[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by Azure

And there were reports that Japan was willing to fight to its last person. Like I said, we really don't know which course of action would have saved more lives. On a moral sense, yes I agree that dropping the A-Bomb was wrong simply because of the radioactive fallout, but the guys would built the A-Bomb didn't know it would happen like that.

Yeah, you're right, no one knows for sure what would have happened. We do know what was happening though;

"The first such raid on Tokyo was on the night of February 23–24 when 174 B-29s destroyed around one square mile (~2.56 km²) of the city. Following on that success 334 B-29s took off from the Mariana Islands on the night of March 9–10 heading for Tokyo. After 2 hours of bombardment the wooden city of Tokyo was engulfed in a firestorm. These fires were so hot they would literally ignite the clothing on individuals as they were fleeing. What was particularly horrifying was a lot of the women were wearing what were called 'air-raid turbans' around their heads and the heat would ignite those turbans like igniting a wick on a candle to start consuming the flame. The aftermath of the incendiary bombings lead to an estimated 100,000 Japanese dead. This may have been the most devasting single raid ever carried out by aircraft in any war including the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Around 16 square miles (41 km²) of the city was destroyed in the fire storm. The destruction and damage was at its worst in the city sections east of the Imperial Palace. In the following two weeks there were almost 1,600 further sorties against the four cities, destroying 31 square miles (80 km²) in total at a cost of 22 aircraft. There was a third raid on Tokyo on May 26."

Brutally devestating compared to mere atomic weapons. The above section only describes only a few of the firebombings, though the US did this over nearly every major city on the island. Not saying right or wrong, but I am willing to speculate that use of atomic weapons was completely unnecessary, given that firebombing technically destroyed more area, and killed more people.

I agree 100% about "show the USSR."

I suppose you have to ask what price is appropriate to 'demonstrate' these weapons and US convictions in using them. Apparently the appropriate price is 10's of 1000's of Japanese civilians dead. History has largely exonerated the US for this, so I don't see the major issue, other than the Japanese probably have a right to be a little miffed about it, just as the US does for PHarbour.

And rightfully so, given that they are the worlds true superpower.

Exactly. My original point that you responded to was reasoning 'why are we always talking about the US'. Thats why.

I really can't say if the Japanese Empire was already 98% defeated at that point though.

Well... it was. There was no chance they were going to recover in any way militarily. It was a matter of time (and not much). Its equivalent to the allies fighting into Germany... sure Germany was still fighting, but it was clearly only an issue of when Germany would fall, not if.