Next month will mark the "anniversary" (hate using that word for something like this!) of the atomic bomb drops on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. I've seen some interesting theories on why it was Japan and not Germany. Anyone have a theory that goes against the accepted answer concerning Churchill? And @R Leonard , should you have any siblings who happen to have birth dates in August, I assure you I double-checked my month this time.
Very simple answer as to why Germany was not the target. Germany SURRENDERED before any Atomic weapon was ready to test. The first bomb was exploded 16 July, more than two months after Germany surrendered. Japan was still at war.
Okay thanks... but then why is the theory I've seen that Churchill didn't want to hit a European country? Just more Internet misinformation? Sure wish I could delete this thread.
Indeed, the plan all along was to strike German targets, but they bowed-out leaving but the Japanese.
Japan was attacked with atomic weapons because it was clear that an invasion of Japan would involve massive Allied casualties, German resistance to the western allies in 1945 was nowhere near as intense and I find it impossible to believe that had the A bomb been available in the opening months of 1945 it would have been used against Germany.
There is a concerted effort underway amoung a kabal of history revisionists, many of whom seem to be in the pay of Big Money arch-conservatives of the US. This effort is to re-write History where Winston Churchill's role is both diminished and his reputation sullied, while that of Adolf Hitler is revised upward. Beware of this cancer. Thank you for asking the question. Many of us love to teach. And how to learn real history if you do not ask questions. Just today I learned something: Paul Tibbets, an American pilot started out flying B-17s for the USAF 8th AF. I knew he flew Eisenhower to Gibralter just before Operation Torch, and later flew B-29 against Japan, but I did his early career.
I like teaching, too... that's why I felt that I should have known this answer. But I didn't... That said, it's getting very annoying about the amount of misinformation that's being put out on the 'Net. I mean REALLY! I was reading an article at what seemed to be a decent history site that stated Churchill chose Japan because he didn't want to bomb a European country. Okay, so that made sense to me without being well-versed in this topic. When you said the a-bomb hadn't even been tested yet by the time Germany was no longer a factor, it was like DUH and I hate feeling stupid. I know all about the attempt to rewrite history. You wouldn't believe (ooops, I'll bet you would because some of it was here on the forum!) the things that are being spread about the Civil War. I guess I'm more shocked that anyone believes the re-writes than I am to know that someone started such rubbish. In any case, thank you for this history lesson, everyone.
Well, undoubtedly, Churchills allies would've been closer to a nuke in Europe for sure and might not have been as supportive of the decision as the bombs on Japan. Besides this, even without a German capitulation, Allied forces were already so deep in the Third Reich and doing a pincer movement pretty much, with the Soviets. If D-Day hadn't been successful, it might've have been a whole different scenario, but as soon as you have your own troops on the ground and they have 'easy' access, a nuclear bomb would be very risky and unnecessary.
Japan was bombed as a vengeance of the United States to them when they attacked Pearl Harbor that caused too many U.S soldiers' death. Well, I based my post on the movie, Pearl Harbor, actually. So feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Movies are NEVER history. Vengeance had nothing to do with it, ending the war had everything to do with it.
Any resemblance between the movie "Pearl Harbor" and actual History is accidental. That movie is a drama, a love story -- not a documentary. The "book" of the drama also seems to be drawn from a "Boy's Own" series contemporary with WWII, called the Dave Dawson series. The decision to drop the A-bomb was made by the US President, Harry Trueman, based upon input afforded him mostly by advocates that weapon who wanted a real-world experiment as to the effectiveness of a new weapon. They argued that dropping the dropping of the A-bomb might just forestall the necessity of an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands, an operation which it was estimated to cost excessive American killed and wounded, not to mention Japanese suffering.
If they nuked germany, radioactive clouds could easily reach the UK. This is not the reason why they didn't do it, but still thought about it as a con. They nuked Japan because of the stubborness of the Japanese. I am really certain Japan would have fought until total defeat, if the US didn't bomb them.
Prevailing westerlies . . . would have driven what there was over the advancing Soviets, amongst others.
Germany was the intended target of the atomic weapons project. From Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves' book Now It Can Be Told: The Story Of The Manhattan Project: "It was at this same conference that Mr. Roosevelt informed me that if the European war was not over before we had our first bombs he wanted us to be ready to drop them on Germany." (pg. 184) Nazi Germany, of course, collapsed and surrendered in May of 1945. Trinity, the first test of an atomic bomb, was done in July 1945. And, of course, the Japanese were attacked twice with atomic bombs in August of that year, followed by their unconditional surrender.
