What consequences of using the atomic bombs during World War 2?

Answer 1

That depends on who you 'listen' to. Some say Japan was trying to surrender and end the war, but that the US Military wanted to drop the bomb not just to stop japan, but as a warning to Russia... hands off in the pacific.

Others point out to the assault on other Japanese strongholds in which hundreds of thousands died in taking over Guam(?). There were predictions of a minimum of 500,000 casualties to a max of 3,000,000 casualties if the US had to invade the main islands of Japan. These say that dropping the 2 bombs shortened the war and stopped many US casualties that would have occurred in an invasion.

That is a shortened version of the debate over whether the bombs should have been dropped. After the war, the horror of the radiation, burns, disfigurement, etc of the bombs lead to many opposing any further use of atomic weapons. Eventually Australia banned any ships with atomic/nuclear weapons from entering their harbors, but how do you know? US and other nations are not going to allow their ships to be searched when they enter port.

The USSR, Britain, France quickly developed atomic bombs of their own, and eventually, hydrogen bombs. This lead to ideas such as mutually assured destruction, referring to the ability of one country to retaliate if attacked and launch enough of these weapons to destroy the attacking country. Thus the world was in a 'cold war', lots of spying, killing the other counties operatives, but the countries too afraid of world wide destruction to start a war other than through 'proxy' countries like Korea(north vs south) and Vietnam or some South American countries trying to instill communist rule there. Constant tension over the Berlin Wall separating the 2 parts of Germany (one under Soviet influence, and the other under mainly the US).