dereck
Posts: 2800
Joined: 9/7/2004 From: Romulus, MI Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: usersatch I saw the tail end of some program on PBS the other nite. It was full of A-bomb apologists saying there was no need to drop the bomb, casualties from the invasion wouldnt have been too bad, etc. My favorite was someone saying that it was unenthical to use the A-bomb on civilians...like the multi-hundred B-29 incediary raids on Jap cities killing as many people was OK??? I'm very prejudiced against the Japanese (despite being stationed there on the Midway for 3 years) because the Japanese have NEVER apologized for Pearl Harbor. I also remember seeing a show where a Japanese veteran mentioned the Japanese attempt to build an atomic bomb and stated flat-out that had they developed one they surely would have used it. Anyways, here is data from page 2,551 of "History of the Second World War", edited by Sir Basil Liddell Hart: Line up for Operation Olympic: Troops: Japanese - 2,300,000 regular troops PLUS 28,000,000 local volunteers Allies - 650,000 regular troops Aircraft: Japanese - 5,350 (confused here but it also implies another 5,350 Kamikaze or that all were Kamikaze) Allied: 9,000 Aircraft Carriers: Japanese - 0 Allied - 20 Battleships: Japanese - 0 Allied - 9 Cruisers: Japanese - 0 Allied - 22 Destroyers: Japanese - 19 Allied - 80 Special attack craft (Kamikaze): Japanese - 3,300 Here's the text that is below the chart word for word: "The regular Japanese troops facing the 'Olympic' invasion vastly outnumbered the assault force; and in addition to their regular forces the Japanese hoped to mobilise a huge volunteer army, armed mostly with bamboo spears. The US and British naval task forces had no direct opposite numbers at all, for the once-powerful Japanese fleet had been whittled down to vanishing-point in the Battles of the Philippine Sea, of Leyte Gulf, and of Okinawa. But the Japanese fleet of kamikaze vessels - each of them intended to eliminate an enemy ship - could theoretically wipe out the entire invasion fleet; and this was only the naval element of Japan's suicide defence force - exactly half the remaining Japanese aircraft were kamikaze machines. And this was only the battle for Kyushu ... " It's easy to second-guess things 60 years later but with the 1945-mindset, after the costs of taking just Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Truman's decision to use the bomb was almost a sure thing.
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PO2 US Navy (1980-1986); USS Midway CV-41 (1981-1984) Whidbey Island, WA (1984-1986) Naval Reserve (1986-1992)
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