Iraq Point

What would happen if instead of bombing hiroshima an invasion happened?

What do you think would be the consequences if instead of bombing Hiroshima USA went ahead with the invasion?

Public Comments

1. mass american casualties. far more than if we hadn't bombed them. almost guaranteed.
2. Americans would have died by the hundreds of thousands and Japanese would have died by the millions. Even their women were learning to use naginatas and other weapons in preparation to fight to the last man/woman/child. It was their culture. The nuclear weapons convinced the Japanese that they could not die with honor and had no chance whatsoever of winning, so there was no point in getting killed for nothing. The folks who dropped those bombs understood the Japanese mentality and came up with a victory that would cost the least number of lives.
3. The estimates by the American planners were for up to 1 million American deaths. Japanese deaths were not even considered by American planners. The Russians also had a huge Army which had been released from Europe and would have been used in Asia. The opening offensive happened between the dropping of the two bombs, If an invasion had been required, it would have been catastrophic for both sides, the world we know would be very different. The Japanese people would have been decimated. By the end of the war they were taking casualties of 30-40 to 1. This did not include civilian casualties. Firebombing was becoming an especially effective tactic against civil populations, more were killed in Tokyo than in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On a personal note, I might not be here as my father would have been involved. There are many million Americans in the same position as me. Think about the possibility of 20 million Americans of the younger generation never being born because their grandfather or great grandfather was killed in Japan.
4. Japan could have won. Heres the reasoning behind my thinking. Japan developed thousands of jet fighters and bombers that were hiding under Mount Fuji if an American invasion occured. The U.S. already calculated that if they invaded Tokyo or mainland Japan, that an estimated one million men would have been killed, but if you factor in all the jet planes that were ready to ambush an American invading fleet, this could have very much turned the tide of the war in Japans favor, much like what happened except opposite in the Battle of Midway. Japan was also working on biological weapons in mainland Asia and also a bomber plane that could fly to America and back to Japan without refueling. Japan could have bombed the U.S. with biological weapons almost equivalent to an atomic bombs destruction, minus the damage to buildings.
5. Gen.Douglas MacArthur was asked by President Truman what the projected casualties would be for an invasion of mainland Japan. Gen. MacArthur had been very close with all his other casualty projections from the island hopping campaigns in the Pacific. He told President Truman 1 million, and Truman decided to use the atomic bombs. With a 1 million casualty projection the dead would have been about 300,000 to 350,000 Americans, and the rest wounded. The war was costly enough in many terms. I think looking at it this way what would any reasonable person who was president have done. The American war deaths in the WWII were 450,000 you can add the two numbers together, some of us would not be here now. (even if you, your father or your grandfather, didn't fight in the war your mother's father or grandfather might have.) The same goes for the Japanese. The bomb saved lives. The Japanese had no chance of winning the war by that time they had no fleet left. The American fleet was so large it stretched as far as the eye could see from an air plane. The guy with no name(.'s) above must really hate Americans. It's a good thing God was on our side.
6. The Japanese knew an invasion was being prepared. They even trained schoolchildren to use wooden spears - so as to include them in "banzai" attacks. Just consider the effectiveness of a spear against a machine gun or a tank. The previous invasions (Iwo Jima, etc) showed that there would have been 99% Japanese casualties. The civilians were committing suicide in organised groups- even when Japanese speaking translators tried to persuade them otherwise. The estimate for Japanese casualties in the case of an invasion of Japan was 60 milion or more- most due to disease, famine and cold. It seems the Japanese considered (were bred the idea from childhood)that it would be better to die fighting rather than surrender. Conventional warfare would have given them the oportunity of "trying"- which satisfied their idea of "honourable death" The nuclear bombs removed that option. It was a clear message "No matter what you try, you will NOT have an honourable death". At that point surrender became a reasonable option. It still was something that not every Japanese recognised- after the Emperor's surrender speech there were 2 attempts to overthrow the government and continue the war.
7. A good book on the subject was written by a WW2 Historian. "The Burning Mountain" He used both American and Japanese files on what the projected plans and counter-plans would have resulted in. I can't recall the Author though