[A Jovial Cad]

My grandfather was a Pacific War Veteran (1942-'45).
In late July, 1945, as MacArthur was planning Olympic & Coronet (the planned land invasion of the Japanese Isles), he related that everyone in his squadron (5th Air Force, 49th Fighter Group, 8th Pursuit Squadron) just assumed that they would all soon be dead in that attempt. They were projecting 100%--note that, please: 100%!--aircrew casualties by D+30 in the briefings they where being given. The Atomic bombs--Hiroshima & Nagasaki--saved his, and hundreds of thousands of American lives--and millions of Japanese casualties. So he maintained to his dying day--and I believe him.
I don't really care what the "motivations" where for doing it (though I doubt the "History" channel is telling the unrefined truth)--Harry was right, and I'm glad we dropped them.
EOM

[Rebelbase]

I read an article that stated there was a plan to use Abombs to blow breeches in the Japanese defenses so that our troops could break out of the beachheads.

How many US troops would have succombed to radiation poisoning had we used the Bombs that way?

[Dems_R_Losers]

I'm another Atomic Bomb baby. My dad was in Tacoma, Washington waiting to ship out for the invasion. His unit was told to expect 80 to 90% casualties. My dad was a medic and was told not to expect to come home, because the Japs targeted the red crosses on the medics' helmets and equipment. Truman knew all these numbers and was sickened by them. He knew damn well he was saving lives by dropping those bombs.

This whole Soviet thing has been raised many times over the years and debunked just as many times.

[SandRat]

When my son was in high school the world history class was debating the "morality and motivation" for dropping the bombs. Having read all of my military history books he proceeded to quote the same information that you did and more on both Olympic and Coronet. He then asked those thought the bombing was wrong to raise their hands; about 2/3s did out of a class of 30. He then asked that those whose grandparents were not in WWII to put their hands down and only one or two did. He then zinged them by stating that maybe the bombs should not have been dropped because then their grandfathers would never have met and married their grandmothers and he would not have had to put up with historical illiterates.

BTW, he got an A for the course. The teacher cited his skill for debate points, historical knowledge and class participation to reinforce the A earned from the exams.