This is not an easy question to answer. The immediate effect was the end of WW2. The longer term effects were the cold war and the concept of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) which dominated the politics of the last half of the 20th century. The destructive power of nuclear weapons is so great that no one has dared to use them since. They are primarily a terror weapon. There have been volumes of books and endless debates on this subject. I wish I could give you a simple primer on the subject but I can t, it s just too complex.
Look around you and see how many Toyota automobiles are on American roads. Until they opened plants here they were made in Hiroshima. Toyo Motors is there. They own the professional baseball team in Hiroshima. The reconstruction of Hiroshima made it the Detroit of Japan. The bombing of Nagasaki killed over 80% of the Christians in Japan. It has taken the past 60+ years to build back up the Body of Christ in the Archdiocese of Japan. At the same time, the bombardier on Bock s Car, which dropped the bomb on Nagasaki became a Christian minister after the war and wound up as a missionary in Osaka for many years until his death. During his time in Japan he played chess by mail (in the age before computers) with Minoru Genda, the man who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor. In short, Japan grew back to be an economic power in the Pacific (and a strong ally of the U.S.) and the wounds of war healed. It s only those who have never been to either of those two cities who continually rail about the bombings.
Once the war ended, Japan was rebuild into an Economic Power. If the bombs had not been dropped, it would have led to a massive loss of life of the Japanese Civilian Population and they never could have developed into the economic power they became. The bombs really killed very few people in the big picture. The fire bombing of Tokyo killed far more. If the fire bombings had been repeated followed by an invasion, Japanese casualties would have been in the millions instead of aabour 250,000 between both bombs. Other options the Allies were looking at were chemical attack, starvation. Both would have killed millions. Japan was arming thier civilians. My grandfather s first job in the occupation was collecting rifles from civilians. When Iwo Jima and Okinawa were taken, Japanese people were not only committing suicide, but killing thier family members prior to killing themselves. There is a picture of a Japanese man on Okinawa crying in an American hospital because he killed his daughter and grand-daughter, but the Americans saved him before he bled out after trying to kill himself.
1. War ended 2. Thousands of U.S. soldiers lives were saved 3. Same as #2 except Japanese citizens and soldiers 4. U.S. disarmed a murderous nation
Putting WWII to an end. Sad it had to come to that, but it worked.
They stopped shooting at us.
WW2 came to a quick end with no further loss of Allied lives.
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