Another time the U.S. dropped a Nuclear Weapon

[Deacon Blue]

6. Why Nagasaki?

Millions of gallons of ink have been spent debating this one, a question particularly unsuitable for this small-talk (no offense) forum. Many Very Serious People have opined about the use of the Bomb and whether it ended the war, pro and con. But consider that we fire-bombed most of urban Japan without much hand-wringing, and a sense that they were getting what they deserved after Nanking, Pearl Harbor, Bataan, Manila etc. We were not imminently threatening the Home Islands with invasion; the Japanese may have been more worried about Russian occupation. Despite his promise to enter the Pacific War as soon as things had been settled in Europe, Stalin took no action for 3 months, at which time he launched a large offensive against Japanese forces in Manchuria the same day we successfully detonated our third nuclear weapon (Trinity was the first, mid-July 1945). Message was to Stalin as well as the Japanese War Cabinet: we have it, it works every time we use it, they’re rolling off the production line just as quickly as the B-29s which delivered them.

But the narrative from every GI was that the Bomb saved their lives, and the lives of millions of Japanese citizens. May be...