to reality, or something like it on hiroshima

reply to cjm's post on hiroshima:

'sfunny. i knew a guy in nyc—a leftist, strangely—who was glad we nuked japan 'cause his dad was on a troop ship headed west across pacific then, so he thinks he might not've been born if we hadn't dropped a-bombs.

i think you're right. japan most likely would've surrendered w/o invasion. they knew red army was about to enter war and US and brits had'm surrounded at sea, and china still had 2 armies fightin' back.

but it's complicated. truman thrust into job a few months earlier when fdr died. he knew nothing of bomb before. "experts" brought him up to speed, most likely told him he had to drop it or stalin would demand a piece of japan if they surrendered w/o invasion, or we'd lose too many men if we had to invade.

politics as usual....