Title: "80 years later, Americans have mixed views on whether use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima, Nagasaki was justified"

Aug. 6 marks the 80th anniversary of the United States dropping an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima – and three days later, on Nagasaki – during World War II. Today, most Americans (83%) say they know a lot or a little about these events, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted June 2-8, 2025.

Reflecting on the United States’ actions, 35% of Americans today say using the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 was justified, while 31% say it was not justified. A third say they are not sure.

Article in full:

Pew Research article

To be expected, Male conservative Republicans were in the majority in favor of dropping the bombs.

IIRC, 140,000 died. But the reality is that it prevented us from having to invade Japan. Many more would have died (on both sides) had we been forced to do that.

Conservatives = justified
Liberals = not justified

No need to dwell further.

Watch this episode on alternatives to the bombs.



Then watch this one on what Japan was doing in China and SE Asia.




Then tell me are in any way “ambivalent” about the bombings.

Anyone with objections or reservations about the use of the Atomic Bomb in WW2 needs to read a few historical books about the battles of the Pacific and the pure savagery of them. Those bombs saved hundreds of thousands of American lives and arguably as many as a million Japanese lives.

It's all just academic until it is your own skin, or your kids' skin, on the line.

As we can see for ourselves in recent conflicts, war is messy. Many terrible things must be done, or else one will be defeated. The nature of a particular war is determined by the side most vicious. For some reason, people just don't understand that.

Best to leave the past in the past.

Most are seemingly unaware that the fire bombing of Tokyo (not particularly controversial) has nearly as many deaths as both atomic bombs combined. (90 to 125k but we don't really know)

Who knows what would have happened if we didn't use the bombs. Maybe the Japanese become extinct. Maybe they surrender the next day. We will never know unless someone can rip open a portal to the multiverse and check with the ones who did not use it.

Or maybe Wilson doesn't get the flu and gets his actual plan passed and WW2 never happens.

How far down this hole do we need go Alice? Oppenheimer was right. We had to use it to know what it would do and hopefully would never use it again. Maybe.

More anathema to me than the use of nukes is the targeting of civilian population centers over military targets. I doubt the dead care whether they were killed with tons of conventional bombs or nuclear ones.

I have no qualms about the US using nukes to end the War. My father in the 5th AF was one of those tasked with invading the Japanese home islands.

American casualty estimates for that invasion were set at 1 million (dead and wounded). There are still Purple Heart Medals being issued that had been stockpiled for that event.

Had Truman not OK’ed the use of the A-bombs and the invasion gone forward, it’s possible that he would have been impeached; sentiment was strongly in favor of ending the war, by any means necessary. The families of the 1 million casualties would have demanded such action.

Those who have a right to have a justified opinion are mostly all passed. Someone today saying anything wasn’t drafted to invade mainland Japan so I don’t quite care what anyone thinks.

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
Those who have a right to have a justified opinion are mostly all passed. Someone today saying anything wasn’t drafted to invade mainland Japan so I don’t quite care what anyone thinks.

My thoughts exactly!

^^^^^^ +2

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
Anyone with objections or reservations about the use of the Atomic Bomb in WW2 needs to read a few historical books about the battles of the Pacific and the pure savagery of them. Those bombs saved hundreds of thousands of American lives and arguably as many as a million Japanese lives.

Many people know about the German atrocities, most do not know how brutal and inhumane the Japanese were.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
More anathema to me than the use of nukes is the targeting of civilian population centers over military targets. I doubt the dead care whether they were killed with tons of conventional bombs or nuclear ones.

There were military & industrial targets within the cities.

The Japanese were preparing not only the 2.4 million military personnel on the home islands but also the millions of women and children. Those civilians didn't have firearms or military equipment, they had home made spears and arrows. They were essentially being trained as cannon fodder to oppose landings at the shores as a distraction. To make our forces waste ammunition. The Japanese military leaders didn't care that they were about to be slaughtered, this was a simple tactical decision on how to use any available resources.
Those adult civilians were so brainwashed to follow the Emperors wishes that they included their children.

Another aspect, the Japanese also had over 2 million troops that were unable to get home for the defense but were still in China, Korea, Vietnam and other Asian countries and were brutalizing the civilian populations like they had done throughout the war. They had killed millions and were continuing to kill more each month.

The only excuse I can suggest for those that voted against in a recent survey is that they are ignorant of history and seem to have no interest in learning what really happened.
As bad as it would have been for the Americans, millions of Japanese lives also would have been totally wasted.

There is an excellent series on Youtube by two historians that explain the bigger picture for anyone interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCrdwerjSMg

quote:

Those who have a right to have a justified opinion are mostly all passed. Someone today saying anything wasn’t drafted to invade mainland Japan so I don’t quite care what anyone thinks.

My father (on the right) was part of a B29 crew and maybe would not have survived if the war had not ended when it did. I do not remember him saying anything about the war.

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
Those who have a right to have a justified opinion are mostly all passed. Someone today saying anything wasn’t drafted to invade mainland Japan so I don’t quite care what anyone thinks.

This is also where I come down on it. It's too easy to look at an entire time period with very little knowledge, and zero experiential context and say "well yeah, you shouldn't have done that."

Anyone with a strong opinion on it really should be required to sit through all six episodes of Dan Carlin's "Supernova in the East." All 27 hours and 13 minutes of it. That's a good primer for an incredibly complex issue. I won't say it was right or wrong, I simply say that we're so far removed from the conditions that led to it that all I can say about it is "it happened, and we didn't get there overnight."

What you tell Japan with two mushroom clouds? nothing, you dun told'em twice.

Maybe those liberals/not justified folks should think of this...if we had invaded the Japanese mainland ILO the two atomic bombs, there is a very good chance they wouldn't be here today.

I believe it is important to remember that all the Purple Hearts awarded in the years since the end of WWII are from the batch ordered in preparation for the invasion of Japan.