History UsefulNotes / AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki

The choosing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima as the targets was almost a chance event, as there were four potential cities that could be targeted. In particular, Kokura was the intended target for the second bomb (and had been the backup target for the first), [[ForWantOfANail but Nagasaki was attacked instead because of poor visibility over Kokura]]. This has resulted in Kokura being known as a lucky city. As for Hiroshima, many officials had actually been in support of bombing Kyoto, due to its industrial significance, but the city was removed from the target list due to its historical, religious and cultural importance to the Japanese people.[[note]]The removal was mostly the work of one Henry L. Stimson, the Secretary of War at the time, who appealed directly to President Truman to get Kyoto removed; It was no coincidence that Stimson had had his honeymoon in the city, and subsequently had fallen in love with it.[[/note]] Thus, Hiroshima was chosen as the first atomic bombing target. On August 6th, 1945, at 8:15 a.m. on an already hot summer morning, four B-29 Superfortresses of the 509th Composite Group (a secret and highly-specialized unit trained to fly B-29s modified to carry atomic ordnance as part of Project Silverplate) appeared in the skies high above Hiroshima. One of them, 44-86292 ''Enola Gay'', held ''Little Boy'' in her bomb bay. Air raid sirens initially went off, but seeing the small flight of American planes (initially a single weather reconnaissance plane, Captain Claude Eatherly's ''Straight Flush'', followed by the strike package consisting of the ''Enola Gay'' and two additional B-29s carrying cameras and airborne instrumentation) and taking it for a scouting mission, the all clear was sounded. Just as people were emerging from their air raid shelters, ''Enola Gay'' Bombardier Major Thomas Ferebee placed the bombsight's crosshairs over the Aioi Bridge, a unique T-shaped bridge that was essentially right in the middle of the city, and released "Little Boy." \\

With hindsight it is easy to forget, but nobody at the time knew the war was about to end. By the best estimates, the war against Japan was expected to continue 18 months after the German surrender, with Operation '''Downfall''' scheduled to not even begin until November 1945, with fighting expected to continue until 1947. Therefore the Allies made their decisions not in an atmosphere of imminent victory, but rather in the face of what promised to be an ''escalation'' of the Pacific War unlike anything yet seen, and mass casualties were expected. [[note]]The U.S. Government ordered the minting of so many Purple Heart medals (awarded to soldiers wounded or killed in action) that the stockpile ended up lasting for over 50 years. As of 2022 they still haven't run out of them. All the casualties of Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and all of America's other military interventions since 1945, ''and they still haven't used them all up''[[/note]] The American public was becoming restless at the cost of the war already. It would have been inconceivable, when tens of millions of Europeans and Asians had already died, as well as hundreds of thousands of Americans, to refuse to use a bomb that could end the war for fear of "killing too many people."

* There is a two-part special episode of the ''Anime/TamaAndFriends'' anime adaptation ''Do You Know my Tama?'' in which a curse is put upon the people of the third district regarding a little girl and her dog Shiro, who tragically ended up being two of the 129,000-226,000 casualties of the bombings. Tama's owner Takeshi has nightmares about her in the [[AChristmasCarol Christmas Carol]]-type first part. The girl's ghost even holds Tama hostage and threatens to kill him.
** In the episode's second part, Pochi is possessed by a haunted collar, which belonged to Shiro before he and his owner were killed by one of the atomic bombs. Shiro is revealed to be a really terrifying-looking [[{{Youkai}} Inugami]] (dog demon) once the collar is taken off of Pochi by Takeshi - essentially exhausting the former and causing him not to be able to see it. Thankfully, his ghost owner changes him back to the kind of loving dog he was when he was alive and apologizes for all the trouble they caused.
** Although this take on one of the events that ended the second world war was [[LighterAndSofter much tamer]] compared to Barefoot Gen - especially being a kids' anime, you can see why Creator/FourKidsEntertainment decided to skip the episode when they acquired the series due to it being inspired by such a nightmarish true event. And fittingly enough, the creators of the ''Tama & Friends'' franchise, {{Creator/Sony}}, helped rebuild Japan when they were founded after both the war and the bombings.

Though the true figures weren't published until much later, the suddenness and scale of the destruction still shocked the American public. A VocalMinority was pleased, advocating simply wiping out the Japanese in an atomic genocide. However many Americans were still against killing civilians for killing's sake. Despite hundreds of thousands of Japanese already killed by conventional strategic bombing, many Americans could still pretend that they were conducting a "precision" campaign targeting Japanese industry. The Atomic Bombs were something different.\\
\\

As of 2022, the event holds the title, for better or worse, of the only time nuclear weapons have been deployed against targets in wartime, though it was not the ''first'' nuclear detonation, which goes to the Trinity Test of July 1945.

The Japanese answer to '''Downfall''' was Operation '''Ketsugō'''. It wasn't hard to guess where the invasion would take place, and Japan began moving more and more troops to southern Kyushu. While the Japanese knew they had no hope of winning the war, they hoped that they could make invasion of the Home Islands too costly for the Allies to attempt. Even at this late stage, Japan retained around 10,000 aircraft. Most would be used as Kamikazes, what the Japanese military then called "Special Attacks" -- if for no other reason than their inexperienced pilots weren't good for much else. The vast majority of Japan's aces had already been killed. Attempting to dog-fight with the Americans, who had greater experience, flew far more capable aircraft, and vastly outnumbered the Japanese, was useless. During the Battle of Okinawa, the Japanese Navy had launched 1500 Special Attacks, achieving a hit-rate of around 11% and wounding or killing more than 10,000 U.S. Navy personnel. At Kyushu, due to more favorable terrain, the Japanese hoped for a hit rate of 17%. Furthermore, they would target troop carriers as they ferried men to the beaches, rather than the heavy navy ships, increasing casualties even further. Some Japanese planners optimistically hoped that the Kamikaze forces alone could destroy 1/3 or more of the invasion force ''en route'' to the beaches. [[note]]Unfortunately for the Japanese, the Americans had anticipated this tactic, and if the invasion had gone ahead were planning to launch a 'dummy' invasion force of landing ships ahead of the main invasion, devoid of ground troops but outfitted with an excess of AA-weaponry. [[/note]]\\

Knowing very well how close they were to total defeat, the Cabinet was split between those who wanted to surrender and those who wanted to fight to the death. The latter were a smaller group, but the former faction was evenly split between those who wanted to surrender ''now'' and those who wanted to [[InsistentTerminology "negotiate an end to the war."]] In any case, peace negotiations were ongoing throughout 1945, but they followed a familiar pattern, with the Japanese insisting on totally unrealistic conditions while the Americans continually refused anything less than unconditional surrender. The Japanese insisted upon the retention of the Emperor as Supreme Head of State and the retention of his political power, that there would be no occupation, that Japan would retain ''integral territory'' (this meant territory such as Korea and UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}), that Japanese disarmament would not be controlled by the Allies, and that it would try its own war criminals. The Japanese government was deeply divided, but a decision to surrender could only be made Emperor Hirohito, and he was still under the dominant influence of the military. Most of the military leadership was determined to fight on and defend the home islands against invasion. Japan still occupied most of China and large parts of South-East Asia and had 2 million men under arms. In any case, Truman had no way of knowing what Japan's leaders were thinking. Japan chose to ignore the Potsdam Declaration of 26 July, which warned of "prompt and utter destruction" if it did not surrender. The Americans saw no reason to give Japan any leeway. Germany had already surrendered unconditionally-- so must Japan.

The address is remarkable for several reasons. It was the first public speech ever made by the Emperor, and the first time a majority of his subjects had heard his voice. In extraordinary {{understatement}}, he states, "The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage." The word "surrender" does not appear once in the Emperor's address. Rather, he states that he has directed his government to "accept the provisions of the Joint Declaration." The address is further full of self-justifications and placations, claiming that [[BlatantLies Japan never infringed on the sovereignty of other nations]], that Japan was striving to free East Asia from European imperialism--long story short, he was announcing that Japan had lost the war without ever ''saying'' they lost the war. He also specifically mentions the Atomic Bomb as a reason to accept the Allied provisions, claiming that the loss of innocent life would be incalculable otherwise. \\

Unofficially, this policy of arming civilians was called ''ichioku gyokusai'' (一億玉砕) literally meaning "100 million shattered jewels," referring to the total population of Japan sacrificing themselves in the coming battle. This policy was a reference to the Tang Dynasty history records of Western Wei, where the original quote being 大丈夫寧為玉碎，不為瓦全, which conveyed the desire to sacrifice oneself rather than live in shame. Japanese War Minister, General Anami, expressed during a meeting, "Would it not be wondrous for this whole nation to be destroyed, like a beautiful flower?"\\

Later in the afternoon of the 8th, in Moscow, Japanese Ambassador Naotake Sato was summoned to a meeting with Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and told in no uncertain terms that as of midnight, the Soviet Union and Japan would be at war. Sato, one of the realists in the Japanese government, had continually written to his superiors imploring them to seek a diplomatic end to the war, but his warnings were universally ignored.\\

* ''Manga/BarefootGen'' A semiautobiographical account of the author's own experiences surviving Hiroshima. [[spoiler: Everyone in Gen's family but Gen himself and his mother Kimie kick it either during the bombing or few afterwards.]]

The address is remarkable for several reasons. It was the first public speech ever made by the Emperor, and the first time a majority of his subjects had heard his voice. In extraordinary {{understatement}}, he states, "The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage." The word "surrender" does not appear once in the Emperor's address. Rather, he states that he has directed his government to "accept the provisions of the Joint Declaration." The address is further full of self-justifications, claiming that [[BlatantLies Japan never infringed on the sovereignty of other nations]], and that Japan was striving to free East Asia from European imperialism. He also specifically mentions the Atomic Bomb as a reason to accept the Allied provisions, claiming that the loss of innocent life would be incalculable otherwise. \\

The Allies accepted, and so a truce was concluded on the 15th of August until the representatives of both countries' governments could meet (on September 2nd) to sign the peace treaty. The surrender even allowed the Allies to give large quantities of food aid to Japan, preventing a massive famine from occurring in the autumn of 1945. In the meantime, the Japanese began destroying all records they could of everything even remotely related to war crimes before the Americans arrived two weeks later. To this day, many details of the crimes of the Japanese Empire remain unknown.

[[folder: "I Am Become Death, Destroyer of Worlds"]]

Knowing very well how close they were to total defeat, the Cabinet was split between those who wanted to surrender and those who wanted to fight to the death. The latter were a smaller group, but the former faction was evenly split between those who wanted to surrender ''now'' and those who wanted to [[InsistentTerminology "negotiate an end to the war."]] In any case, peace negotiations were ongoing throughout 1945, but they followed a familiar pattern, with the Japanese insisting on totally unrealistic conditions while the Americans continually refused anything less than unconditional surrender. The Japanese insisted upon the retention of the Emperor as Supreme Head of State and the retention of his political power, that there would be no occupation, that Japan would retain ''integral territory'' (this meant territory such as [=Korea=] and UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}), that Japanese disarmament would not be controlled by the Allies, and that it would try its own war criminals. The Japanese government was deeply divided, but a decision to surrender could only be made Emperor Hirohito, and he was still under the dominant influence of the military. Most of the military leadership was determined to fight on and defend the home islands against invasion. Japan still occupied most of China and large parts of South-East Asia and had 2 million men under arms. In any case, Truman had no way of knowing what Japan's leaders were thinking. Japan chose to ignore the Potsdam Declaration of 26 July, which warned of "prompt and utter destruction" if it did not surrender. The Americans saw no reason to give Japan any leeway. Germany had already surrendered unconditionally-- so must Japan.

Unofficially, this policy of arming civilians was called ''ichioku gyokusai'' (一億玉砕) literally meaning "100 million shattered jewels," referring to the total population of Japan sacrificing themselves in the coming battle. This policy was a reference to the Tang Dynasty history records of Western Wei, where the original quote being 大丈夫寧為玉碎，不為瓦全, which conveyed the desire sacrifice oneself rather than live in shame. Japanese War Minister, General Anami, expressed during a meeting, "Would it not be wondrous for this whole nation to be destroyed, like a beautiful flower?"\\

Later in the afternoon of the 8th, in Moscow, Japanese Ambaassador Naotake Sato was summoned to a meeting with Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and told in no uncertain terms that as of midnight, the Soviet Union and Japan would be at war. Sato, one of the realists in the Japanese government, had continually written to his superiors imploring them to seek a diplomatic end to the war, but his warnings were universally ignored.\\

* Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the inevitable endpoint of the decision by the Japanese military, made as early as 1930, to launch wars of aggression in the Asia-Pacific - first against China, then against the US, Britain, France and the Netherlands via their Asian possessions. Japan's wars of aggression in China (1931-45) took something like 20 million lives. The Pacific War (1941-45) took about another 10 million. Japan had already suffered 3 million dead before Hiroshima. Supporters of the bombings say that the moral point is clear: countries that launch wars of aggression are responsible for all that follows, including deaths of their own population.

Unofficially, this policy of arming civilians was called ''ichioku gyokusai'' (一億玉砕) literally meaning "100 million shattered jewels," referring to the total population of Japan sacrificing themselves in the coming battle. Japanese War Minister, General Anami, expressed during a meeting, "Would it not be wondrous for this whole nation to be destroyed, like a beautiful flower?"\\

The event holds the title, for better or worse, of the only time nuclear weapons were deployed against targets in wartime, though it was not the ''first'' nuclear detonation, which goes to the Trinity Test of July 1945.

The choosing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima as the targets was almost a chance event, as there were four potential cities that could be targeted. In particular, Kokura was the intended target for the second bomb (and had been the backup target for the first), [[ForWantOfANail but Nagasaki was attacked instead because of poor visibility over Kokura]]. This has resulted in Kokura being known as a lucky city. As for Hiroshima, many officials had actually been in support of bombing Kyoto, due to its industrial significance, but the city was removed from the target list due to its historical, religious and cultural importance to the Japanese people.[[note]]The removal was mostly the work of one Henry L. Stimson, the Secretary of War at the time, who appealed directly to President Truman to get Kyoto removed; It was no coincidence that Stimson had had his honeymoon in the city, and subsequently had fallen in love with it.[[/note]] Thus, Hiroshima was chosen as the first atomic bombing target. On August 6th, 1945, at 8:15 a.m. on an already hot summer morning, four B-29 Superfortresses of the 509th Composite Group (a secret and highly-specialized unit trained to fly B-29s modified to carry atomic ordnance as part of Project Silverplate) appeared in the skies high above Hiroshima. One of them, 44-86292 ''Enola Gay'', held ''Little Boy'' in her bomb bay. Air raid sirens initially went off, but seeing the small flight of American planes (initially a single weather reconnaissance plane, followed by the strike package consisting of the ''Enola Gay'' and two additional B-29s carrying cameras and airborne instrumentation) and taking it for a scouting mission, the all clear was sounded. Just as people were emerging from their air raid shelters, ''Enola Gay'' Bombardier Thomas Ferebee placed the bombsight's crosshairs over the Aioi Bridge, a unique T-shaped bridge that was essentially right in the middle of the city, and released "Little Boy." \\

In an instant, the bomb killed 70–80,000 people, including 20,000 Japanese military personnel and 20,000 Koreans, and destroyed nearly 48,000 buildings (including the headquarters of the 2nd General Army and Fifth Division). Contrary to popular imagination, "Little Boy" did not strike the ground and then detonate like a conventional bomb. It exploded midair (at about 1850 feet above the ground), and thus the force of the explosion radiated [[SphereOfDestruction in all directions]] -- including down, directly over the Shima Surgical Clinic.[[note]]Crosswinds caused the bomb to deviate by about 800 feet from the Aioi Bridge but, given the power of the bomb itself, the results were the same regardless.[[/note]] Only reinforced concrete structures could withstand the force of the blast and only a few such buildings had been built during the war years. Many individuals out in the streets were vaporized by the light and heat of the blast, and countless more who were "lucky" enough not to be vaporized were simply ''pulverized'' into oblivion by the shockwave that came an instant later. Others became covered by third degree burns on their exposed flesh-- not from its heat, but from the light of the explosion. Those wearing clothing had the patterns of their clothes seared into their skin. Anyone unfortunate enough to be looking in the general direction of the blast was either temporarily or permanently blinded by its light. 90% of the doctors and nurses in the city were killed by the blast-- the others needed to come together to try and save the people injured by this revolutionary new weapon. One of the survivors of the bomb was Doctor Terufumi Sasaki. A young man at the time, he quickly took stock of the horrific state of the survivors and began to not just treat them, but more importantly, [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture document their condition and the effectiveness of the treatments that the Hiroshima medical teams provided.]] Much of what we know today about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_radiation_syndrome Acute Radiation Syndrome]] comes from Dr. Sasaki's notes. The majority of people within 2,000m (~1 mile) of the blast and not shielded behind concrete walls would succumb to Acute Radiation Syndrome and die within a month. \\

On the 9th of August, the Soviet Red Army launched its Far Eastern Strategic Offensive Operation, with Soviet formations smashing through Japanese army positions in Manchuria, ending Japan's hopes that the Soviet Union might mediate a peace treaty with the United States. That same day, the 509th made their next combat mission: another Silverplate B-29, 44-27297 ''Bockscar'' released another atomic bomb ("Fat Man"). It detonated over Nagasaki at 11:01 a.m. While the earlier Little Boy had been a "uranium gun-type" fission device, Fat Man was a more advanced plutonium-implosion device with a higher explosive yield. However, Nagasaki was a rather hilly city, and the bomb fell into a valley, meaning most of the city was merely demolished rather than vaporized, resulting in fewer casualties. An estimated 35k–40k people were killed including 150 Japanese military personnel, 27,778 Japanese munitions workers, and around 2,000 Korean slaves. Total death toll from these two, individual bombs: roughly 120,000 souls. \\

* The debate around the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki underpine Creator/AlanMoore's ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}''. The fan-favourite SociopathicHero Rorschach completely glorifies Harry Truman's decisiveness in ending the war by destroying two cities. Later, [[spoiler:Ozymandias, for very similar reasons, drops an alien entity in the middle of New York, killing millions under the exact same justification, so as to end the increasingly tense American-Russian Nuke standoff. On confronting this reality face to face, Rorschach takes the completely opposite track and denounces this action, willing to die for his refusal to enable this lie]].

* As ''Anime/TransformersGo'' has a character named Hiroshima Prime, the ''Wiki/TFWikiDotNet'' page for the character has a PreemptiveShutUp greeting editors when editing the page about making jokes related to this.

The address is remarkable for several reasons. It was the first public speech ever made by the Emperor, and the first time a majority of his subjects had heard his voice. In extraordinary {{understatement}}, he states, "The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage." The word "surrender" does not appear once in the Emperor's address. Rather, he states that he has directed his government to, "... accept the provisions of the Joint Declaration." The address is further full of self-justifications, claiming that [[BlatantLies Japan never infringed on the sovereignty of other nations]], and that Japan was striving to free East Asia from European imperialism. He also specifically mentions the Atomic Bomb as a reason to accept the Allied provisions, claiming that the loss of innocent life would be incalculable otherwise. \\

[[folder: An Unstoppable Force: Operation '''Downfall''']]

[[folder: An Immovable Object: Operation '''Ketsugō''']]

[[folder: The Bear Watches, Hungrily]]

[[folder: Enough is Enough: Japan Calls it Quits Without Actually ''Saying'' They Call it Quits ]]

[[folder: The Soviets]]

[[folder: Accepting Defeat]]

With hindsight it is easy to forget, but nobody at the time knew the war was about to end. By the best estimates, the war against Japan was expected to continue 18 months after the German surrender, with Operation '''Downfall''' scheduled to not even begin until November 1945, with fighting expected to continue until 1947. Therefore the Allies made their decisions not in an atmosphere of imminent victory, but rather in the face of what promised to be an ''escalation'' of the Pacific War unlike anything yet seen, and mass casualties were expected. [[note]]The U.S. Government ordered the minting of so many Purple Heart medals (awarded to soldiers wounded or killed in action) that the stockpile ended up lasting for over 50 years. As of 2022 they still haven't run out of them. All the casualties of Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and all of America's other military interventions since 1945, ''and the still haven't used them all up''[[/note]] The American public was becoming restless at the cost of the war already. It would have been inconceivable, when tens of millions of Europeans and Asians had already died, as well as hundreds of thousands of Americans, to refuse to use a bomb that could end the war for fear of "killing too many people."

With hindsight it is easy to forget, but nobody at the time knew the war was about to end. By the best estimates, the war against Japan was expected to continue 18 months after the German surrender, with Operation '''Downfall''' scheduled to not even begin until November 1945, with fighting expected to continue until 1947. Therefore the Allies made their decisions not in an atmosphere of imminent victory, but rather in the face of what promised to be an ''escalation'' of the Pacific War unlike anything yet seen, and mass casualties were expected. [[note]]The U.S. Government ordered the minting of so many Purple Heart medals (awarded to soldiers wounded or killed in action) that the stockpile ended up lasting for over 50 years. As of 2022 they still haven't run out of them.[[/note]] The American public was becoming restless at the cost of the war already. It would have been inconceivable, when tens of millions of Europeans and Asians had already died, as well as hundreds of thousands of Americans, to refuse to use a bomb that could end the war for fear of "killing too many people."

With hindsight it is easy to forget, but nobody at the time knew the war was about to end. By the best estimates, the war against Japan was expected to continue 18 months after the German surrender, with Operation '''Downfall''' scheduled to not even begin until November 1945, with fighting expected to continue until 1947. Therefore the Allies made their decisions not in an atmosphere of imminent victory, but rather in the face of what promised to be an ''escalation'' of the Pacific War unlike anything yet seen, and mass casualties were expected. [[note]]The U.S. Government ordered the minting of so many Purple Heart medals (awarded to soldiers wounded or killed in action) that the stockpile ended up lasting for over 50 years.[[/note]] The American public was becoming restless at the cost of the war already. It would have been inconceivable, when tens of millions of Europeans and Asians had already died, as well as hundreds of thousands of Americans, to refuse to use a bomb that could end the war for fear of "killing too many people."

* ''Literature/TheOregonFiles'' book ''Typhoon Fury'' has a mention of the bombings, implying Hiroshima was chosen in order to destroy a secret Japanese research facility that was trying to reverse-engineer a stolen American super soldier serum for mass production in preparation for Operation [[AC:Ketsugō]].

Knowing very well how close they were to total defeat, the Cabinet was split between those who wanted to surrender and those who wanted to fight to the death. The latter were a smaller group, but the former faction was evenly split between those who wanted to surrender ''now'' and those who wanted to [[InsistentTerminology "negotiate an end to the war."]] In any case, peace negotiations were ongoing throughout 1945, but they followed a familiar pattern, with the Japanese insisting on totally unrealistic conditions while the Americans continually refused anything less than unconditional surrender. The Japanese insisted upon the retention of the Emperor as Supreme Head of State and the retention of his political power, that there would be no occupation, that Japan would retain ''integral territory'' (this meant territory such as [=Korea=] and UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}), that Japanese disarmament would not be controlled by the Allies, and that it would try its own war criminals. The Americans saw no reason to give Japan any leeway. Germany had already surrendered unconditionally-- so must Japan.

Though the true figures weren't published until much later, the suddenness and scale of the destruction still shocked the American public. A VocalMinority was pleased, advocating simply wiping out the Japanese in an atomic genocide. However many Americans were still against killing civilians for killing's sake. Despite hundreds of thousands of Japanese already killed by conventional strategic bombing, many Americans could still pretend that they were conducting a "precision" campaign targeting Japanese industry[[note]] which is both a case of AluminumChristmasTrees and InsistentTerminology. Many of the strategic bombing strikes ''were'' aimed at military targets, as the vast majority of the bombing campaign against Germany had been. In Germany, B-17s and B-24s bombed from 25–30,000 feet altitude, where varying crosswinds and other atmospheric conditions made it extremely difficult to drop unguided bombs accurately, even if defending fighters and flak guns weren’t trying to blast you out of the sky. Bomber crews were statistically more likely to become casualties than the infantry, and the 8th Air Force lost more men than the entire Marine Corps. Young men died by the thousands trying to deliver their bombs on target, only to have that ordnance miss by ''miles''. Even when a lead bombardier beat the odds and achieved perfect accuracy, dozens or even hundreds more bombers following his meant that the target’s neighbors were going to have a very bad day. B-29s attacking Japan flew 10,000 feet higher than their predecessors, which amplified the technical difficulties of precision bombing. In addition to regular fighter tactics, the Japanese also deployed Kamikaze interceptors against the the B-29s, and the vast expanse of ocean they had to cross going to and from their targets meant that crippled bombers had a poor chance of making it back, and downed crews had even worse prospects for rescue. After dozens of precision strikes failed abysmally to hit their targets despite horrific bomber losses, General Curtis [=LeMay=] (a veteran of the campaign against Germany who, like his British counterpart, Arthur 'Bomber' Harris, straddled the line between GeneralRipper and AFatherToHisMen) decided to switch operational focus to "area bombing," low-altitude nighttime strikes that eschewed precision in favor of firebombing the whole city, akin to the firebombing of Dresden. By [=LeMay's=] reasoning, torching the city would destroy any military/industrial targets in it, his own men were much safer due to Japan having few effective night fighters, and the Japanese had already done the same thing against China. The firebombing was nothing short of Hell on earth, with tens of thousands of civilians dying of asphyxiation in their bomb shelters as the firestorm above consumed all oxygen, other shelters turned into crematoriums as the streets above them collapsed, and fire engines reduced to puddles of molten steel in the street. Some daylight raids were still attempted, and their success rate improved as P-51s from Iwo Jima and Navy fighters from carriers offshore began escorting the B-29s. The death toll from both among Japan’s civilian population was ghastly[[/note]]. The Atomic Bombs were something different.\\

Knowing very well how close they were to total defeat, the Cabinet was split between those who wanted to surrender and those who wanted to fight to the death. The latter were a smaller group, but the former faction was evenly split between those who wanted to surrender ''now'' and those who wanted to [[InsistentTerminology "negotiate an end to the war."]] In any case, peace negotiations were ongoing throughout 1945, but they followed a familiar pattern, with the Japanese insisting on totally unrealistic conditions while the Americans continually refused anything less than unconditional surrender. The Japanese insisted upon the retention of the Emperor as Supreme Head of State and the retention of his political power, that there would be no occupation, that Japan would retain ''integral territory'' (this meant territory such as Korea and UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}} (Formosa)), that Japanese disarmament would not be controlled by the Allies, and that it would try its own war criminals. The Americans saw no reason to give Japan any leeway. Germany had already surrendered unconditionally-- so must Japan.