General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Hiroshima - quit lying to yourselves [View all]hunter
(38,310 posts)A huge buildup.
But the people at the very top had a different play book with two goals: Give Japan the opportunity to surrender, and "Hey Stalin, look at this!"
The amoral war people, the genocidal "Enders Game" dudes essential to any real world war effort wanted to see what atomic weapons would do to a living city. There were even a few who wanted to try atomic bombs out as tactical weapons, and they were probably disappointed that Japan surrendered so easily.
Furthermore we do know exactly what our bomb making capacity was. The surrender of Japan, the abandonment of "gun-type" uranium bombs, and the safety upgrades of Hanford following the end of the war slowed production down very slightly, but it's a fact the USA could have dropped conventional bombs and atomic bombs on Japan for as long as we chose to with no invasion.
A society bombed and nuked back to preindustrial technologies was no longer a real threat. Theres nothing "revisionist" about that.