Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
Arguable. Many think the death toll had the bomb not been dropped and a traditional forced surrender happened could have been 10X this. Not to mention the continued loss of life from the Japanese occupation of Asia, which was comparable in many ways to the German occupation of Europe.
Edit: Source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_war_II
The alternative was "Operation Downfall"
Prior to making the decision, Truman was given an estimate of 1.4-4 million allied casualties as well as millions of Japanese and Asian casualties. Yes The few hundred thousand who died in the bombings is tragic, but when faced w/ the alternative... |
Yes, I remember learning about this in history as well. The alternative (invasion of the mainland) would have been an even more tragic loss of life.
I can't remember what the exact translation for the Japanese Defense plan was, but I do remember it being something about "the glorious death of 100 million", which would have involved lining up unarmed civilians on the beaches to face Allied Soliders.
Not exactly going to be an easy surrender.