• Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Doesn’t matter what the population thinks ultimately, it only matters what the leadership thinks, and the leadership would have gotten a full report on the destructive nature, and the ramifications of, from the Trinity test.

    So blowing up another one off on the Tokyo Harbor wouldn’t have added anything to what the leadership already knew about their chances of winning the war.

    • ilmagico@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Trust me, if the leadership saw this first hand it would make a much bigger impression.

      Anyways, I think the conversation derailed a bit, I cannot claim this would’ve worked for sure, I don’t have a time machine. My point is, this was done with the intention to cause mass civilian casualties, which today one could argue it being a war crime (and that’s why I don’t approve of it), but of course, the Geneva convention didn’t exist yet at the time.

      Maybe there was a different way to get the Japanese to surrender, with fewer casualties, but it doesn’t look like the US really tried.