23. Was the Atomic Bombing of Japan Unnecessary?
Another of the war’s more persistent myths has it that the atomic bombing of Japan was not necessary, because Japan was already reeling and on the verge of surrender. The Allies simply had to blockade Japan, and the Japanese government would have come to its senses sooner rather than later, and thrown in the towel. A variety of factors make that theory nonsensical.
The first is that when the atomic bombs were dropped, the war was not limited to the Japanese home islands. In August of 1945, Japan still occupied vast territories in Asia and the Pacific and misgoverned hundreds of millions of conquered subjects, who endured daily horrors such as casual brutality, torture, rape, murder, and massacres. Their suffering would have continued every single day that the war dragged on.
