Posted by
Tom L. on Thursday, August 06, 2009 12:00:00 AM
The nuclear weapon "Little Boy" was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, Japan on Monday, August 6, 1945, followed on August 9th by the detonation of the "Fat Man" nuclear bomb over Nagasaki. It is estimated (no one knows for sure) that the bombs killed as many as 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki.
Sixty-four years later, it is easy for some to say the bombs should not have been dropped. But, some prespective.
On the night of 9–10 March 1945, US Army Air Force B-29s dropped 1,700 tons of bombs on Tokoyo. Approximately 16 square miles of the city were destroyed and some 100,000 people are estimated to have died in the resulting firestorm. Not A-bombs -- firebombs, of which the US had many, many more to drop.
On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945 (April Fool’s Day) the US invaded Okinawa. The battle has one of the highest number of casualties of any World War Two engagement: the Japanese lost over 100,000 troops, and the Allies (mostly United States) suffered more than 50,000 casualties, with over 12,000 killed in action. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed, wounded or attempted suicide. Approximately one-fourth of the civilian population died due to the invasion.
Had the USA not dropped the atomic bombs, and had an invasion of Japan been necessary, it is estimted that US and Allied casualties (dead, wounded, missing) would be 1.4 to 4.0 million. Japanese dead have been estimated at 5-10 million.
As absurd as it sounds, the US dropping the atomic bombs saved hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives; both Allied and Japanese.
On a personal note, my father was an Army sergeant scheduled to be part of the invasion force. Had the bombs not been dropped, he probably would have been killed and I would not be here.