What alternatives were there to bombing Hiroshima?

Answer 1

We could have continued the giant thousand plane raids, which were killing about 100,000 people each, and maintained the blockade until enough people (a million? more?) had starved to death to convince the Japanese government to surrender or we could have invaded which likely would have resulted in at least 100,000 American deaths and 1,000,000 Japanese deaths.

Answer 2

There were many alternatives such as

• Continue to attack Japan with conventional bombing till it gave up but this had a projected 20 million deaths Japanese and Americans
• Use chemical weapons on Japan (this was already committed to do this if Japan resisted the invasion as they had elsewhere)
• Wait for Russians to join war but the U.S. didn't want Russia to have any occupation in Japan, resulting in a postwar communist North Japan and a democratic South Japan
• Show the bomb to the Japan's top scientists at Tokyo Harbor ( the only problem with this is that if we told them we were going to drop a bomb somewhere, they would just put all of our P.O.W.s at ground zero.)

There are many others but these are the main ones. Fact: The U.S. is the only country in the world to use atomic weapons and they're criticizing other countries policies. (Mostly because the Atom-Bomb had just been invented and in current times, most of the countries the United States are criticizing are crazy enough to launch on at the U.S.)

Answer 3

The planned invasion Operation DOWNFALL was part of the use of the 16 A bombs on Japan

The alternative was continued nightly fire bombing raids or a naval blockade to try and starve then into surrendering

Answer 4

Yes, some we were already doing while others would have to wait until the planned invasion in late October or early November (if we had waited until the invasion the Manhattan Project production schedule expected to have 9 or 10 atomic bombs ready to use by then, if they were not previously used).

1. thousand plane firebombing raids - several citieswere being attacked every night, with the damage and deaths in each proportional to an atomic bomb attack
2. various propaganda weapons were being used and would also be used during the invasion
3. chemical weapons were to be used during the invasion if Japan resisted as they had on the last islands, and there was no reason to assume they would not
4. flame throwers were to be used during the invasion
5. all the weapons of conventional warfare were to be used during the invasion
6. etc.

Also, once the invasion began the USSR would also have invaded resulting in a postwar partitioning (as was already happening in Europe) into a communist North Japan and a democratic South Japan.

As it was anticipated that the war would last more than another year that way (there are records that indicate many in the Japanese military seriously thought they could successfully keep the war going for a decade before inevitably having to surrender, at which point the US would be so tired of war that Japan could get all they wanted even though Japan had surrendered) it was decided to use atomic bombs as soon as they became available, hoping they might convince the Japanese to surrender before the invasion.

The alternatives to use of atomic weapons were equally horrific and had the war lasted long enough might have effectively exterminated the Japanese people and culture.

Answer 5

A long and drawn out conflict. They chose the atomic bomb because it was a lot more humane.