My father was in the Navy in the South Pacific. If Truman hadn’t dropped the bomb, I might not be here.
After being bombed on New Years Day 1945 Europe(German “Operation Baseplate”)...My Dad survived to be loaded on a ship and sent towards the South Pacific...He had just exited through the Straits of Gibraltar when they got the news of the Atomic bombing of Japan...
I am a Baby Boomer that probably would not be here if not for the Manhattan Project and God’s Grace for our Country.
(I have read of hardened Combat Veterans breaking down in tears with the News of the Bomb...they were going to live...
after seeing so much death.)
They had bombs, bullets, beans...but needed the 17 year olds out of High School....(Dad’s youngest brother)
1,000,000 Americans would be dead or wounded in Japan...The war was planned to end in 1948.
Millions of Japanese would have been starved, gassed-Yes we were preparing to exterminate...The Bomb saved us both.
And Yes the Japanese were brutal beyond belief...Bush 41 was shot down near an Island where several Japanese officers were later executed for cannibalism after butchering captured American pilots(on the same raid as Bush 41).
Very few Japanese were punished for war crimes.
Many Pacific Theater Allied combatants were very upset about it.