What if the Atomic Bomb had not been dropped?
This grew out of a debate on the use of the A-Bomb. The use of two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945 is popularly supposed to have ended the war, by convincing the Japanese that further resistance was futile. However, the bomb had dreadful and not perhaps unexpected effects on the Japanese people, many of whom were innocent victims. This article attempts to answer two questions; a) was the use of the atomic bomb justified and b) what would have happened if the bomb had not been used. In May 1945, when Germany surrendered, Japan was on the ropes. The USSR mounted a surprise attack (it is debatable how surprising that attack was, but the Japanese on the ground were surprised) into Manchuria and ended the Japanese Manchurian dream forever. The Kwangtang army was weakened by the need for home defence and could offer no effective resistance to the soviet hordes. At sea, the US was dominant. The Japanese navy had been crushed and their sea borne supply lines had been cut off. In the air, Japan w
