Nuked

Another article in the annual parade of articles about Hiroshima:

My grandfather was a forward observer. His job was to go in to the beach first, climb a tree, and call in directions for the artillery that would bombard the defenses at the Japanese landing beach. In front of the invading army, these binoculars were made to resolve the targets of the first artillery barrages to soften its arrival on the beachhead. Picture the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan; the planned invasion of Japan would have been an amphibious assault on the scale of D-Day.
Artillery spotters like my grandfather had just about the lowest life expectancy of any troops in ground combat. He very likely would have died up in that tree, calling artillery directions into his radio.

My grandfather was a sergeant running the triage in a medical unit that was going ashore with the first wave.

Really, they started it, we finished it.

Criticism of Hiroshima and Nagasaki usual centers around the idea that first, it was unnecessary, as if the war was a few weeks away from ending regardless. There is no way to know, of course. And guess what, the Truman Administration didn't know either.

Second, anti-nukers like to point out that there was a strong faction in a Pentagon that wanted to see what the bomb could do, and use it to scare the Russians. As if those two reasons are bad.

Third, racism usually comes up. Which is ridiculous. We built the bomb to use on the Krauts.

Of course, my Bevy of Chinese neighbors usually want to know why these people are concerned about Hiroshima and Nagasaki but don't have anything to say about the millions of Chinese killed by the Japanese. Nanking is but one example. How 'bout the 100,000 killed at the battle of Manila, or the Bataan Death March, or the Burmese Railway, or Korean comfort girl, or the Hell Ships or....