Little Hawk,

I agree with you in broad terms about the battles and their general influences throughout WWII. My only point, poorly stated, was that if you are going to pick a point in the war to say "Japan was defeated," Midway comes as close as any. I tend to disagree with you about the significance of Midway, as the loss of four top of the line carriers was every bit as critical as the loss of one battleship. However, we are just arguing over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin here. In the course of our discussion here I have been reminded of a third alternative that I feel like would have "possibly" been just as effective as dropping the bomb on Hiroshima or Nagasaki, and that would have been the detonation of the device in an unpopulated area, to be witnessed by all who had an interest in further conflict. That way we could have got our message across to the Japanese, the Russians, and any who had designs on carving out another world war. Why Truman did not choose this option is unknown. Looking back with our view of subsequent history we can see that it would have thwarted the "assumed" inevitable invasion, and it would have spared thousands of Japanese lives.

Like I said. I just hope in future situations that we are able to look to our past and maybe learn something from it.

Regards,

Freightdawg