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Yasuaki Morita's avatar

What would have happened if the US had not dropped the bombs on Japan? No one knows, but nuclear bombs might have been used against people somewhere else, and it might have been in a way that would have had more disastrous consequences. Japanese learned a lot from the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the damage they did. The fact that nuclear bombs have not been used in war since is a silver lining that humanity can learn something from such tragedies.

There is no doubt that there were Japanese in the heart of the military who were literally willing to fight to the death. From the Japanese perspective, the Kyujo Incident tells us that the atomic bombings did not force the mainland war faction to admit defeat, although the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians undoubtedly changed the balance of power between the peace and mainland war factions among Japanese political leaders. The dropping of the atomic bombs played a decisive role in Japan's immediate acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration (i.e. unconditional surrender), but does it really mean "By any measure it saved lives compared to every other viable alternative"? For example, was it necessary to drop an atomic bomb on Nagasaki in addition to Hiroshima?

I am not here trying to argue that the bombing of Nagasaki was unnecessary. However, I don't think the stories and data you post really support "By any measure it saved lives compared to every other viable alternative".

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