As I understand it, the second bomb was dropped because of a mistranslation, either accidental or deliberate.

After the 1st bomb was dropped, the Tojo government sent a response that they would consider a the US surrender demands.

But the Japanese translator translated the word 'consider' as 'ignore,' for some unknown reason.

So the 2nd bomb was dropped.

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As I understand it, the second bomb was dropped because of a mistranslation, either accidental or deliberate.

After the 1st bomb was dropped, the Tojo government sent a response that they would consider a the US surrender demands.

But the Japanese translator translated the word 'consider' as 'ignore,' for some unknown reason.

So the 2nd bomb was dropped.

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Almost right. IIRC, Japan's government did indeed send a response in which it stated Japan was considering surrender. But the decision to do so wasn't immediately communicated after Hiroshima was destroyed. There was a delay of one day before government officials could convene, which proved to be fatal.

Just to stress the point: Japan had been defeated utterly long before the first bomb was dropped. It wasn't necessary to obliterate two cities (thereby butchering 180,000+ civilians and condemning future generations to horrible genetic mutations) to force the country to surrender, since it was already about to. But that fact tends to get overlooked a lot.

[ September 15, 2001: Message edited by: IDIC ]

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Just to stress the point: Japan had been defeated utterly long before the first bomb was dropped. It wasn't necessary to obliterate two cities (thereby butchering 180,000+ civilians and condemning future generations to horrible genetic mutations) to force the country to surrender, since it was already about to. But that fact tends to get overlooked a lot.

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Actually, an Allied invasion of Japan would probably have been required before the country capitulated. Troops from Europe (including my Grandfather, a Captain in the Md. National Guard) were already being prepared to be sent to staging areas in the Pacific when the bombs were dropped.

It's important to note, however, that the estimate of Allied casualties has grown in the past sixty-or so years. While today we estimate an invasion of Japan to cost about one million Allied troops, the estimates that Harry Truman and others in our Government looked at were much less.

I would recommend Hiroshima: In History and Memory, edited by Michael J. Hogan as an excellent resource of essays by prominent historians regarding all the various issues about the decision to drop the first nuke. Contributors include J. Samuel Walker, Barton J. Bernstein, Herbert P. Bix, John W. Dower, Paul Boyer, and Seiitsu Tachibana.

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"Ultimately, to understand, to rue, and even to deplore the use of the A-bomb are separable, and not neccessarily linked, judgments [sic]. To fail to understand the reasons for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is regrettable. To judge those actions by a set of ethical standards usually abandoned in World War II and sometimes revived in later years is appropriate. But to ascribe those moral standards to the leaders and citizens of the United States, or the other major powers, during World War II is to distort the history of that terrible war and to misinterpret the important decisions made in it." -- Barton J. Bernstein

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[ September 15, 2001: Message edited by: Malnurtured Snay ]