -they know exactly how they would have handled it -just like they know exactly how they would handle a violent Armed 220 lb man jumping on a cop -
Of course they do all that while hiding under the furniture and taking cell phone videos
Handling the japanese attacks on America in ww2 Is a snap for this generation -they know exactly how they would have handled it -just like they know exactly how they would handle a violent Armed 220 lb man jumping on a cop -
Of course they do all that while hiding under the furniture and taking cell phone videos
Sadly, I foresee the next memorial that will be defaced and torn down is the WWII Memorial in Washington DC., such is the state of historical revisionism.
It's even worse than that. Any completely sane nation would have stopped fighting once the enemy had secured bases from which long-range bombers could attack their homeland. This happened in June 1944 when the U.S. seized the Marianas.
Any mostly sane nation would have stopped fighting once their naval forces have been defeated to the point that they could no longer offer any defensive capability, let alone an offensive one. This happened in October 1944 when the U.S. won the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Any reasonably sane nation would have stopped fighting once their capital city had been burned to the ground by enemy air raids. This happened in March 1945 when Tokyo was firebombed into ashes.
Any even slightly sane nation would have stopped fighting once nearly all of their major cities had been destroyed, and they could no longer import food or raw materials because their merchant marine had been sunk, and they couldn't even provide their factories with domestic coal because the Hokkaido-Honshu ferries had been sunk, and enemy warships stood off the coast and shelled their factories with impunity, and their population was facing imminent starvation. All of this had happened by early August 1945.
If Japan's leadership had been even slightly sane, they would have thrown in the towel by this point (if not long before), and Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have survived the war intact. (And maybe Toyama would have survived too, instead of having a stunning 99 percent of its buildings burned out on a firebombing raid on August 1, 1945.)
But they didn't. They were determined to fight on to the end, being perfectly willing to sacrifice the lives of untold numbers of Japanese civilians. The blood of the victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and in all of the other destroyed cities is on their hands, and theirs alone.
Spot on. Thanks for teaching me 2 things I didn't know.
What most of these morons don't know is more were killed in the firebombing of Tokyo than were killed at Hiroshima or Nagasaki, the difference is 1 plane and bomb instead of 1000 planes and 100000 bombs. The Japanese were ready to fight to the last person, the atomic bombs changed their mind.
Another indicator of Japanese determination is Suicide Cliff in on Saipan, where hundreds of women jumped to their deaths rather than be captured by US soldiers, even throwing their babies over the cliff or jumping with them. I realize they were brainwashed to believe they would receive brutal, inhumane treatment if captured, but that indicates the extent to which Japanese soldiers would resist a US invasion.
Speaking of which, over half of the defeated Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima chose death over surrender. Yet another indicator of their extreme commitment to fighting to the last man. This is on an isolated rock in the ocean. Imagine the defense of Honshu.
Another indicator of Japanese determination is Suicide Cliff in on Saipan, where hundreds of women jumped to their deaths rather than be captured by US soldiers, even throwing their babies over the cliff or jumping with them. I realize they were brainwashed to believe they would receive brutal, inhumane treatment if captured, but that indicates the extent to which Japanese soldiers would resist a US invasion.
Speaking of which, over half of the defeated Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima chose death over surrender. Yet another indicator of their extreme commitment to fighting to the last man. This is on an isolated rock in the ocean. Imagine the defense of Honshu.
I've seen videos of women jumping off the Saipan cliffs. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Skip ahead to 1:50. I don't know why, but seeing that woman in particular throw herself off the cliff, it's so unbearably sad to me.
But the civilians had been so thoroughly indoctrinated that they preferred to kill themselves rather than be captured by the Americans. Watch this video; watch that poor woman needlessly ending her life, then multiply her by 1 million or 5 million or 10 million. That's just one of the horrors that would have accompanied an American invasion of Japan's home islands.
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