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In reply to the discussion: What if we beat the rest of the Axis powers like we did, but lost to Japan? [View all]PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)2. If the US didn't have "the bomb" it could have just continued the process of firebombing Japan into
cinders.
From: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fog_of_War
Why was it necessary to drop the nuclear bomb if LeMay was burning up Japan? And he went on from Tokyo to firebomb other cities. 58% of Yokohama. Yokohama is roughly the size of Cleveland. 58% of Cleveland destroyed. Tokyo is roughly the size of New York. 51% percent of New York destroyed. 99% of the equivalent of Chattanooga, which was Toyama. 40% of the equivalent of Los Angeles, which was Nagoya. This was all done before the dropping of the nuclear bomb, which by the way was dropped by LeMay's command. Proportionality should be a guideline in war. Killing 50% to 90% of the people of 67 Japanese cities and then bombing them with two nuclear bombs is not proportional, in the minds of some people, to the objectives we were trying to achieve.
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What if we beat the rest of the Axis powers like we did, but lost to Japan? [View all]
Reter
Aug 2015
OP
If the US didn't have "the bomb" it could have just continued the process of firebombing Japan into
PoliticAverse
Aug 2015
#2
I laid it out above, if they couldn't use a ground invasion, they'd literally starve Japan.
geek tragedy
Aug 2015
#14
How exactly would we lose to Japan? I know this is all hypothetical, but where do we start?
Rex
Aug 2015
#12
I think they would have been at war with the USSR and the US and in very bad shape.
Rex
Aug 2015
#20
I wouldn't say we had inferior planes, we just had different goals with our planes.
NutmegYankee
Aug 2015
#35
The P-40 was inferior, but they developed effective tactics against the Zeros.
HooptieWagon
Aug 2015
#36