Why did America use two nuclear bombs to finally win WWII?

One of the key turning points in the war came in 1942, when the United States won a decisive victory at the Battle of Midway.

This was a major naval battle, and it put an end to Japan's plans to eliminate the US Pacific Fleet as a strategic force.

The Kokoda campaign was also critical in stopping the Japanese advance in New Guinea.

This was a series of battles fought from July to November 1942 in Papua New Guinea, between Japanese and primarily Australian forces.

In this campaign, a small group of Australian soldiers held off a much larger Japanese force, buying time for the Allies to mount a counteroffensive.

By 1944, the United States had built up a large army in the Pacific theatre. This army, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, began a series of island-hopping campaigns to drive back the Japanese. 

It involved selectively attacking specific enemy-held islands and bypassing others, creating a path toward Japan’s main islands.

The strategy aimed to capture key islands that could serve as bases for airfields and naval operations, allowing the Allies to move closer to Japan while cutting off Japanese supply and communication lines.

By isolating certain islands in this way, the Allies rendered Japanese forces there ineffective, forcing them to wither without direct confrontation.

Furthermore, island hopping allowed the Allies to maintain the element of surprise.

Because they could choose which islands to attack, the Japanese often found themselves unprepared for where the next battle would occur.

This unpredictability kept Japanese forces spread thin and unable to mount a coordinated defense across the vast expanse of the Pacific.

As a result, the Japanese military faced significant logistical challenges, unable to reinforce or resupply isolated garrisons effectively.

In June 1944, the United States launched an attack on the Japanese-held Mariana Islands.

This was known as the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and it resulted in a crushing defeat for the Japanese.

The most famous event of this campaign was the aerial battle known as the 'Great Mariana Turkey Shoot'.

This was a large engagement on June 19, 1944, where American pilots and anti-aircraft gunners had a significant advantage over Japanese forces, leading to the destruction of over 400 Japanese planes.

The loss of the Marianas, however, allowed the U.S. to launch B-29 bomber raids on the Japanese home islands, including Tokyo.

In 1944, the United States invaded the Philippines, which had been under Japanese control since 1941.

Following the Battle of Corregidor, which took place between the 16th of February and the 2nd of March 1945, the Japanese lost control of the region.

This was a major blow to Japanese morale and showed that the Allies were now capable of defeating them on their own turf.

The Philippine campaign also resulted in the return of General MacArthur to the region, who had been leading the Allied campaign in the Pacific.

In early 1945, the United States invaded the island of Iwo Jima. This was a small but strategic island, as it provided the Allies with a base from which to launch air raids on mainland Japan.

The battle was fought between the 19th of February and the 26th of March 1945 and resulted in a costly Allied victory.

This battle was particularly difficult because the Japanese had dug tunnels and bunkers into the volcanic rock of the island, making it difficult for the Allies to root them out.

In the end, however, the United States was able to achieve victory over the island.

The final major battle in the Pacific theatre was the invasion of Okinawa. This took place between April and June 1945 and resulted in an Allied victory.

The island of Okinawa was important because it provided a base from which to launch an invasion of mainland Japan. 

This battle was fought mainly by United States Marines, who faced stiff resistance from the Japanese defenders.

It resulted in over 200,000 casualties, including approximately 100,000 Japanese soldiers, 12,000 American soldiers, and a staggering number of civilian deaths estimated between 40,000 to 150,000.

In the end, however, they were able to eventually seize control of the island.

By 1945, the Japanese were desperate. Their army was retreating on all fronts, and they knew that an Allied invasion of mainland Japan was inevitable.

In a last-ditch effort to stop the Allies, the Japanese began using Kamikaze attacks.

Kamikaze pilots would fly their planes into Allied ships in suicide missions. These were not just acts of desperation but were also part of a larger strategy to make the invasion of the Japanese home islands as costly as possible for the Allies.

The kamikaze attacks caused significant damage to the Allies, but it was not enough to turn the tide of the war.

These pilots made significant impacts in the battles of Leyte Gulf and Okinawa, but in the end, they were not enough to save Japan.

The Allies launched Operation Meetinghouse on the night of 9th to the 10th of March 1945.

This operation saw the United States Army Air Forces drop thousands of incendiary bombs on Tokyo.

The resulting firestorm killed over 100,000 people and destroyed 16 square miles of the city.

This was the single deadliest air raid of World War Two, and it demonstrated the Allies' willingness to use whatever means necessary to win the war.

However, despite the massive death toll, there was still no signs that the Japanese government was going to surrender.

As a result, U.S. military commanders began drawing up plans for Operation Downfall.

This was a planned Allied land invasion of the Japanese home islands.

By this stage though, Japan had begun mobilizing its civilian population in anticipation of an Allied invasion.

They now were training the men, women, and children to resist the invasion using any home-made weapons they could find, for the expressed purpose of dealing as much damage as possible to the invaders.

As a result, the planners expected that any such strategy would result in extremely high casualties, with estimates ranging from hundreds of thousands to over a million Allied soldiers and potentially millions of Japanese military and civilian deaths.

By early 1945, it was clear that the Allies were going to win the war in the Pacific. However, the Japanese refused to surrender, and they continued to fight fiercely.

In order to force them to surrender, the United States decided to use their newly developed atomic bombs on Japan.

The top-secret research program to build the world's first atomic weapons had been initiated in 1942 and was named the Manhattan Project.

For almost three years, the U.S. had spent over $2 billion and had finally built two that were planned to be used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

These cities were chosen as the targets because they were large industrial centres that produced a lot of the resources Japan used in the war.

The first bomb, code-named 'Little Boy', was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on the morning of the 6th of August.

In the space of one day, over 70,000 people were killed and another 70,000 were injured.

The second bomb, code-named 'Fat Man', was dropped on Nagasaki three days later. This bomb killed an estimated 40,000 people.

Also, during this time, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan on the 8th of August 1945, following quickly by an invasion of Japanese-held territories in Manchuria and Korea.

For example, in Manchuria on August 9, 1945, Soviet forces swiftly defeated the Japanese Kwantung Army.

This placed significant pressure on Japan, as they now had to fight a war on two fronts. 

On the 15th of August 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito made a radio address to the nation in which he announced Japan's surrender.

This was the first time the Japanese public had ever heard their Emperor's voice, but this unprecedented step was taken in order to convey his order to cease hostilities.

This finally convinced the Japanese to give up, and on September 2nd, 1945, they signed a formal surrender agreement with the Allies. 

This surrender was brought about by two events: the Soviet Union's entry into the war, and the United States' use of nuclear weapons.

In September of that year, Allied forces occupied Japan and began the process of rebuilding the country.

With Japan's defeat, World War Two came to an end. The Allies had emerged victorious from one of the deadliest conflicts in human history.

Over 60 million people had died during the conflict in Europe and the Pacific theatres.

The Allies defeated Imperial Japan in World War Two through a combination of island-hopping campaigns, conventional warfare, and nuclear weapons.

This victory brought an end to the war in the Pacific theatre and led to the eventual surrender of Japan. 

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a controversial decision, as it resulted in the deaths of so many innocent civilians.

However, some argue that without these bombings, the war would have continued for much longer, and many more lives would have been lost.

By the end of 1945, the combined casualties of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were estimated to exceed 200,000, including those who later died from radiation sickness and injuries.

In fact, the devastation caused by the atomic bombings left Hiroshima and Nagasaki as cities in ruins, led to Japan's post-war pacifist stance and renunciation of war in its 1947 constitution.