Posted on 08/05/2016 11:46:13 PM PDT by mkjessup
I cannot understand why we did not nuke Tokyo , with Hirohito’s Palace as Ground Zero. if it had been up to LeMay we would have. but as usual the important military decisions are left for the civilians to make. This has always been America’s big mistake.
It was always my understanding that the decision not to nuke Tokyo was based on two factors, the first one being that Tokyo had already suffered massive damage from conventional bombing and two, that if the political leadership were killed, that it could result in no command authority at all to order a surrender to U.S. forces.
Combined with the aforementioned psychological obstacle in the Japanese mindset to surrender to any adversary, nuking Tokyo might have actually prolonged the war.
I recall reading an alternate history story years ago, in which the Manhattan Project stalled due to the limited amounts of weapons grade uranium available, and that rather than order an amphibious invasion of Japan and subsequent occupation, that Truman ordered a blockade of the home islands, “nothing goes in, nothing comes out”. The wild card in the story was that the Soviets decide to mount that invasion from the north, but after 3+ years of mad Japanese resistance, Stalin decides to test the first Soviet atomic bomb “Joe-1” on Tokyo, with a promise of more to come.
The result? A joint occupation of Japan by the Soviets and the Communist Chinese (Mao tse Tung demanding reparations for Japanese atrocities), and Japan ceases to exist, absorbed into the Sino-Soviet sphere of influence forever.
Probably better that it turned out this way instead.
HAHA, great reply. I was stationed on Guam and we used to patrol all the Marinas islands and it was like stepping back in time.
Oppenheimer’s quote was excellent!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.