Were the Atom Bombs on Japan Nessesary

[ironman]

Were the Atom Bombs on Japan Nessesary..
Some people say that the Americans dropped them as warning for the Russians who just declared war on japan (after German caputilation)..

[SilentVoice]

well i think the war would have pretty much the same end but it would last much longer and lets not forget again a lot of ppl would (but not all of them japs unlike with the Atom B)so i thik it was a good thing.

[JNK]

I think that USA wanted to show they power to USR, because the allies leaders had a little argument after Maltas meeting 1945.... And they wanted to end war radically....

[Zecristo]

I caught a glimpse of the end of a TV documentary about that same question just a few days ago.

Militarily necessary?
No, I don't think so. There were other alternatives. Much argue seems to be on nowadays about the japanese jet fighters that were about to enter service could reverse the result of the war but the thing is that a jet fighter would mean nothing if it was to be produced in small numbers, and if there were no ammunition, fuel and experienced pilots to run it. That's what happened with the german Me 262, which allied fighter pilots found very hard to deal with while on air but was destroyed in much greater numbers when on ground by bombing and strafing airfields (actually the allied fighter pilots fancied the most to take them down while they were landing or taking off) and was never present above german skies in sufficient numbers to influence the result of the european war because of all those reasons.
Japan had nothing in a way of a nuclear program that could compare to the US’s or a rocket weapon even remotely similar to the german V2, at least not ready to use (they had something very like the V1), although they seem to have had a quite disturbing biological warfare program.
Would they use biological warfare on their own soil? Not completely unsound from the Kamikaze country but I think they would not.
All things considered, if american soldiers were to be spared a costly invasion of Japan, two alternative ways could have been tried and none was.
Diplomacy was tried on Japan’s side but they chose the wrong intermediary, Mr. Stalin, who was unwilling to let go of the opportunity of carving a slice of japanese territory like he did in Europe. No diplomatic effort seems to have been made by the US to end the war before the bombs were dropped. Offering the retaining of the Emperor to the japanese before the bombs were used could have ended the war sooner and with lesser destruction and loss of life. Or could have failed too, but the point is that it was never tried.
Another alternative I think less usually considered was to starve Japan into submission by naval (and air) blockade as the germans tried against Britain by means of their two U-Boat wars on both World Wars.
And believing on some japanese sources when the boms were dropped Japan was already very near to stop working as a country because of severe widespread shortages of vital supplies both to military and civilian activities.
However that would have allowed Tovarich Stalin to launch his invasion of Japan and he would have not loose any heart with the prospect of high soviet casualties.
So the US discarded a relatively safe but slow approach to the japanese question.
But let me now reverse the “what if” question and ask what would have happened if the Kamikaze spirit prevailed even after the dropping of the second bomb. We could have now a huge atomic cemetery there and a little bit more of radiation on the atmosphere. Or maybe an invasion would have had to be made despite the use of some atomic weapons after all.

Politicaly necessary?
That is another very different field.
Most probably the “politicians need” to impress Tovarich Stalin played a very important role on the decision to use the bombs and probably also the “curiosity” of scientists and the “military practicality” of generals.

That the horror witnessed from the effects of the use of the weapon contributed to the fact that apparently it wasn’t as yet been used in anger again is a line of thinking I like to pursue. It at least gives me the illusion that those hundred thousands that died, and were injured in so many ways were not lost and hurt in complete waste...

[flying]

Question: "When is it better to drop a bomb (conventional or not) than to use ground troops?"

Answer "When you dont give a damn about civilian casualties among the enemy and you want to spend as few of your own soldiers as possible..."

With this in mind, I read some time ago (can't remember where, but it must have been on a revisionist site/book) that the invasion of Japanese soil by US foot-soldiers for the effects of mopping-up any remaining Jap combatants (this includes civilians with weapons) would cost the US Armed Forces approx. 10,000 casualties and would take at least 1 more year.

I remember some uncanny details about the plans of Japanese "Civil Defense" for the final defense. It included, among other weird things, arming school girls with bamboo spears... Pointed sticks against heavy-weapons like flamethrowers, now that would have been really effective!.

If to that you add the well-known fact that the later kamikaze airplane pilots were school boys flying defective airplanes after only a few hours of flight-training on flight simulators made of wooden crates and metal wires (main emphasis on flight manouvers went to the near-vertical dive...), I guess Zecristo's answer of whether or not the Japanese would be willing to use germwarfare on their own soil and sacrifice their own population is already answered, wouldn't you think so?

[Piurek]

I think that it wasnt nessersry but it was the most simple thing USA could do.They always make things dumb fast and bloody