Medals planned for the invasion of Japan are still being dispensed today for modern American conflicts.

When Putin or Kim Jong Un raise the threat of nuclear weapon use, they also remind the world that America is the only country to use nuclear weapons in wartime. Because of that, some Americans wonder: Did we have to bomb Japan? Could we not have shown them the power of the bomb, scaring them into surrender? In the modern age, we as a society are prone to historical revisionism. It was not a black and white “Yes, we should drop the bombs”, nor was it a “No, we shouldn’t bomb them”. I believe that the bombs were justified, but nuclear weapons should never be utilized again.

Nearing the end of the war, the Allies island hopping strategy is very successful, nearing the home island of Japan. Preparing for land invasions, they utilized over 8,000 kamikaze vehicles, and told civilians to fight alongside soldiers with bamboo spears. The government also told civilians that death was better than surrender, pointing to civilians who jumped off cliffs in the face of Allied forces drawing closer. Casualties were estimated to run up to 1 million for Allied forces, and estimates for the Japanese went as high as the tens of millions. Additionally, the Japanese were willing to fight to the death, their will strengthened by the propaganda fed to them by Japanese high command. Even when offered a chance to surrender in July before the use of atomic weapons, they still denied that offer, willing to fight on.

The Japanese were never going to capitulate, even after the firebombings of major cities, including their capital Tokyo, decimated their population. Going back to a question Americans ask, which is “Why couldn’t we just demonstrate the power of the bomb?” What if the plane carrying the bomb was shot down? What if the bomb just didn’t work? Even if the emperor wanted to surrender, his cabinet, full of fatalistic fanatics who were the true ruling powers of Imperial Japan, wouldn’t let him. These fanatics would fight to the death, preferring to go out fighting to the last man than even consider the thought of surrendering. Even after the second atomic bomb was dropped and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria began, the war council voted three to three, allowing the war to continue as a majority was required to make a decision. 5 days later, the Emperor finally broke the tie, voting to surrender to the Allies. The night before Japan revealed its surrender, some Imperial Japanese soldiers incited a coup, trying to find the emperor’s recording of his surrender speech and destroy it, but failed to do so.

If the Americans had gone through with their land invasion, over a million Americans and about 10 million Japanese would die as a result of just this one operation. If they had decided to blockade the Japanese, they would’ve starved more Japanese to death than how many Japanese died in the bombings. In the end, the surrender of the Imperial Japanese government probably saved millions of both Allied and Axis lives.

In the present, the legacy of the bombs lives on. It has remained the only time nuclear weapons have been used in war. Countries are dissuaded from even the thought of using nuclear weapons, as mutually assured destruction guarantees the death of the world if they use those weapons. Modern “tactical” nuclear weapons are about the same size as the bombs used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while modern intercontinental ballistic missiles have up to a thousand times the power of those atomic bombs. Next time you see a veteran with a Purple Heart, just remember they were made for the would-be invasion of Japan, many decades ago.