(August 6, 2015 at 2:02 am)Minimalist Wrote: As Chuck said, by 1945 the Japanese were totally defenseless. General Curtis Lemay began repeated low-level, nighttime, incendiary raids in March 1945. The Japanese had no night fighters to oppose the B-29s and losses were light even though the B-29s were stripped of most of their guns.
Had we wanted to burn Hiroshima and Nagasaki we could have done so with ease. Which frankly makes it looks like they were being saved for the sacrifice. I don't know that it was our finest moment.
Most people don't realize that the deadliest bombing in history was not either of the atomic bombings, but the firebombing of Tokyo in March of 1945, when something like 16 mi² was burnt to the ground, and around 100,000 Japanese were killed.
There's a racial element to the Pacific War that Americans don't talk about; it makes us squeamish to acknowledge that we regarded the Japanese as vermin to be exterminated -- but that is how it was for many, many Americans, especially those serving in-theater.
As an aside, my son and I are going to the Pacific War museum in Fredericksburg later today.
