apex -
Which euro-pacificits were you thinking of dying in WW2 before the US joined the battle?
The Brits? Yep, bunch of them unfortunately died before the US was able to jump in to help. Although, let's not forget that Chamberland's "let Hitler take Austria and Poland and he'll leave the rest of us alone" policy played a big role there.
The French? They just laid down their weapons and rolled over - they'd be eating bratwurst flavored croissants right now if others hadn't come to bail their butts out but they've been obstructionists ever since.
The Italian? They joined forces with Germany.
Others??
As far as nuking Japan - you're absolutely right. After Japan refused to terminate hostilities, the least damaging yet effective demonstrations were done and potentially millions of lives were saved in the process. They could have nuked the Emperor's palaces in Kyoto and Tokyo instead - but that would certainly have been overkill.
Note however that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not merely civilian targets as suggested - Hiroshima for instance was a major military production center and headquarters for the Japanese Marine (Akatsuki) Corps and other military infrastructure.
In addition, Japan clearly understood the danger to civilians of placing these military complexes where they did. For example, in March 1945, Hiroshima City implemented evacuation procedures for much of the civilian population (especially children) in case the military complexes were attacked. Even so, the bombing of Hiroshima caused approximately 140K injuries/fatalities and about 74K at Nagasaki.
Whether you think it a justification or not - clearly many times fewer lives lost than would have been lost on both sides had the war proceeded to what would most likely have had to be near destruction of most of Japan before they would have surrendered otherwise.
By the way - the WW2 nukes had only comparatively small nuclear blasts, not thermonuclear - which is the term used for fusion-based nukes (i.e., Hydrogen bombs).
If the bombs had been thermos, everything would have been completely vaporized - which in hindsight might have been better, since there wouldn't have been any survivors slowly suffering from radiation poisoning.
Which euro-pacificits were you thinking of dying in WW2 before the US joined the battle?
The Brits? Yep, bunch of them unfortunately died before the US was able to jump in to help. Although, let's not forget that Chamberland's "let Hitler take Austria and Poland and he'll leave the rest of us alone" policy played a big role there.
The French? They just laid down their weapons and rolled over - they'd be eating bratwurst flavored croissants right now if others hadn't come to bail their butts out but they've been obstructionists ever since.
The Italian? They joined forces with Germany.
Others??
As far as nuking Japan - you're absolutely right. After Japan refused to terminate hostilities, the least damaging yet effective demonstrations were done and potentially millions of lives were saved in the process. They could have nuked the Emperor's palaces in Kyoto and Tokyo instead - but that would certainly have been overkill.
Note however that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not merely civilian targets as suggested - Hiroshima for instance was a major military production center and headquarters for the Japanese Marine (Akatsuki) Corps and other military infrastructure.
In addition, Japan clearly understood the danger to civilians of placing these military complexes where they did. For example, in March 1945, Hiroshima City implemented evacuation procedures for much of the civilian population (especially children) in case the military complexes were attacked. Even so, the bombing of Hiroshima caused approximately 140K injuries/fatalities and about 74K at Nagasaki.
Whether you think it a justification or not - clearly many times fewer lives lost than would have been lost on both sides had the war proceeded to what would most likely have had to be near destruction of most of Japan before they would have surrendered otherwise.
By the way - the WW2 nukes had only comparatively small nuclear blasts, not thermonuclear - which is the term used for fusion-based nukes (i.e., Hydrogen bombs).
If the bombs had been thermos, everything would have been completely vaporized - which in hindsight might have been better, since there wouldn't have been any survivors slowly suffering from radiation poisoning.
