WORLD WAR P!!! Who's leading you?

USA dropped it on Hiroshima to see the damage the bomb would cause. I'm not arguing on the military worthiness of Hiroshima but the reason they dropped it was to convince the stubborn Japanese to surrender. Each subsequent battle that we did against the Japanese incurred ever more Allied casualties. Be it Iwo Jima where we had 26k casualties(dead + wounded) or Okinawa where it's estimated as high as 75k casualties. A full on invasion of Japan would have likely led upwards of 500k to a million Allied casualties. Japanese casualties would be far higher and would be estimated in the millions. 100k dead Japanese to save millions on both sides feels like a small price to pay.

Also the reason the Japanese surrendered was not the bombs but was due to the Soviets invading the Kuril islands(which they still own to this day and Japan squabbles over it) and Manchuria. They feared the Communists and Stalin more than us and opted to submit to our rule than the Soviets. Should have appointed a Civilian Governor as opposed to MacArthur(who should have been relieved from Phillipines readiness after Pearl).

As for Pearl Harbor, the inspiration for that was the British attacking the Italians at Taranto with Swordfish Torpedo planes. Japanese saw that and looked at the prospect of hitting the USA at Pearl Harbor. The oil embargo was severely hampering their China operations and the only alternative was seizing the resource rich SE Asia. Only country that could pose a problem was USA due to our presence in the Philippines. So to prevent us from interfering and buying them enough time to get a quick win, they did Pearl Harbor.

Tojo and Army hotheads didn't think anything of the USA but the Navy(and Yamamoto) did but reluctantly went along with the operation, noting that if successful that they'd get upwards of six months of success against the USA(afterwards he could promise nothing). How they DoW'd royally pissed us off too, hence awaking a sleeping giant with a terrible resolve.

id have chosen myself but i am incapable of making good decisions

I played WW2 games growing up. I know more about it than probably 99% of the population(which is sad because if you don't know your history, you're doomed to repeat it).

I have to give the recent Midway movie high accolades since they demonstrate how many planes we sent at the Japanese. Not just our Aircraft Carriers but land based planes we had at Midway. We got insanely lucky in that battle and we can thank Coral Sea and what we learned there for keeping the Carrier Yorktown in the fight. Ultimately lost the Yorktown to a Jap Sub before it could make it back to Pearl but we had better Damage control than the Japanese from learning from our mistakes after losing the Lexington at Coral Sea.

Btw, Halsey doesn't deserve all the accolades he gets by Historians. To quote Admiral Ramius in Hunt for Red October: Halsey acted stupidly. He's not wrong either. Should have been relieved and court-martialed after what happened at the Battle of Leyte Gulf when he failed to follow orders by defending the landing zone. Allowed the Japanese to attack our Escort Carriers and small and I emphasize small Destroyers like Samuel B Roberts supporting the landing operation. Were it not for the brave crews on those Destroyers and the aircraft on those Escort Carriers, Leyte Gulf could have gone down way differently.

Same deal with MacArthur who should have been relieved after Phillipines debacle. Got caught with his pants down despite having ample warning from Pearl Harbor. Lost valuable planes on the ground as a result that could have made things much more difficult for the Japanese. Probably wouldn't have changed outcome but I cant overlook gross incompetence.

Im gone for a few hours and this thread is talking about Hiroshima

The point of a war isn't to k1ll people its to prevent de@th