LH, I have talked with Japanese veterans of WWII. The Home Islands would have been defended to the death with hard fighting for every inch of ground taken.

The death toll, both Allied and Japanese would have run to well over a million, so a lot of lives were actually saved by dropping the bomb that the Enola Gay carried. The name of her pilot was Col. Paul Tibbets.

FYI, Hiroshima was not a civilian target with no military value, rather it was a major center for ship-building, and Nagasaki was an industrial city.

The people with whom I have spoken about this are the grandfathers of my daughter-in-law, who is Japanese. (ask me about my grandkids sometime)

We have never discussed the bombings, rather our talks have focused on their love of country and desire to defend it to the death if need be.

How very different from what we sometimes hear today.

troll