Hiroshima 70 years ago

[Wyrd of Gawd]

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.

The nukes actually saved lives because the Japanaese military was willing to fight to the last person.  We were also willing to kill every Japanese without mercy.  So the best thing to happen was that they got nuked and the war ended just like that.  It was actually a win-win for everyone.  Look at Japan today.  Imagine how it would have looked if we had killed everyone there in 1945.