Atomic Bomb Discussion

I am at times a man of numbers and what i'd like to think of as (I'm probably mistaken) Infallible logic. So when confronted with the pure facts of casualties I see (or choose to see) the fact that dropping the Atomic Bomb was the quickest way to the end, and the definitive lesser of two evils.

Let us take a quick gander at the Numbers given (fickle as they may or may not be):

During and after the Fall of Germany, American Bomber command was seemingly randomly targeting areas of Tokyo and other Metropolitan parts of Japan and subjected them to intense firebombing. As quoted from (http://www.japanfocus.org/-Mark-Selden/2414) "Overall, by one calculation, the US firebombing campaign destroyed 180 square miles of 67 cities, killed more than 300,000 people and injured an additional 400,000, figures that exclude the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This Firebombing campaign was estimated to have occurred from the end of February to the beginning of August, a mere 5-6 months.

Those that argue that the war would have ended without the bomb given time can be confronted by a single figure. The Invasion of Japan was scheduled for 2-3 months after the tentative Atomic Bomb date. Roughly plotting the damage caused by the Ongoing firebombing campaign, the casualties would have ranged anywhere from 150,000 to 200,000 people in deaths only. This does not include the bloodshed that would have undoubtedly occurred had we proceeded with the Invasion of Japan.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined totaled 220,000 deaths, including those observed by radiation caused illnesses over the last century. In a numbers game, the observation favors the bold (in this case the atomic bomb-droppers). The shock effect, coupled with the instant annihilation of 140,000 lives in Hiroshima would have probably been enough to end the war by itself. Yet that is not today's discussion. The only question answered her was whether or not the dropping was justified. I think it was, undeniably, simply by looking at the numbers.


~linus