General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A-bombs taught U.S. how to justify attacks abroad [View all]MrModerate
(9,753 posts)One can argue that Japan was ready to surrender and the atomic bombings were unnecessary. However, you can also argue that the Japanese military class would have assassinated Hirohito before he could surrender, if they had the chance. They were, in fact, murdering officials they considered insufficiently ardent on the very day of the Emperor's announcement, and looking for Hirohito himself.
The horror of the bombings made it possible for Hirohito to surrender. Without that impetus, the invasion of Japan's home islands was much more likely to be necessary (under an emperor even more powerless). An invasion preceded by firebombing and just about everything the industrial might of the US could pour onto a small country.
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings saved hundreds of thousands -- if not millions -- of Japanese and Allied lives. It also established for all to see that nuclear weapons could not be exchanged without risking our species' survival.
And that may have saved all of us during the worst parts of the Cold War.