Forgot about the Mongols, or didn't realize they invaded (although stands to reason they'd attempt it). Clearly anyone from the West had trouble invading Russia due to the winters, but the East...they were used to hard winters and didn't care. Explains Russia's fear of China. Although with climate change..
It makes sense more died in Tokyo and Dresden with the fire bombing - both were more populated. What partly saved Nagaskai and Hiroshima from having more deaths - was population density - they just weren't as densely populated. (Add to that - Nagaski's bomb was dropped in the mountain range to the north of the City and not on the City itself - I think that's what it says in the report, so it didn't have quite as many casualties nor as much devastation.) There were however more deaths from the event years later (from radiation and cancer - which is hard to quantify or track, same issue with the atomic bomb testing - that's harder data to correlate accurately). Actually, according to the Atomic Commission research and historical records - the difficulty with atomic bomb was they aren't sure how many actually died. The entire city was reduced to ash. But it took a while to get in, and it was never clear. They weren't even sure how many people lived there, were in the area, etc. Rough estimates had it anywhere from 40,000 - 250,000, which is a wide margin. They really just had aerial footage, reports from Japan, and air samples, since it took a while for US forces to get to the islands to check in person. They were able to get data faster from more populated areas like Tokyo and Dresden. I think if they dropped the atomic bomb on Tokoyo, the devastation would have been greater - but according to historical data and the film (which is seemingly accurate on this point) - they deliberately avoided dropping it on a more populous area. Their intent was to get across to the Japanese that they had a weapon that could wipe them out with one drop - not to kill the Japanese. Originally it was supposed to be dropped on an uninhabited area, but then - they realized that wouldn't get the message across as effectively - and it worked better to do it on a populated one. They did it twice - because the Japanese didn't appear to react to the first one, after they informed them that they'd done it. So felt the need to get across that they had more than one bomb, and had no qualms about dropping them to end the war.
What's interesting - is per historical record, the Sec of State may have ordered the second drop without Truman's knowledge, and when Truman received the reports - he put a halt to it.
It is interesting to see from Japan's perspective though ("Grave of the Fireflies" (anime), and books like Kafka on the Shore, and there's another one I forget the name of, also all those 1950s Godzilla horror films.) When you see those - you realize it was probably more extensive on their culture, psyche, etc than we realize. Just as the other horrors from that War were.
No one comes out well in that war, unfortunately. Some just better than others. I honestly think Russia may have committed the least atrocities of the allies, but I could be wrong about that.
no subject
It makes sense more died in Tokyo and Dresden with the fire bombing - both were more populated. What partly saved Nagaskai and Hiroshima from having more deaths - was population density - they just weren't as densely populated. (Add to that - Nagaski's bomb was dropped in the mountain range to the north of the City and not on the City itself - I think that's what it says in the report, so it didn't have quite as many casualties nor as much devastation.) There were however more deaths from the event years later (from radiation and cancer - which is hard to quantify or track, same issue with the atomic bomb testing - that's harder data to correlate accurately). Actually, according to the Atomic Commission research and historical records - the difficulty with atomic bomb was they aren't sure how many actually died. The entire city was reduced to ash. But it took a while to get in, and it was never clear. They weren't even sure how many people lived there, were in the area, etc. Rough estimates had it anywhere from 40,000 - 250,000, which is a wide margin. They really just had aerial footage, reports from Japan, and air samples, since it took a while for US forces to get to the islands to check in person. They were able to get data faster from more populated areas like Tokyo and Dresden. I think if they dropped the atomic bomb on Tokoyo, the devastation would have been greater - but according to historical data and the film (which is seemingly accurate on this point) - they deliberately avoided dropping it on a more populous area. Their intent was to get across to the Japanese that they had a weapon that could wipe them out with one drop - not to kill the Japanese. Originally it was supposed to be dropped on an uninhabited area, but then - they realized that wouldn't get the message across as effectively - and it worked better to do it on a populated one. They did it twice - because the Japanese didn't appear to react to the first one, after they informed them that they'd done it. So felt the need to get across that they had more than one bomb, and had no qualms about dropping them to end the war.
What's interesting - is per historical record, the Sec of State may have ordered the second drop without Truman's knowledge, and when Truman received the reports - he put a halt to it.
It is interesting to see from Japan's perspective though ("Grave of the Fireflies" (anime), and books like Kafka on the Shore, and there's another one I forget the name of, also all those 1950s Godzilla horror films.) When you see those - you realize it was probably more extensive on their culture, psyche, etc than we realize. Just as the other horrors from that War were.
No one comes out well in that war, unfortunately. Some just better than others. I honestly think Russia may have committed the least atrocities of the allies, but I could be wrong about that.