US Involvement in World War II

[Greenday]

I'd agree that Germany taking over the UK would have been REALLY bad for the Allies, but Germany still had to deal with Russia who wasn't giving any ground. Either Germany would have had to stop moving west and focus on the east or they would have been in huge trouble. Germany was also quite fatigued while fighting the UK and I seriously doubt they would have immediately been able to move into North America.

[Hobbs]

I agree with that. If the Allies had actually invaded Japan...the outcome would have been much worse. At that time, the Japanese were willing to fight to the death, with whatever weapons they could find--Kamikaze pilots, anyone? Also, such fighting would have dragged on much longer. The nukes were more destructive from a casualty standpoint, but I do think more lives were saved. Consider this too--ever since that point, nobody...has had the balls to open the nuclear genie's bottle again. Threats have been made, but not acted upon.

The fire-bombing of Tokyo by conventional weapons was actually more deadly than either atomic attack.

[protege]

The fire-bombing of Tokyo by conventional weapons was actually more deadly than either atomic attack.

But, wasn't that fire-bombing done with multiple warheads? There were only two nukes, which...if you add in the injuries and radiation exposure, took more lives and did more destruction. For example, in Hiroshima alone, roughly 80,000 people were vaporized in minutes by *one* bomb...but total deaths from injuries and exposure eventually reached 90,000 to 140,000. Compare that to Toyama--about 90,000 people were killed in multiple air raids during August 1-2, 1945.