Hiroshima, Japan: 67 Years Ago Today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2AhV-QU1_M

As Robert of Small Dead Animals notes, “Had American troops been forced to fight conventionally on the Japanese mainland, earlier battles in 1945 provide a vivid reminder of the facts that President Harry Truman was dealing with:”

Battle of Iwo Jima – 21,844 of 22,060 Japanese troops killed
Battle of Okinawa – 95,000+ of 120,000 Japanese troops killed

In the above video produced by Dennis Prager’s Prager University, Father Wilson Miscamble notes, Truman hoped (correctly) the atomic bombs would avoid “another Okinawa from one end of Japan to the other,” resulting in casualties “as much as a million on the American side alone, with an equal number of the enemy.” Truman’s use of the bomb “should be seen as his choosing the least awful of the options available to him,” Miscamble adds.

Watch the whole thing — and then send a copy to the Smithsonian.