In this blog I hope to look at the question of the morality
of using the atomic bomb on Japan at the end of the Second World War. Was the
alternate plan a better choice? Could the US have actually defeated Japan
without so much destruction? I plan to explore what the alternative plan would
have brought to the table and look into the changes this would have wrought on
the world today.
The alternative to the atomic bombs was Operation Downfall, an invasion planned by the US high
command for taking on the Japanese mainland. This would be the monumental task
to end all tasks. The island hopping campaign that pushed the Japanese military
back to Japan had been a meat-grinder. The Japanese fought bitterly for every
inch of these islands they had claimed, how much more, then could they be
counted on to fight for their homes? The planners of Downfall had to take this
into account. In fact, according to this article by Gerry Rising, the US troops would have to
view the entire civilian population as possible combatants.If Downfall was to be launched it may have been the bloodiest campaign in all human history, in fact the aggregate casualty estimates for both sides number well into the tens of millions. We can only speculate on the lasting effects of so much loss on both nations. If the death toll was high enough it may have entirely eliminated the Baby Boom. With so many fewer returning service people industry in America may have been direly effected and in Post-war Japan there may not even have been any industry to speak of. This is all, of course, idle speculation from the comfortable distance of over seventy years in the future. Again there is no real way to know how the conflict would have developed.
There was, however, much dissent as well. Many in the US military felt Japan was on the verge of surrender and that if they were presented an honorable, and equitable way out that they would take it. There were any number of high military minds who felt that Japan was done for and that a Navy led blockade of Japan would finish the war off without the massive death toll of either invasion or bombing. Were they right? There is no way to really know, any attempt to guess is just an exercise in what-if without any way to be absolutely sure. The only thing we know for sure at this point is that at the minimum 200 thousand Japanese men, women, and children perished in what is to date the only use of nuclear weapons in human warfare.
Photo courtesy of http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Med/Lbfm.jpg
