Happy Bomb Day !!!
On this date, August 6, 1945, nuclear weapons were first used in actual war. The bomb that destroyed Hiroshima killed an estimated 130,000 people. Pretty tragic for them, but fortunate for the estimated one to two million that would have been killed in a conventional invasion of Japan.
Japan realized that the tide of war had turned against them, and were suggesting a truce. But the conditions they wanted were that their government remains intact, and that they control the war crimes trials of their own soldiers. If we had let them have peace on those terms, it's pretty likely that they would have started invading countries again in another decade or two.
In 1904, Japan invaded Russia. Teddy Roosevelt brokered a peace deal a year later. In 1910, Japan invaded Korea, and held it until 1945. In 1930, Japan invaded China. That war had been going on for 11 years before America was brought into it.
Millions of Japanese men had served in those wars. They knew first hand how cruel they had been to the conquered countries. They personally had inflicted all kinds of atrocities on the civilians. They expected that surrender to America would bring similar cruelty back on them.
When the Americans did not inflict such atrocities, the Japanese people knew abundantly well that they had received mercy. The country was transformed. Never again did Japan invade any other country. Their warlike spirit was converted into peaceful economic competition. America didn't just win the war. We had defeated war itself!
So, happy Bomb Day! The day that ended the war!
