Will FDR drop the bomb?
- Thread starter Euroman26
- Start date
Given the Allied experience with invasions in the Pacific theater, and projected casualties (on both sides) from an invasion of the home islands, and the projected cost and casualties from the third option (blockade, bombard, and burn), I don't see how any sane Commander-in-Chief could *not* opt to use the atomic bomb.
It's easy to criticize the President (whoever that happens to be in the relevant timeline) for using nuclear weapons on Japan, but that's based on 20/20 hindsight. The radiological consequences weren't known when the decision was made to use the devices. They were seen as nothing more (or less) than very powerful weapons that might serve to end The War.
From what I've read, as ghastly as the 'nuclear option' turned out to be, it was orders of magnitude better than either of the alternatives.
It's easy to criticize the President (whoever that happens to be in the relevant timeline) for using nuclear weapons on Japan, but that's based on 20/20 hindsight. The radiological consequences weren't known when the decision was made to use the devices. They were seen as nothing more (or less) than very powerful weapons that might serve to end The War.
From what I've read, as ghastly as the 'nuclear option' turned out to be, it was orders of magnitude better than either of the alternatives.
Pangur
Donor
This in one part of this topic which I have wondered about. FDR started the bomb project because Germany had started their own nuclear weapons project. So that been case when did Japan become a target, 1941 ? or was it later in the war?
Japan became a target when the US developed a working bomb. The only way for them not to be is for Japan to make peace before the US gets a working nuclear weapon.
The plans were adequately advanced. A lot of work needed to be done, but there was broad experience in amphibious assaults and the finer details would shift around in the end anyway.
Look for Operation Downfall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall). The first stage was set for October 1945.
With the fall of Germany, there was a LOT of pressure to end the war in the Pacific as soon as possible. FDR or Truman only has one other option in 1945 if they don't have a working atomic-bomb...blockade. Although that might reduce US casualties, it means keeping massive forces mobilized for probably at least a year long and does not permit the US to fully utilize its military power as you are omitting our ground forces from the fight.
Without an atomic bomb or some very strong indication that a surrender was imminent, I think the initial Olympic invasion would have occured. It is possible that the hopless reality of the situation would lead the Japanese leadership to stop the war before the Coronet stage of the attack.
Tim
President Roosevelt was an utterly ruthless human being. He would have dropped both bombs on Japan without hesitation.
Agreed. FDR was willing to win that war at any cost and was aware of the Manhattan Project from its outset, whereas Truman wasn't.
Ummm... most of the comments on this thread are ignoring what the OP actually asked.
It's not 'would he drop a bomb thats ready', rather its 'would he wait twiddling his thumbs if it WASNT ready'. Very different question.
My guess is, yes, he goes ahead with Downfall, or at least a really close blockade, to starve them into submission. Either way the Japanese surrender before the hypothetivally delayed bomb is ready.
I was wondering how long were preparations made.I'd think there would be very careful thought on this.Didn't Ike, Macarthur object to the bomb?Thank God for FDR.Don't think he'd use the bomb if there was definite proof Germany was not working on a bomb.Wonder if some intelligence person deliberately lied about German bomb!
In August 1945 they certainly werent. By the spring of '46, with ~10 million dead of starvation, they probably would be.
Or the Soviet intervention knocks them out of the war, which it arguably did in OTL.
Japan wouldn't have lasted until April of 1947 (24 months after FDR died). Even without the Bomb, even if the U.S. and/or the USSR invades the Home Islands, Japan was never going to survive that long.
By the end of 1946, simply if the U.S. continued with the submarine and air campaigns, Japan would have been quite literally, have been bombed back to the 15th Century and the only way the population would be surviving was through organized canibalism. The U.S. was ready to stand up the 8th Air Force on Okinawa, which would have enabled nightly firebombing of every population center in the entire Home Islands, including Hokkiado (which was out of range for Tinian based bombers). When one considers that the USAAF had been forced to designate 20 cities as untouchable to ensure they actually had a decent set of targets to use the Bomb against before the 8th was operational, the addition of an entire extra Air Force (1,000+ bombers x2 fighters) almost 100% of which were crewed by veterans of the ETO almost boggles the mind.
Throw in the fact that the USSR would, at minimum, have utterly obliterated the IJA on Northern Asian Mainland (it it reasonable to assume that the Red Army would not have made it all the way to the Gulf of Tonkin and would have met Allied forces somewhere in central China) ensureing that absolutely no food reached the Home Islands from Asai, even on small coastal vessels too small for reasonable submarine interception, and that American fighter bombers would have been doing exactly what they did the last two months of the war in Europe, namely attacking anything with wheels, right down to horse and goat drawn carts, and you have a population and countryside starved and burned out to a point that hasn't been seen since the Mongols went out of the Horde business.
By the end of 1946, simply if the U.S. continued with the submarine and air campaigns, Japan would have been quite literally, have been bombed back to the 15th Century and the only way the population would be surviving was through organized canibalism. The U.S. was ready to stand up the 8th Air Force on Okinawa, which would have enabled nightly firebombing of every population center in the entire Home Islands, including Hokkiado (which was out of range for Tinian based bombers). When one considers that the USAAF had been forced to designate 20 cities as untouchable to ensure they actually had a decent set of targets to use the Bomb against before the 8th was operational, the addition of an entire extra Air Force (1,000+ bombers x2 fighters) almost 100% of which were crewed by veterans of the ETO almost boggles the mind.
Throw in the fact that the USSR would, at minimum, have utterly obliterated the IJA on Northern Asian Mainland (it it reasonable to assume that the Red Army would not have made it all the way to the Gulf of Tonkin and would have met Allied forces somewhere in central China) ensureing that absolutely no food reached the Home Islands from Asai, even on small coastal vessels too small for reasonable submarine interception, and that American fighter bombers would have been doing exactly what they did the last two months of the war in Europe, namely attacking anything with wheels, right down to horse and goat drawn carts, and you have a population and countryside starved and burned out to a point that hasn't been seen since the Mongols went out of the Horde business.