Quote:
Originally Posted by Norrin Radd
Well, it pains me to say it, I agree with you and Si Modo on this point.
Japan had almost no offensive capabilities in 1945.
They were reduced to Kamikaze pilots and the remnants of a once formidable navy. In fact, after Midway in 1942, Japan had lost most of it's offensive capability..........
After the battle of Midway, Japan still had 11 aircraft carriers of all types, but only 5 were available for operations, and only one was a large carrier. It also lost so many of its most experienced aviators and it could not quickly replace them. The US Navy had 3 large aircraft carriers in the Pacific, 13 more were being built, and there was no way Japan could match the American rate of production of aircraft carriers, aircraft, and well trained aviators. Japan was already fighting a war it could not win, and after the battle of Midway it was already beginning to lose it, just 6 months after it started it in Pearl Harbor. Despite all its remaining strength, after the battle of Midway Japan lost its superiority and initiative in the Pacific and was forced to defense. Since that day, the Pacific Ocean was dominated by American aircraft carriers.
The Battle Of Midway
Personally, I do not agree with dropping the atom bomb on a city.
While I understand why it was done, if I had been the president at that time, I would have tried to feint an attack on a sparsely populated area of Japan and then when they had all their defenses set to repel the attack, nuke that area.
Dropping the 2nd atom bomb was truly a disgrace, in my opinion, after we learned how horrific that weapon was. Of course fire bombing Tokyo was also a disgrace, but as they say, war is hell.
When Truman was told that an invasion of Japan could result in one million allied casualties, I can understand why he used the atom bomb, but I still do not agree with the decision.
Of course, I have the huge benefit of hind sight on my side. |
I’ll take it up with you, since htperr6565 doesn’t actually have a position, other than US strategy was wrong.
Japanese offensive capabilities need to be assessed by the forces they’re fighting. Even at the start of the war, they didn’t have the ability to win against the US, and most of them, the upper echelons of the admiralty included, were well aware of it. Their hope was to sign a treaty with the US to keep us out of their sphere of influence.
At the start of 1945, the Japanese had lost a significant amount of their capabilities, but a significant amount remained. The US still had the only force that could have opposed the Imperial Japanese Navy. They were a formidable force compared to any navy in the world. If we hadn’t pressed the attack, if we hadn’t continued the bombing campaign, if we’d pulled our forces back to a defensive position where we couldn’t easily have been attacked by warships or kamikazes, which is what I understand htperr6565’s ambiguous position to be, then IMO the Japanese certainly retained the capability to rebuild and rearm.