Weapon physicist declassifies rescued nuclear test films

Re:Weapon physicist declassifies rescued nuclear test films by Cshelton on Thursday March 16, 2017 @12:07PM (#13886172)

I mean, if the U.S. had not created the nuclear bomb, odds are high that Germany would have. At the same time, the U.S. was prepared to do a full invasion of Japan with 250,000 troops, expected casualties at 100,000 U.S. troops. My grandfather was on a boat off the coast of Japan when the bombs dropped. I may not be here now if we did not drop the bombs. I know it's all relative, as somebody would be here today that is not in Japan. But still.

I tend to blame human nature for the destruction of our own selves, not the weapons we do it with. One way another, humans will kill each other, nuclear or not.

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Re:Weapon physicist declassifies rescued nuclear test films by saagarjha on Thursday March 16, 2017 @03:17PM (#13888183)

Not a history expert by any means, but didn't Germany basically drive away all the scientists that could have worked on the bomb?

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Re:Weapon physicist declassifies rescued nuclear test films by rangibaby on Saturday March 18, 2017 @06:50AM (#13900743)

Yes, and the war in Europe ended before the Germans built a bomb (they were trying, but had not made much progress), and like you said many of their best minds were in the US.

I think in a situation where the Americans didn't build an A bomb then no one would have for some time.

Would it have made a difference to our world now? It's hard to tell, but the Soviets certainly would have taken more Japanese territory than they did in our timeline.

My opinion was Stalin was too pragmatic to start WWIII, Before and after WWII he only provided limited support to Soviet-aligned groups (see: post-war France and the Spanish or Greek civil wars) in other part of the world to avoid antagonizing the west too much.

The real answer is, who knows?

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Re:Weapon physicist declassifies rescued nuclear test films by walshemj on Friday March 17, 2017 @06:38AM (#13892922)

I think 100,000 allied casualties is a low estimate the generals told the president that the invasion would have 85% wastage for the first 5 or so waves ashore.

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Re:Weapon physicist declassifies rescued nuclear test films by omarchowdhury on Thursday March 16, 2017 @05:08PM (#13889189)

I read yesterday that the estimated cost of invading Japan would be 1M US casualties.

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Re:Weapon physicist declassifies rescued nuclear test films by chillingeffect on Thursday March 16, 2017 @05:45PM (#13889495)

That's an often-repeated and far from conclusive statement used to justify dropping the bomb to gain a temporary (it's crumbling now) international advantage.

Check out Oliver Stone's Untold History [1], or many other history sources for various opinions. There is considerable debate about it.[2]

In reality, the Japanese were on the verge of surrender. The U.S. had badly firebombed Japan, burning hundreds of thousands of people.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Untold_History_of_the_Unit...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raids_on_Japan

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Re:Weapon physicist declassifies rescued nuclear test films by walshemj on Friday March 17, 2017 @06:40AM (#13892928)

Not really when the "peace" party's plan was to cause horrific casualties when the allies invaded to get a negotiated.

I don't think there was much chance of Japanese surrender without an actual invasion

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Re:Weapon physicist declassifies rescued nuclear test films by omarchowdhury on Thursday March 16, 2017 @05:51PM (#13889542)

Yeah. They could have also dropped the nukes into the ocean. Surely that would have forced surrender without the loss of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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Re:Weapon physicist declassifies rescued nuclear test films by CamperBob2 on Thursday March 16, 2017 @08:18PM (#13890319)

Considering that we had to nuke two actual cities to get them to surrender, how many bombs would we have had to drop in the ocean to achieve the same effect?

I don't know about you, but I'd only have to be nuked once before I'd run up the proverbial white flag.

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Re:Weapon physicist declassifies rescued nuclear test films by emmelaich on Thursday March 16, 2017 @09:27PM (#13890615)

It not only saved Allied troops but it saved a lot of Japanese civilians and soldiers.

Also it saved a lot of prisoners of war from a cruel death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner_of_war#Empire_of_Japa...

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