Today marks the anniversary of the of the dropping of the 'Little Boy' atomic bomb on Hiroshima; the first use of nuclear weapons in history.

I think it was the best way to end the war, but what do you think? What would have happened if we instead chose to go with Operation: Downfall? What would happen if someone else got it first? And, what would the post-war world be like without having witnessed atomic weapons?

1447143 If we didn't drop it a lot more people, both American and Japanese would've died in WWII, not to mention without an actual testament to their destructive power who knows if the Cold War would've went hot.

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Ok, what if say Germany or Russia got it first?

1447226 Germany would probably nuke London and then 20 million Allied bombers would level the entire nation the next day.

Russia would probably nuke Berlin, take all of Germany before the allies got out of France, then threaten the French into surrendering. After words the Cold War would've been much, much more tense and likely would've went the road of Fallout.

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If Hitler had managed to get atomic weapons into his arsenal it would have been the defeat of the allied nations. He more than likely would have dropped it on London, Moscow, and eventually Washington D.C. not to mention any major city that managed to not be over-run by his goose stepping Nazi's more than likely would have been a target as well; i.e. Stalingrad. Hitler was insane to begin with but if he had atom bomb's the world would probably nothing more than a radioactive no-man's land today. But if it wasn't for their atomic research we probably wouldn't have had the bomb for another five to ten years.

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Nuking is the answer to everything!

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No doubt. i'm going to guess Moscow would be his first target; he hated Stalin a lot more than the others.

1447489 Everyone loves nukes. Everyone should get a free nuke for their 16th birthday compliments of the government saying: "If you're old enough to drive, you're old enough for a nuke." *Insert smiling Uncle Sam poster here*

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Even when they were "allied" with each other there was extreme tensions between them. It was basically a waiting game to see who would shoot at the other first; Germany or Russia? According to declassified documents the Kremlin released Stalin was a few months away from a preemptive strike against Germany when the Nazi's invaded on June 22, 1941. So the war between Germany and Russia was unavoidable anyway you look at it. Stalin would kill his generals if they had spoken against it and Hitler was to poor of a strategist to know to invade when it would take until winter to reach the capitol. If Hitler had better used the Luftwaffe against Russian ground targets like tank's and artillery he very well could have gotten to Moscow before winter because wars in the 20th century has proven that he who controls the sky controls the ground. Then the fact that his forces moved faster than the supply lines meant they ran out of fuel and ammo when they needed it most. The way I see it Germany was going to loose the war either way because Hitler was far better at brainwashing than planning invasions. Just because he took countries like France, Poland, or Belgium that had obsolete technology made him cocky and he wanted the big prize of Russia. If he could have taken Russia that would have given him a launching point to invade Alaska and work his way south. Thankfully the bombing raids distracted their forces and stopped that from happening.

1447143 Technically, the Trinity Test on 16 July, 1945 marks the first use of Nuclear weapons. Little Boy is the first field usage.

Now, Had the US invaded Japan we would have seen substantially higher casualty rates. Not only would the Americans be slaughtered on the beaches, but the Japanese would likely be totally wiped out. The only other candidate to have a nuclear weapon would be Germany, as they were using scientists who were studying the field as well as notes from Einstien and Oppenhiemer which were left behind (Citation needed). Had the Germans brought the Atomic Bomb to fruition, they likely would have used it against London as the ultimate V-Weapon.

Without atomic weapons, we would likely not have the tech we do today. Most of our technological advances came during The Cold War. We developed missiles, better RADAR, more sophisticated computers, etc. I'd imagine we'd be in a sort of "Pre-War Fallout World", where the most advanced computer is something from 1987.

I think we all pretty much agree that had Germany gotten an atomic bomb of any sort, they would have used it against Allied countries without hesitation. Also, I'm not sure about this, but from what I understand the Russians never really began to create the atomic bombs/nuclear weapons until they began to capture German scientists from the numerous science facilities they had captured on their conquest to Berlin.

I guess a fun fact I have to throw out though is that Germany, in an attempt to go forward with their atomic program, began to create heavy water (deuterium oxide) in a plant in Rjukan, Norway. Between 1940-44, thanks to Allied trained Norwegian Resistance Fighters, along with Allied Bombers, the plant would become heavily damaged, and the remaining water that the Germans had managed to create would be sent on trains to Germany. The train, fortunately, would meet it's end as three Norwegian Resistance Fighters would destroy it on it's way to Germany.

Without nukes there would be a WW3 and maybe a WW4.

When the decison was made to drop the bombs no one was thinking of August 7 2013 they were thinking of August 7 1945 and ending the war. Okinawa and Iwo Jima showed the Japanese wouldn't give up and an invasion of the Home islands would be a bloodbath. Even after Nagasaki was bombed militarists attempted to topple the Emperor just to ensure the war wouldn't stop. At that time no one cared about the consiquences of using Nuclear weapons, all that mattered was ending a war that had raged completely out of control for years and had claimed 65 million lives.

While this might generate controversy personally I feel the lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been forgotten, no longer are they events that should be remembered to ensure it never happens again. They've become excueses in order to get Japan off the hook for everything it did during the war: the Rape of Nanking, the Hell ships, the Death March, the Slave Labor and Death Camps, Unit 731, the mass killings that left 30 million dead across Asia and the Pacific, all of that no longer seems to matter to anyone as much as condeming the US for using the A-Bombs.