Quote:
Originally posted by debaser
Saving lives was not the primary issue. The Soviets were already moving troops into Kamchatka to launch an invasion. The bombs were dropped to hasten the surrender of Japan to the US, and avoid a possible partition issue with the Soviets.
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We still would have dropped them either way. From a damage standpoint we could have killed just as many firebombing the cities (like we did in Tokyo) but we knew the psychological impact was needed. The fact that Russia was doing a land grab made ending the war more urgent, but it was still up to the Japanese.