Why did they nuke Japan?
To save lives – the Battle of Okinawa had shown how fanatically the Japanese military and civilian population would defend their own territory: In the 3-month battle up to 107,000 Japanese soldiers were killed, and another 20,000 sealed alive in caves, and between 10 and 30% of the civilian population were either killed or committed suicide; the US lost nearly 19,000 men killed and 36,000 wounded – twice the totals of the battles of Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima combined. Operation Downfall – the planned conventional invasion of Japan in November 1945 (southern Kyushu) and the Kanto Plain near Tokyo in the spring of 1946, was projected to cost up to 267,000 allied troops killed and 1,000,000 wounded, and up to 4,000,000 Japanese civilians killed. 500,000 Purple Heart medals were minted ready to be issued to wounded troops – thanks to the A-bombing they were not needed, and 120,000 are still in stock in the present day and are issued from stock to wounded troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Desp
