Fr Miscamble defending atomic bomb

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My grandpa was a chaplain in the South Pacific and Korea during the conflicts. They and the medics ditched their identifiers in the field because even though japan signed the Geneva convention documents they ordered their troops to use red crosses and religious garb as aiming points.
 
I got my doubts that Truman wasn’t aware that Hiroshima was a city. And he certainly knew that the firebombings of the 6 major cities, beginning with Kobe, earlier in the year, were mass attacks on just that: six major cities.

Estimated number of Japanese in Hiroshima was approx. 350K. Of which Army/military presence was approx. 45K+ All such figures are best guesses. But it was a city with a large military presence, at any rate.
 
GKMotley said:
The Japanese never offered surrender terms
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It seems that this is a very common misconception. The “peace feelers” put out by some in the diplomatic corps were not surrender terms that the Japanese government had agreed to.
 
Mainly originating in the Japanese embassies in Sweden and Switzerland.
 
GKMotley said:
And he certainly knew that the firebombings of the 6 major cities, beginning with Kobe, earlier in the year, were mass attacks on just that: six major cities.
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That is true: there is no doubt that he did not have at least some knowledge of the mass destruction caused by Allied bombing raids on Germany or by the USAAF’s firebombing campaign on Japan (including the devastation of Tokyo in March when he was VP)
 
undead_rat said:
Correction: the great increase in accuracy of ICBMs has allowed their nuclear warheads to be reduced in size to generally about 400 kilotons. That is about 20 times the size of the Hiroshima bomb.
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According to the following article the H-bomb is 5000 times stronger than the Hiroshima blast:

news.sky.com

H-Bomb 5,000 Times Stronger Than Hiroshima Blast

Hydrogen bombs were developed around 60 years ago and use the fusion of hydrogen isotopes to create the rapid release of energy.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
 
Your question is poignant. Far too often in ANY topic, condemnation is wrought without the condemning party stating what they would have done. We see it with Presidents and world leaders today all the time, though most of these decisions are far more nuanced. The decisions made in war are always easy to attack, but involve many more facets and moral complexities than does a decision to lower taxes in peacetime.

So again: “What would you have done in Truman’s place?”
 
Myself likely too; I was repeating it for the poster you quoted, for it is easy to say “what you did is wrong” and harder to say “here is what should have happened to end the war,” especially some 70 years hence.
 
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No doubt the Japanese were already defeated before the atomic bombs were used. But the war was not ended. Casualties and deaths on both sides continues to mount month by month. Even after the two atomic bombs, there continued to be infighting among the top Japanese command pressing for no surrender. Allied invasion plans were ready. Purple hearts were ready to be awarded. Body bags were ready.
 
Your article refers to the Russian experimental 50 megaton bomb. No such device has ever been fitted to any ICBM, and these never carried more than a 5 megaton weapon. As I said, improved accuracy has allowed the individual warheads to be reduced in size to about 400 kilotons which is 20 times the size of the Hiroshima bomb and more than enough to completely destroy the largest city.
 
A war against our former ally that could not be won was hardly “necessary.” This book is nothing more than extreme right-wing BS.
 
So now it’s give unto Christ what is due to Christ and gice to Showa what is due to Showa???
 
why is Vietnam even a subject here, other than the Japanese occupation of (what was then) French Indochina? Irrelevant to WWII.
 
I was not there, of course, and don’t know how many atomic bombs were available for quick deployment, nor any of the other tactical considerations, but I often wonder why Truman didn’t drop one over the ocean or on an uninhabited island, and tell Hirohito, “Watch this. If you don’t surrender, this will happen to you.”
 
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