soc.history.war.world-war-ii

>> .....The A-bomb? It may helped shorten the war, but the main lives it
>> saved
>> were American, not Japanese.
>
> I believe that your comment about the effect of the A-bomb is arguable and
> therefore invalid. It may well be that large numbers of American lives
> were saved by the use of the A-bomb. However, it's probably more than
> likely that even more Japanese lives were spared because the Japanese
> culture which, while it would have required the spilling of a huge amount
> of American blood, would've simultaneously required the unlimited spilling
> of Japanese blood in pursuit of whatever it took to defend the homeland.
> It would be a mistake to think that the Japanese surrendered because of
> such impending loss of life or of the potential destruction of their
> cities or centers of population under A-bomb attack.....they surrendered
> in obedience to their emporer's wishes and orders. Without that, they
> would have continued fighting and dying because surrender is not an
> acceptable part of their culture. Even the culture had to be ignored by
> them in the face of contradictory indications of imperial desire because
> the emporer represented an almost human deity in their eyes and therefore
> one that could not be disobeyed.

Combat deaths are not the only reason for large numbers of death given
a protracted defense of the home islands. Japanese civilians were being
trained to use bamboo spears too. How many would have actually fought
cannot be answered, but even a small number would have made for a
tendency of the Allied troops to shoot first and ask questions later.

For the Japanese Empire to continue fighting through another winter,
even without an invasion or further bombings of the cities, there would
have been a large number of deaths due to mass starvation, lack of heat,
limited medical supplies and destruction of transportation. The blockade
around Japan had become catastrophic with the fall of Okinawa. At the
time of the surrender there were a few thousand fatalities per month
due to the lack of adequate medical care. Another winter of war under
those conditions and we might well be talking about the attempted
genocide of the Japanese people instead of nuclear bombings. We can
only speculate on how many would have died, but even a death rate of
one percent would have meant the better part of a million people. And
several thousand Allied POWs would have had it worse as they were
getting even than the Japanese civilians.

Just on this point alone there is a significant justification for using
any means available to end the war quickly.