soc.history.war.world-war-ii

Cubdriver wrote:
> On Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:19:01 -0400, thornley@visi.com (David Thornley)
> wrote:

> >Two nukes later, and the situation was considerably changed.

> Well, it was two nukes and a Russian invasion of Manchuria.

The former was the unexpected event.

> Tokyo, note, was still a working city in August 1945, months after the
> first firebombing raid. It is possible that more people died in Tokyo
> in March than died at Hiroshima in August, but their deaths did not
> stop the city from functioning as the capital and nerve center of the
> Empire.

It should also be noted that Tokyo is VASTLY larger than Hiroshima or
Nagasaki. A nuke of that time might have stopped it from functioning,
but that's not guaranteed. (Indeed, even Hiroshima and Nagasaki
retained some functionality.)

Mike