Why didn't the US nuke Tokyo (Short Animated Documentary)
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Date: 2025-05-10
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Comments and reviews: 20
history_matters
They needed a pristine target so they could measure the aftereffects accurately. Sure, it showed the rest of the world the power of the weapon, but it showed the American scientists as well. And it was a good thing they surrendered because Truman may have said we have more of these bombs and Japan can expect a rain of ruin from the sky and all that but truth-be-told they didn't have anymore just sitting around. The bomb helped end the war but the Soviets coming in was just as much of a determining factor. The Japanese knew the Soviets tended to stick around wherever they showed up, like bad houseguests who won't leave, like ever. Plus, there was no neutral party for them to act as middleman once the Soviets declared war. By that point damn near everyone on the planet outside of Germany and Italy was at war with em.
The gig was up. Had the Soviets not come in I doubt Japan would have surrendered. Not without firm assurances that the Emperor could stay on the throne. The sad thing is both sides could have gotten the deal they ended up with if they had been a bit more flexible. The Americans were pissed though, and rightly so, so the onus was on Japan to make the first move, not through the Soviets either, which was a f-up way to conduct diplomacy. It's like asking the mob to act as intermediary in a dispute with the FBI. Wait a minute. The way the FBI behaves these days. never mind. Bad analogy.
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They needed a pristine target so they could measure the aftereffects accurately. Sure, it showed the rest of the world the power of the weapon, but it showed the American scientists as well. And it was a good thing they surrendered because Truman may have said we have more of these bombs and Japan can expect a rain of ruin from the sky and all that but truth-be-told they didn't have anymore just sitting around. The bomb helped end the war but the Soviets coming in was just as much of a determining factor. The Japanese knew the Soviets tended to stick around wherever they showed up, like bad houseguests who won't leave, like ever. Plus, there was no neutral party for them to act as middleman once the Soviets declared war. By that point damn near everyone on the planet outside of Germany and Italy was at war with em.
The gig was up. Had the Soviets not come in I doubt Japan would have surrendered. Not without firm assurances that the Emperor could stay on the throne. The sad thing is both sides could have gotten the deal they ended up with if they had been a bit more flexible. The Americans were pissed though, and rightly so, so the onus was on Japan to make the first move, not through the Soviets either, which was a f-up way to conduct diplomacy. It's like asking the mob to act as intermediary in a dispute with the FBI. Wait a minute. The way the FBI behaves these days. never mind. Bad analogy.
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jhmcd2
Congrats, this is officially the first video that I have heard which mentioned the military base in Hiroshima as existing while talking about the bombings. Even the Hiroshima Atomic Peace Museum downplayed that. But for those who don't know the Atomic Bomb Peace Website does mention the base, and clearly states at least 40, 000 troops were based in the city. In fact, a lot of children had been evacuated from major cities over a year prior as the Japanese prepared for arial bombardments. Not to say a huge number of civilians didn't die, the reasons were never as random (when it came to Hiroshima) as people like to say it was, and considering what happened in Germany, Japan actually got off easy.
And for the record the other factors were, there were a ton of factories there (the steal mill which made the Yomato was located there) as well as it was the headquarters for the Southern Armey forces and would have been where a defense would be coordinated in case of invasion, and it was surrounded by mountains which could contain the blast.
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Congrats, this is officially the first video that I have heard which mentioned the military base in Hiroshima as existing while talking about the bombings. Even the Hiroshima Atomic Peace Museum downplayed that. But for those who don't know the Atomic Bomb Peace Website does mention the base, and clearly states at least 40, 000 troops were based in the city. In fact, a lot of children had been evacuated from major cities over a year prior as the Japanese prepared for arial bombardments. Not to say a huge number of civilians didn't die, the reasons were never as random (when it came to Hiroshima) as people like to say it was, and considering what happened in Germany, Japan actually got off easy.
And for the record the other factors were, there were a ton of factories there (the steal mill which made the Yomato was located there) as well as it was the headquarters for the Southern Armey forces and would have been where a defense would be coordinated in case of invasion, and it was surrounded by mountains which could contain the blast.
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jasonluong3862
Killing 100, 000 civilians to save the lives of 100, 000 soldiers. Think about that. The only justification of dropping the bombs was if the US had invaded Japan, many civilians would have died in the battles as well, especially with the Japanese civilians who grew up idolizing their emperor. The Japanese culture was at the time, and still is to some extent, a xenophobic culture whose isolationism primarily contributed to its need for natural resources that forced it to invade China and attacked the USA in the first place. All those reasons would have caused the civilians to take up arms defending their country, turning them into soldiers. It can be argued that Japan had lost its sovereignty the moment it invaded other countries, making it opened to invasion under international law of warfare. Therefore to say killing 100, 000 civilians to save 100, 000 American soldiers is an oversimplification. In the end the reason and justification to drop those nukes were more nuanced, except for the invariable of war is always hell.
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Killing 100, 000 civilians to save the lives of 100, 000 soldiers. Think about that. The only justification of dropping the bombs was if the US had invaded Japan, many civilians would have died in the battles as well, especially with the Japanese civilians who grew up idolizing their emperor. The Japanese culture was at the time, and still is to some extent, a xenophobic culture whose isolationism primarily contributed to its need for natural resources that forced it to invade China and attacked the USA in the first place. All those reasons would have caused the civilians to take up arms defending their country, turning them into soldiers. It can be argued that Japan had lost its sovereignty the moment it invaded other countries, making it opened to invasion under international law of warfare. Therefore to say killing 100, 000 civilians to save 100, 000 American soldiers is an oversimplification. In the end the reason and justification to drop those nukes were more nuanced, except for the invariable of war is always hell.
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walterengler5709
You have to admit the choices were well thought out. Leave the government intact to surrender, leave the major cultural city intact, and focus on cities of industrial or military importance that have been relatively untouched in the war. Given the emotions of a war and the pain of loss for those who had died, this has always amazed me that they stepped back from the pure emotional response that could have been carried out. I can almost imagine those in power going the vindictive route, and deciding to take out Kyoto and then Tokyo to put them in their place so they learn to never fight again. Heck look at what goes on in wars these days with all the anger and emotion. It's hard NOT to want to be vindictive and stomp the enemy into the ground. So an argument could have been made that destroying their culture and royal line would have ensured the will of the enemy would be destroyed so they would never threaten the world again.
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You have to admit the choices were well thought out. Leave the government intact to surrender, leave the major cultural city intact, and focus on cities of industrial or military importance that have been relatively untouched in the war. Given the emotions of a war and the pain of loss for those who had died, this has always amazed me that they stepped back from the pure emotional response that could have been carried out. I can almost imagine those in power going the vindictive route, and deciding to take out Kyoto and then Tokyo to put them in their place so they learn to never fight again. Heck look at what goes on in wars these days with all the anger and emotion. It's hard NOT to want to be vindictive and stomp the enemy into the ground. So an argument could have been made that destroying their culture and royal line would have ensured the will of the enemy would be destroyed so they would never threaten the world again.
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CaseNumber00
If the nukes werent dropped, I likely wouldnt be alive. My grandpa was training for Operation Downfall, the panned land invasion of Japan. Of course, we will never know what would happen but we can turn to the battle of Okinawa. It was the bloodiest and most serious battle of the Pacific theater. Comparing with that battle, My grandfather probably would not have survived. With that, we wouldnt have met my grand mother and I never would have came about. To give a perspective for how bad the battle could have been, the US commissioned over 500, 000 Purple Heart medals to be made. On the back of recently given out Purple Heart medals there is the number 1945, the year of the planned invasion. The US never perform the battle so the medals went to storage, however, recently given out medals, for the past 75 years do show 1945 on the back of the metal, the year they planned the invasion.
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If the nukes werent dropped, I likely wouldnt be alive. My grandpa was training for Operation Downfall, the panned land invasion of Japan. Of course, we will never know what would happen but we can turn to the battle of Okinawa. It was the bloodiest and most serious battle of the Pacific theater. Comparing with that battle, My grandfather probably would not have survived. With that, we wouldnt have met my grand mother and I never would have came about. To give a perspective for how bad the battle could have been, the US commissioned over 500, 000 Purple Heart medals to be made. On the back of recently given out Purple Heart medals there is the number 1945, the year of the planned invasion. The US never perform the battle so the medals went to storage, however, recently given out medals, for the past 75 years do show 1945 on the back of the metal, the year they planned the invasion.
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Aviator27J
And the crew made more than one pass over Nagasaki because it was also obscured by clouds. The problem was, the bomb was heavy and the flight was long, so the B-29 was running very low on fuel. They were approaching bingo fuel (the minimum fuel to return to base with a safety reserve, so it's been speculated that the crew had decided to drop the bomb on their last pass regardless of getting a visual of the target. They were ordered to not drop if they couldn't verify the target visually, but the aircraft would be too heavy to return to base, requiring a ditching and possible death of the crew. With that in mind, the agreement of some onboard was to drop the bomb when they calculated their position over target (Nagasaki) with or without visual confirmation, and then RTB. It hasn't been proven whether or not they saw the target before bomb release, but.
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And the crew made more than one pass over Nagasaki because it was also obscured by clouds. The problem was, the bomb was heavy and the flight was long, so the B-29 was running very low on fuel. They were approaching bingo fuel (the minimum fuel to return to base with a safety reserve, so it's been speculated that the crew had decided to drop the bomb on their last pass regardless of getting a visual of the target. They were ordered to not drop if they couldn't verify the target visually, but the aircraft would be too heavy to return to base, requiring a ditching and possible death of the crew. With that in mind, the agreement of some onboard was to drop the bomb when they calculated their position over target (Nagasaki) with or without visual confirmation, and then RTB. It hasn't been proven whether or not they saw the target before bomb release, but.
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ohger1
OT: while we're all horrified today by the nukes used in Japan, in 1945 there was no such stigma - it was simply a brand new high tech weapon that would effect an early end to the war to a war weary world. Most know that today, but more importantly, we have to realize that the reason a nuke hasn't been used since (so far - God willing it stays that way forever) is that the lessons of the horror of the Japanese suffering was a lesson for the world. Let us pray no one forgets that lesson.
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OT: while we're all horrified today by the nukes used in Japan, in 1945 there was no such stigma - it was simply a brand new high tech weapon that would effect an early end to the war to a war weary world. Most know that today, but more importantly, we have to realize that the reason a nuke hasn't been used since (so far - God willing it stays that way forever) is that the lessons of the horror of the Japanese suffering was a lesson for the world. Let us pray no one forgets that lesson.
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morgan1719
After you enjoy the video, enjoy the real Answer: The population of Tokyo had already been (censored 100, 000 censored more than 1, 000, 000 censored in a single night. Dropping the world's first nuke on ashes would not have satisfied our leaders' bloodlust. Japan was ruined, it's navy and airforce destroyed, it was no longer a threat to anyone. Our leadership rushed to censored before the Japanese could surrender and ruin their chance to flex.
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After you enjoy the video, enjoy the real Answer: The population of Tokyo had already been (censored 100, 000 censored more than 1, 000, 000 censored in a single night. Dropping the world's first nuke on ashes would not have satisfied our leaders' bloodlust. Japan was ruined, it's navy and airforce destroyed, it was no longer a threat to anyone. Our leadership rushed to censored before the Japanese could surrender and ruin their chance to flex.
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Conan_the_Based
Why do people still believe the ground invasion narrative Italy and Germany were defeated. Japan was alone and blockaded, unable to import even gas to fuel their warships. All the Allies had to do was starve them out.
The need for ground invasion was invented after the fact to justify murdering hundreds of thousands of women and children (the men were away at war) for no better reason than they had a new toy and wanted to test it.
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Why do people still believe the ground invasion narrative Italy and Germany were defeated. Japan was alone and blockaded, unable to import even gas to fuel their warships. All the Allies had to do was starve them out.
The need for ground invasion was invented after the fact to justify murdering hundreds of thousands of women and children (the men were away at war) for no better reason than they had a new toy and wanted to test it.
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karlostj4683
After dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the Japanese STILL did not immediately surrender. So the second bomb was dropped, at which point the Emperor broadcast the surrender of all Japanese. This shows the utter determination of the Japanese nation to continue fighting even though their fleet was at the bottom of the Pacific, and nearly 1. 5M Japanese soldiers were trapped in China and Korea.
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After dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the Japanese STILL did not immediately surrender. So the second bomb was dropped, at which point the Emperor broadcast the surrender of all Japanese. This shows the utter determination of the Japanese nation to continue fighting even though their fleet was at the bottom of the Pacific, and nearly 1. 5M Japanese soldiers were trapped in China and Korea.
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history_matters
Another thing you forgot to mention was:
Operation Downfall was still slated to go ahead after the bombings if the Japanese still didn’t surrender
So taking out the two cities which supplies the Japanese army during all of its invasions of China meant the invasion of Kyushu would have been easier as there would be no way for Japan to get reinforcements to the island
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Another thing you forgot to mention was:
Operation Downfall was still slated to go ahead after the bombings if the Japanese still didn’t surrender
So taking out the two cities which supplies the Japanese army during all of its invasions of China meant the invasion of Kyushu would have been easier as there would be no way for Japan to get reinforcements to the island
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manyinterests1961
Mostly false narrative. Bombs were dropped to threaten the soviets. Japan was already mostly bombed out and could have been completely without much additional effort. Soviet invasion on 8. August and resulting huge numerical defeat for Japanese army had more influence on surrender. At the moment of surrender Japan still held enormous areas in far east.
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Mostly false narrative. Bombs were dropped to threaten the soviets. Japan was already mostly bombed out and could have been completely without much additional effort. Soviet invasion on 8. August and resulting huge numerical defeat for Japanese army had more influence on surrender. At the moment of surrender Japan still held enormous areas in far east.
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chaznaps5679
I don't have to watch this video to let people know a bit about history: Tokyo wasn't bombed, or a couple of other cities, because they had already been decimated by firebombings. The U. S. wanted an unbombed city to demonstrate what just 1 of these bombs was capable of. There, I saved you's in the future from having to watch this video.
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I don't have to watch this video to let people know a bit about history: Tokyo wasn't bombed, or a couple of other cities, because they had already been decimated by firebombings. The U. S. wanted an unbombed city to demonstrate what just 1 of these bombs was capable of. There, I saved you's in the future from having to watch this video.
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nikitakucherov5028
Its 2025, wars should cease from this point forward (they almost certainly wont. Nearly every country has done TERRIBLE things to other countries. However, there has to be a point where the human race moves forward, can you imagine how wonderful life could be if we collectively found perpetual peace We should at least try!
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Its 2025, wars should cease from this point forward (they almost certainly wont. Nearly every country has done TERRIBLE things to other countries. However, there has to be a point where the human race moves forward, can you imagine how wonderful life could be if we collectively found perpetual peace We should at least try!
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danovercast9282
Without the Emperor to surrender, the Imperial Army would have likely continued to fight until the last man, costing millions of lives, on both sides, and very possibly resulting in the literal extinction of the Japanese people, especially when you consider the impending Soviet entry into the Pacific theater.
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Without the Emperor to surrender, the Imperial Army would have likely continued to fight until the last man, costing millions of lives, on both sides, and very possibly resulting in the literal extinction of the Japanese people, especially when you consider the impending Soviet entry into the Pacific theater.
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Geoff69420
One little interesting tidbit regarding Kyoto - removing it from the list of potential targets for the bomb resulted in local businesses being spared the nuke. One of those businesses was a playing card manufacturer which was founded in 1889.
That playing card company was and still is called Nintendo.
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One little interesting tidbit regarding Kyoto - removing it from the list of potential targets for the bomb resulted in local businesses being spared the nuke. One of those businesses was a playing card manufacturer which was founded in 1889.
That playing card company was and still is called Nintendo.
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028fn48dne
the japanese surrendered and therefore there was no need to use another bomb this is correct but it's also important to say that the Americans didn't actually have another bomb. They had three, the one they tested and the two they dropped. They would've had to make more, and that would've taken a while.
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the japanese surrendered and therefore there was no need to use another bomb this is correct but it's also important to say that the Americans didn't actually have another bomb. They had three, the one they tested and the two they dropped. They would've had to make more, and that would've taken a while.
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Mr_T_Badger
The core for the third hypothetical bomb, nicknamed the Demon Core, would however go on to kill people at least twice because nuclear physicists are occasionally idiots with handling and containment. The Demon Core would thankfully be dismantled shortly after though.
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The core for the third hypothetical bomb, nicknamed the Demon Core, would however go on to kill people at least twice because nuclear physicists are occasionally idiots with handling and containment. The Demon Core would thankfully be dismantled shortly after though.
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carlireland5049
Is there any reliable source actually confirming that Henry Stimson spared Kyoto because he holidayed there
I’ve only heard of this because of _Oppenheimer, _ and I believe it was only in that because Christopher Nolan let James Remar throw it in.
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Is there any reliable source actually confirming that Henry Stimson spared Kyoto because he holidayed there
I’ve only heard of this because of _Oppenheimer, _ and I believe it was only in that because Christopher Nolan let James Remar throw it in.
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ncochran01
It isn't mentioned but hopefully, we didn't bomb Tokyo because of the massive civilian causalities that would have occurred. Tokyo is densely populated, like New York City. It would have been incredibly destructive and killed tons of innocent people.
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It isn't mentioned but hopefully, we didn't bomb Tokyo because of the massive civilian causalities that would have occurred. Tokyo is densely populated, like New York City. It would have been incredibly destructive and killed tons of innocent people.
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