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Discussion » Statements » Rosie's Corner » Was America the only country with a nuclear bomb at the time and that's why it dropped it and not an allied country?

Was America the only country with a nuclear bomb at the time and that's why it dropped it and not an allied country?

Posted - August 6, 2020

Responses


  • 3680
    Pretty much yes, but the War in Europe had already ended.

    The bomb was developed by both British and American scientists but after some early studies in the UK the Britons moved to America, and helped there. At the time America was the only country to have a functioning nuclear weapon.

    The Germans had been developing a nuclear bomb as well, but Allied intelligence discovered this and the RAF bombed the heavy-water plant in occupied Norway to halt their programme. 

    '

    I heard an item on the radio this evening about one of the survivors in Hiroshima -  not a person but a tree. Although it was all blasted and burnt above ground, a year later it sprouted new shoots, and it is now carefully looked after. The Japanese have sent seeds from it around the world, as well, as messages of peace and hope. Also in the news item was a short recoding of strange, watery little clicks and creaks - the internal sounds of the tree still living, detected by sensitive microphones.
      August 6, 2020 3:11 PM MDT
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  • Any invasion of Japan to end the Pacific war would feature the US in a prominent position of leadership, meaning supplying the most blood, treasure and resource to bring a close to the war. If we had resorted to an invasion, it would require another amphibious exercise on the order of Normandy with the cost of thousands of Allied lives. Even with the bomb, the fanaticism of the Japanese to continue fighting made  the desired  result questionable. The Germans came close in their efforts to build a bomb and by the close of the war, the Russians had stolen enough information to be on the verge of nuclear weaponry.
      August 6, 2020 5:46 PM MDT
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  • 16197
    Truman annihilated Hiroshima and Nagasaki for no other reason than to make the Japanese holler "uncle" before the Russians got there. Per the Potsdam agreement, Stalin had agreed that the Soviet Union would enter the Pacific theatre on August 15th, 1945. Japan was already on the skids, Hirohito was simply holding out for one condition (which the US would have granted, ie constitutional monarchy - the alternative may well have been a Japanese SSR, something the US was eager to avoid at all costs). The dropping of the bomb was simply an elaborate way of flipping the bird to the Commies (and reneging on the agreement).
      August 7, 2020 3:13 AM MDT
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  • 113301
    Oh my goodness. I always thought Truman was one nifty president. The people in those cities who "survived" were irreparably damaged in the most cruel ways. The more I ask the more I learn the more awful I find out about. Well not always but this nsure is. A chess game moving pieces about to gain an advantage and set up the opponent to take him out? I would say "say it ain't so Joe" but your name isn't Joe and what you tell me is always so.

    Which country do you think is more likely to be the one to dispatch the next nuclear bomb R? Thank you for you informative reply and Happy Friday/Saturday to thee and thine! :)   :( for what Truman did. This post was edited by RosieG at August 7, 2020 4:06 AM MDT
      August 7, 2020 4:05 AM MDT
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  • 16197
    A lot depends on how carefully the now-independent former Soviet nations guard the leftover Cold War ordnance. If a non-state operator gets hold of one, it likely won't be a country at all, but a terrorist organisation. 
    Failing that, most likely NK or the good ole USA. A squirrel tripped a wire that almost started WW3 in the 1960s, the glitch was discovered just in time.
      August 7, 2020 4:34 PM MDT
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  • 113301
    That sounds like something out of black comedy R. A squirrel trips a wire and the world blows up? Oh...that thing about a butterfly flapping its wings can affect things half-way around the world. Everything is connected to everything even if we don't see it. Are there ever any fortunate accirdents? I'll ask that too. Thank you for your reply! :)
      August 8, 2020 1:54 AM MDT
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