Today is the 67th anniversary of the first tactical use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

"Drop that f@#$%r... Twice!!". Captain Ramsey
On a side note, I just saw a documentary with a veteran Marine that said he would have preferred to invade Japan rather than use an atomic weapon. Did he miss out on the expected losses?

That marine was either a war-lover, totally crazy, or one of the guys assigned to stay on the ship. With over a million projected casualties I can't see any other explanation for that comment.

And today marks the bombing of Nagasaki. May there never be a third.

I had a responce to this but it got real long winded. Hindsight today shows it really wasn't nessesary; but if you look at what was going on in the world then, the moral, mental and emotional state of people, the loss of life, I would venture to say it was the least of all evils. And I think most will agree with you Jessica, no more.

It would not be a nuclear war, but a nuclear holocaust.

I am not convinced that without the dropping of the atomic bombs, the war would have ended as soon as it did. Japanese military leaders were STILL arguing against any capitulation and it was only the direct intervention of the emperor which led to the decision to surrender. Even with that, there were several officers who attempted an unsucessful coup to stop the surrender. And many people forget JUST how sucessful the Japanese Kamikaze attacks were, and there were still plenty of aircraft which were available for those. Given the cultural willingness to die for the emperor and country, anyone want to speculate how a ground war may have played out?

Not only did the war ending when it did save countless lives on BOTH sides (and sadly doing that sort of math is an ugly necessity in war), but it also meant that the Soviet Union was not allowed to fight Japan for a protracted period which would have almost certainly led to an occupation of Japan by them similar to what happened to Germany.

The world is a MUCH better place for Japan NOT having been divided for 55 years the way Germany was.

And as the son of a China Burma India Theater veteran who would have been potentially been at risk had the combat continued, there's even the remote possibility that I may have never been born had the war continued. There are certainly millions of people alive today who wouldn't be otherwise.

May there NEVER be another atomic weapon used again, but as bad as it may have been, it was the RIGHT decision at the time.