As I made clear in the thread we recently had about what made Japan surrender I very much fall with the academic train of of thought that the nuclear bombs had very little to do with it.
Japan was already making serious moves towards surrender and it was only a matter of time.
The US however felt it had to use the bombs on Japan nonetheless for 3 main reasons.
1: PR. They've spent billions on a super weapon. They really have to use it. If at least to stop the inquest into why the money was wasted there rather than buying guns, armour plate, etc... More big picture; a war winning super weapon. Perfect propaganda.
2: The post war world order. The Americans were quite justifiably worried about the Soviets. Before WW2 was even done they were hard at work preparing for the post war world and the possibility of a WW3 with the Soviets following very soon after.
The Soviets clearly had the numbers...if they set their mind to it then it seemed they could completely overrun Europe. If the Americans could so clearly show they had the technology to make these numbers redundant however.... Then that would change things.
3: Human experimentation. The course of the war had thoroughly dehumanised the Japanese in American eyes. Calls for a full genocide of all the Japanese people weren't really too far outside the mainstream at all.
They could test some of the effects of the bombs easily enough in peace time and on American soil. But this hostile 'sub-human' nation presented a perfect testing ground for seeing how the bomb would work on humans. In the long and short term. People weren't totally ignorant about radiation. There were theories. Since the Japanese were on the ropes it was quite a limited time offer, could they pass up this useful opportunity?
But lets say for whatever reason the bombs aren't dropped.
They remain in storage and Japan still surrenders pretty much on schedule.
What effect would it have on the world for the war not to end with the bombings?
What would this world that has never seen nuclear bombs used in anger look like?
Would the Russians be tempted to make a move? Would some projects that IOTL were cancelled for radiation fears go ahead?
Japan was already making serious moves towards surrender and it was only a matter of time.
The US however felt it had to use the bombs on Japan nonetheless for 3 main reasons.
1: PR. They've spent billions on a super weapon. They really have to use it. If at least to stop the inquest into why the money was wasted there rather than buying guns, armour plate, etc... More big picture; a war winning super weapon. Perfect propaganda.
2: The post war world order. The Americans were quite justifiably worried about the Soviets. Before WW2 was even done they were hard at work preparing for the post war world and the possibility of a WW3 with the Soviets following very soon after.
The Soviets clearly had the numbers...if they set their mind to it then it seemed they could completely overrun Europe. If the Americans could so clearly show they had the technology to make these numbers redundant however.... Then that would change things.
3: Human experimentation. The course of the war had thoroughly dehumanised the Japanese in American eyes. Calls for a full genocide of all the Japanese people weren't really too far outside the mainstream at all.
They could test some of the effects of the bombs easily enough in peace time and on American soil. But this hostile 'sub-human' nation presented a perfect testing ground for seeing how the bomb would work on humans. In the long and short term. People weren't totally ignorant about radiation. There were theories. Since the Japanese were on the ropes it was quite a limited time offer, could they pass up this useful opportunity?
But lets say for whatever reason the bombs aren't dropped.
They remain in storage and Japan still surrenders pretty much on schedule.
What effect would it have on the world for the war not to end with the bombings?
What would this world that has never seen nuclear bombs used in anger look like?
Would the Russians be tempted to make a move? Would some projects that IOTL were cancelled for radiation fears go ahead?
