Why did the Hiroshima atomic bombings happen?
Well it definitely wasn’t used to save lives. Americans suffered 300,000 casualties in Vietnam and more than 50,000 deaths. The Vietnamese suffered more than 1 million deaths. These are huge casualty figures. Shouldn’t an atomic bomb have been used to end that war and “save lives”? If the US predicted “1 million casualties” for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, would the basis of that prediction justify using atomic bombs on Iraqi civilian cities? Predictions are not facts. In fact, the “1 million casualties” figure for Operation Downfall is misleading and absurb. It was made by ignorant civilian politicians like William Shockley who had never been on a battlefield. Distinguished military commanders like Douglas MacArthur stated only 105,000 American casualties maximum if the US invaded Japan. And unlike Shockley, MacArthur actually fought in WWII. Personally, I see no problem with dropping nuclear weapons on targets that were military in nature, but to drop them on civilians is just barbaric
