Why did they not drop the Atomic bombs in rural areas as a warning/show of strength before using them on cities?
In: 2423
The atom bombs were partly asymmetrical warfare. The firestorms in Tokyo and some German cities were more destructive/deadly than 1945 atom bombs. You’ll hear the phrase “hearts and minds” in military history- either as something you need to win over or something you need to defeat. By 1945, the Japanese were very soundly defeated in a martial sense, but they still had willpower. The atom bombs were dropped to defeat willpower as much as they were dropped to kill and destroy resources.
Also, bear in mind, atom bombs of 1945 were FAR less powerful than the thermonuclear weapons of the Cold War and today. Fat Man was 21kt. While devastating, that’s only 1.8% as powerful as the biggest bombs currently in the US arsenal, 0.08% as powerful as the largest acknowledged American bombs ever made, and 0.04% as powerful as the largest known bomb ever by any country. So, while detonating fat man in a field would certainly be impressive, it wouldn’t be as impressive as what we have in our minds from Terminator 2, Independence Day, Dr Strangelove, Castle Bravo footage, etc.
Other ideas:
-we needed to show Stalin our hand so he wouldn’t get ideas about continuing west past Berlin
-we wanted to see what the bombs would do against actual cities, not props built for Trinity
Latest Answers