FO Seaman
Active member
Ashes said:LeEnfield said.....
"Had the invasion gone ahead then we would have been fighting every man, woman and child in Japan and it could have turned into one of the bloodiest battles ever seen"
Thats correct.......
So back to my question again.
Why was it imperitive to invade sooner rather then later, and risk that fighting?
The country was on the verge of mass starvation and the infrastructure to wage war was rapidly collapsing, a few more months of 115,000 tons of bombs a month, and the country would hardly have the strength to defend itself.
It woulden't matter how much how many wanted to fight if they were so malnurished they could hardly stand up.
When General Hap Arnold came to the Marianas he told the men of the Twentieth Air Force [perhaps being slightly optomistic ] that a continuation of their operations would enable U.S. Army infantrymen to walk ashore in Japan with their rifles slung.
Even if thats an exaggeration, it would have been much easier going in later instead of earlier.
Perhaps there's a compelling reason out there, but I haven't seen it yet.
You don't get it. A People willing to crash planes and do anything to win, they would have fought to the last civilian. Have you seen the footage?
Why waste more American's lifes, prolong the war, and waste money and munitions when you have a bomb that could stop bloodshed it a few sort days?
The Japanese mindset of the time was that somewhat like today's terrorists, but for a different reason. 50,000 vs. 20,000,000. I would give the 50,000 so that the 20,000,000 would live.
You state the nation was starving. Why let the die off the death of starvation? We wanted to create as little "collateral damage" as possible.