'Road to Surrender' revisits the final weeks of World War II

[WillBrink]

This was a very good interview based on a new book based on what lead up to the nukes dropped on Japan. In these modern times and being NPR, I was expecting some revisionist history where the US made to look like the bad guys, but that's not the case at all. If anything, this interview further confirms the nukes were necessary and saved lives on both sided. A good listen:

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/20/1183140547/road-to-surrender-revisits-the-final-weeks-of-world-war-ii

[Pacific5th]

Very good read. The bombs were a terrible thing but I do believe they saved many more lives.

[WillBrink]

Very good read. The bombs were a terrible thing but I do believe they saved many more lives.

Even those who used them at the time, felt they were a terrible thing. They were very aware of the horror they were about to unleash. But they were clearly worth using and the D heads to say otherwise via revisionist history, have no clue. Author of that book clearly understood.

[chuckman]

The estimates for casualties for Operation Downfall are, understandably, all over the place. The best SWAG was based on Okinawa, and padded for inflation and homefield advantage, and were as high as 4 million US and twice that Japanese, and a campaign that could have taken five more years.

To me the decision to use the bombs was a no-brainer in terms of lives and resources.