Why did America drop TWO atomic bombs on japan? I'm not

inb4 pictures of mushroom clouds

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>>1983826
Wandering /k/ommando here. I believe I can field this question.

Because twenty million people, mostly civilians and mostly non Japanese, were already dead; and that every week heightened the death toll.

Because we knew that the Japanese had given orders to kill every Allied POW in the event of a landing.

Because, using the fighting on Okinawa as a metric, we stood fair to lose half a million casualties and kill 20 million people in the event of an invasion. (The Army ordered about that many Purple Hearts for the invasion. Get wounded today in Iraq? Get a medal made in 1945).

Because the sick-making atrocities they committed in places like the Philippines -- nurses gang raped and their eyes gouged out, and so forth -- made us not give two fucks.

That's why.

>>1983826
Because they only had two? I guess if they had 3 or 4 at this point, US would use these too. Hell, I guess if they had a lot of them they'd just drop one every couple days until Japan would surrender.

>>1983855
But why two, would one not have been sufficient? Was three too far?

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Pic highly related

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>>1983882
>would one not have been sufficient?

They didn't surrender after one.

They surrendered after two.

The dominant historiography is traditionalist, and pretty much says to end the war quickly so as to save millions of lives on both sides (the impending 1945-46 invasions of the Japanese mainland would've supposedly resulted in over a million US casualties and millions of Japanese casualties, which is fair to assume considering Okinawa and the Emperor's approval of the military's call for an all-out total war in which millions of military and civilian forces would join together for a last stand against invasion), and to defeat an absolutely barbaric, implacable enemy.

The revisionist view would criticise the 'over a million casualties' claim since there exists no pre-Hiroshima documents which confirm it (initial estimates were closer to 200,000) and it stems from post-war, self-serving recollections. They would also stress that it was to intimidate the Soviet Union and prevent them from gaining a foothold in Japan (Nagasaki was bombed just as the USSR invaded Manchuria).

>>1983882
To show the first wasn't a flash in the pan. Besides, two was all we had.

This is all pretty well documented. Google Operation Downfall for more material.... and then thank God it worked.

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>>1983826
because peleliu

>>1983826
Japan is on the ring of fire and has many active volcanoes. Two volcanoes erupted in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Nazi/Soviet propaganda machine claimed the US developed a magic bomb to slaughter civilian. The US can't control volcanic activity, it was an act of G-d.

>>1983826
The Japanese were warned that if they didn't surrender, a weapon of great power would be used against them. Of course, they didn't believe this, cuz it sounded ridiculous that something as powerful as nukes existed back then. Then we dropped the first bomb; they didn't surrender though. So they were warned again, and the second bomb was dropped. Then they surrendered.

And now they are one of the most advanced countries in the world.

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>>1983826

>>1983897
>They would also stress that it was to intimidate the Soviet Union and prevent them from gaining a foothold in Japan


I never got this argument. The U.S. obviously knew about Hula, since they were providing the ships. They almost certainly knew the state of the Soviet fleet in the Pacific and that if the Russians wanted a foothold in Hokkaido, they'd need U.S. vessels to get them there before the U.S. overran everything.

What on earth would they drop the nukes for to "keep the Soviets out"? If they wanted to keep the Soviets out, they could just not provide them with the boats the Soviets needed to get to Japan.

>>1983945
FDR =/= Truman

That crippled commie rat fuck would probably have given Japan to the USSR but Truman was having none of that shit. It's also worth mentioning that the Russians already had all the ships they needed, they were just spread out. If they brought their fleet to bear against some portion of Japan, they could probably establish a beachhead but the US was really not interested in getting into a shooting war with the USSR and Japan - who we very much wanted on our side, as a stepping stone into east Asia - was incapable of doing so.

>>1984055
>That crippled commie rat fuck would probably have given Japan to the USSR but Truman was having none of that shit.


Training of Soviet naval personnel begin on April 16th, 1945, after Truman had already ascended to the preisdency. The first transfer of a vessel would be in June. Truman was certainly aware of Hula.

>. It's also worth mentioning that the Russians already had all the ships they needed, they were just spread out.

No they didn't. Do you have any idea how much in the way of vessels you need to mount an invasion? Something the size of Overlord took about 5,000 landing craft. Now, the Soviets weren't envisioning something nearly so big, but they were also invading from much further away, meaning a much longer turnaround time to drop off more troops.

By the end of the Kuril Island campaign, they had 11. That's nowhere near enough to go invading Hokkaido with.

>. If they brought their fleet to bear against some portion of Japan, they could probably establish a beachhead

What exactly are you basing this on? Their extensive experience with amphibious invasions?

Do you have any idea what the fuck you're talking about?

>>1983826
They wanted to show everyone that they had more than one bomb.

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>>1983826
Because thr US thought only one would make them look like a pussy to the hard ass no surrender gooks, the second one was a way of saying that nothing is off limits and that you'd better fucking surrender now faggot.

Thanks for everyone so far for not posting mushroom cloud photos
>>1983927
>>1983899
Except this two bitches.
You fuckers don't what strugguling with this fobia and be a interested in history means. I got exaclty 0 culture in japanese war field for this shit. It's not funny seriously. They made the same fucking prank when I was 13 at school with a picture on a book, I fucking punched them as a reflex and got suspended. It's not funny.

>>1984452
>fobia

>>1984457
Phobia.
Not an english speaker

>>1983826
if they didn't then japan would be communist right now

you should thank us

>>1984452
why are you so afraid of atomic mushroom clouds?

>>1984496
No idea man. I just know that I fucking shit my self everytime I see a photo or a video

>>1984515

That makes no sense. They're just clouds. Are you trying to be special?

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>>1983826

The original plan, and what the crews trained for, was to drop on Japan and Germany. Germany surrendered so Japan got both.

>>1984521
People fear spiders. They are just insects, it makes no sense. They are trying to be special?

>>1984515
Its alright. I freak out when seeing pictures of earth from space and don't know why.

>>1984521
Phobias, by definition, are irrational fears.

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>>1984515
Is it actually related to the idea of nuclear war, or are you just afraid of puffy mushroom shapes?

>>1984543
The size of the puffy shapes more than any thing else

>>1984531

Spiders can at least bite you or otherwise violate your personal space by crawling into bodily orifices while you're sleeping. Mushroom clouds are probably never going to be seen by you in real life and even if you were to see one in person it'd just mean you're maybe going to get cancer a few years later.

>>1984542

>irrational

That's a lazy word. Everything's rational, some things just involve more convoluted and/or obscured reasoning than others.

>>1984554
Not all spiders can bite

>>1984559

>Spiders can at least bite you or
>OR

That word "or" means something.

>>1984559
>#notallspiders
I wonder who could be behind this post.

>>1984563

oh fuck off you fucking faggot, spiders aren't even aggressive creatures by nature, they only bite in self defense or to hunt

you should be thankful they save you sorry ass from bugs that would actually try to harm you

you stupid retard

>>1984562
Jeeez.
Not all spiders bite or crawl into your fucking anus

>>1983882
Combination of a lot of things, as last anon mentioned already.

>Japanese bastards were some mean, dirty sons-a-bitch, and we really wanted to give it to them
>Scare Russia into backing the fuck off
>Cement the power of American military might
>General dick-waving
>Didn't think Japanese would have surrendered after just the first one
>Didn't want them to think it was just a one-and-done gimmick
>After first bombing, we wanted to run more conclusive tests, and this would have been the only time we'd have been able to test live nukes against a working population

>>1983892
And after two there was an eleventh hour coup attempt by the army to prevent the emperor from surrendering.

Two almost wasn't enough.

>>1984644
And what if the emporer didn't surrender? I mean, americans had only 3 bombs and used all 3

>>1984654

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/14/u-s-planned-to-drop-12-atomic-bombs-on-japan.html

>>1984654
Then they continue to let Japan starve and/or burn to death?

The japs never had any hope to begin with, but in 1945 they hadn't even ability to still make a contest of things. Submarines and air-dropped mines had destroyed the merchant marine that they needed to feed their people, forces, and factories. They didn't have anything they could still produce and fuel that could intercept B-29s, bombing rafts were being flown without fighter escort because they were basically safe.

All that was left was the messy business of extermination from air and starvation, or landing boots to try and seize control with slightly less collateral damage.

>>1984654

In a few months time, they would've had a more efficient method of making the bombs.
plus this >>1984679

>>1983826
It was a pretty funny prank the first time round, so they thought they'd see if it was just as good the second time.

>>1983826
>deceit
Great album OP.

>>1984661
holy fuck dude
>>1984711
You too friend

>>1984730

At least they were apparently going to leave Kyoto unbombed:

>Targets in the south were given priority to boost possible invasion plans but the ancient city of Kyoto was withdrawn because the U.S. Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, who had honeymooned there, said it was an important cultural center and “must not be bombed.”

Because we viewed it as the only way the japanese would relent any time soon

>>1984452
Idk why I'm laughing at this.

A lot of reasons have already been said, one that has always occurred to me though: the destructive power of the atom bomb had to be actively demonstrated (i.e. NOT a test) to the world to show them how apocalyptic another major war - now with nukes! - would be. I'm not saying that was the Americans main reason for dropping two of them, but it's a post-event justification that probably prevented any more atom bombs being used in war.

>>1983826
There had two types to be tested.

>>1984711
>This fucking song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYmNyRmOz48

>>1983916
None of the warnings actually said anything even suggesting that we had a new superbomb.

After Hiroshima was nuked, several million propaganda pamphlets were printed explaining that Hiroshima was leveled by a single bomb, and more were coming if Japan did not surrender, but due to some bureaucratic nonsense they weren't actually dropped until after Nagasaki had also been destroyed.

The answer, I've come to believe, is pretty simple.

Nazi spymaster Reinhard Gehlen was captured in Europe by the US. He was running a spy network in the USSR and eastern Europe.

In order to save his own ass and that of his men, he told US authorities all sorts of bullshit about the USSR. This tricked the US into hiring Gehlen and his network to keep on fighting the war, just with a different boss.

It was because of his lies we had a cold war at all.

My final guess is that because of Gehlen's lies, the US was so scared of the USSR that they decided to drop the bombs as a show of force. It worked. Sort of. I don't think the USSR ever thought of fighting a wider war after losing 20 million plus people.

He would also be the reason we formed the CIA and the CIA did all the bat crazy shit they did like LSD, MK ULTRA, etc. At one time, the CIA believed the USSR were weaponizing psychics. I'll give you one guess what asshole spread that rumor.

I know that some other documents about post-WWII USSR have surfaced regarding the USSR's intentions, but I haven't fully analyzed them yet.

So is everyone just going to ignore the shock the Soviet invasion had on the Japanese?

you guys really think the bombs had any major impact on the surrender of the Japanese? The us had been completely destroying cities for months before they dropped the atom bombs. To the Japanese, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were just 2 more cities that got bombed.

>>1984521
t. guy who doesn't have a phobia and doesn't know what they're like

Not the OP, but let's clear something up here, all right? Phobias aren't really 'fears', the way most of you understand the word. When you have a phobia of something, it means that any exposure to it -- even just seeing a picture of it -- sends your sympathetic nervous system into overdrive, causing it to dump a mega-fuckload of adrenaline -- more than you've experienced unless you've been in an actual life-or-death situation -- into your bloodstream in the span of about three seconds, followed by similarly massive doses of other fight-or-flight chemicals. Physically, it feels like getting sucker-punched in the chest, and it's usually followed by PTSD-like symptoms -- tunnel vision, chills all up and down your body, ringing in your ears, faintness. It's far and away the most physically distressing thing I personally have ever experienced.

The important thing to remember is that, even though 'phobia' means 'fear', genuinely phobic people are not actually afraid of the thing in question (although some mistakenly believe they are). They're actually afraid of their body's physiological response to it.

Because phobias make people act sorta funny when they go to extreme lengths to avoid very innocuous things, it can be tempting to trick them into looking at whatever they're phobic of. But it's not a special-snowflake disorder. It's a real disorder. Maybe some people lie about having phobias, or mistakenly believe that they have them when they're actually just sorta squicked out by spiders, whatever, but for people who have actual phobias, that sort of thing is legitimately hellish. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

Though OP, you really should've learned to turn off images in your browser in anticipation of this shit. This place is full of assholes.

>>1986058

Nah m8 ur wrong. U see they say I'm Islamophobic but I never get this when I see any fucking muzzies

>>1983826
What am I looking at?

>>1986003
The soviets weren't going to invade the mainland and everybody knew it, they were just snapping up territory from Japan while they still could. Also the idea that japs are indifferent to the nukes is absurd, look at any of their media and you'll find some butthurt statement about nukes being the most awful weapon ever and that only inhuman creatures would ever use them.

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>>1984452
I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of this MUSHROOM CLOUD.

Seriously though, you should probably get some therapy or something.

They had two, using two different methods for blowing shit up.

>>1984521
Remember that tilefag exists.

>>1986271
well they arent wrong

>>1984452
No safe spaces here, faggot.

Posting from my phone or I'd post the SICKEST atomic blast evar.

>>1985322
It's not like they didn't have ways to know. There were people who watched and survived. Regardless, it probably wouldn't have mattered one way or the other; the IJA was still willing to try to fight to the death and/or extermination.

And the Japanese "we dindu nuffin" mentality is pretty sickening. Naturally, their textbooks accuse the US of picking on the poor innocent yellow men, and say we dropped both bombs AFTER their surrender just to be comically evil overlords.

>>1986474
Being butthurt about the nukes is like being butthurt about dresden, if you don't want to get your ass kicked then do not start a war. The japs were perfectly happy to butcher their way across Asia but when the tide turns and they are getting wrecked then all of a sudden it's Muh nukes Muh firebombings

>>1986826
Honestly, I think there's nothing wrong with complaining about obscene civilian casualties, especially when the fascist countries weren't engaged in total war economies.

However, revising history books to try and make yourselves look like a victim to that extent? And denying all the various atrocities you committed while you're at it?

Should have nuked them more.

>>1983882
There was a third, intended for Tokyo

It never got dropped, however.

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>>1986849

>especially when the fascist countries weren't engaged in total war economies.

What did he mean by this?

>>1983898
Downfall also called for the use of something like 19 atomic weapons, many of which would have used to create a beachhead.

>>1986916
They didn't have women and children working in factories?

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>>1984531
Spiders are arachnids, not insects

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>>1984452
*phobia

>>1984452
Kek
That is pretty funny

>>1984452
>It's not funny.

[spoiler]It's kinda funny.[/spoiler]

>>1984559
>>1984590
An unloaded gun won't kill you but it's still likely to scare or unease most people if you point it at them. We're talking about instinctive, association based fear.

>>1983826
Because they didn't surrender after the first one and we didn't have a third ready to go.

>>1984452

just man up you fucking pussy

>>1983826
because
>HIIIISTORY REPEATS ITSELF