80: Hiroshima Account

80 years ago today (August 6, 1945)  the United States dropped the first Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan a city of 280,000 people.

Hiroshima was an embarkation port and industrial center that was the site of a major Military Headquarters with 40,000 Japanese Soldiers.

80,000 People died instantly and another 34,000 People died from Radiation Poison days, weeks and months later.

When the Japanese Emperor and Government refused to surrender after the Bombing the Americans dropped another Atomic Bombing on Nagasaki.

In 1945, US War Department (today the Department of Defense) estimated that an American invasion of the Japanese Islands (codenamed Operation Downfall) would have caused 4 Million American Casualties including  800,000 American Soldiers dying.

It would also have required 43,000 American Replacement Troops every single month from August 1945 until December 1946 (14 months) for a total of 602,000 Replacement Troops fighting in Japan.

It is also believed that 10 Million Japanese Soldiers and Civilians would have died.

This was based on the desperate tactics of the Japanese Soldiers and Civilians (using the Kamikaze Suicide Attacks throughout the Pacific Theater of World War 2 especially during the Battle of Okinawa – where every Man, Woman and Child became a weapon) and the Japanese belief that it was dishonorable to ever surrender.

From December 7, 1941 until August 9, 1945:

406,000 American Soldiers and 5,600 American Civilians were killed by the Japanese.

600,000 American Soldiers were wounded by the Japanese.

The dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved Millions of American, British, Canadian, Dutch, Australian, New Zealander, etc. lives and ended World War 2 completely.