The Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 created a lot of questions as to whether it was really necessary to drop the Atomic bomb in order to win the war against Japan. The US decision makers argued that it was the only way to end the war immediately. It indeed ended the war, but at a cost of an estimated 80,000 civilians dead in Nagasaki alone, and not to mention the aftermath of radiation .
Would the US have won the war without the Atom bomb? No doubt, America would have still won the war. But , knowing the ferociousness of the Japanese soldier, the war would have dragged on for months, or even years, inflicting heavy casualties on both sides. Without the Atom bomb, the US would have to invade Japan, and this time the Japanese would be fighting for the defense of their homeland. They would have fought to the death.
No doubt, Japanese casualties alone would have been more than the number of casualties inflicted by the Atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Civilian deaths would still be unavoidable because of the use of bomber planes to daily drop conventional bombs on military targets, and that would be the same Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to my mind, is a necessary evil. It killed thousands, but it also spared more thousands of lives that would have been lost.
