Did America really need to A-Bomb Japan in August 1945?

leeheidhues Uncategorized August 9, 2026August 9, 2026 1 Minute

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 8.9.2026

This afternoon the blogger watched a very sobering documentary, “Atomic People”. The story of America’s atomic assault on Japan as seen and told by Japanese civilians, young at the time who experienced the horror.

**Atomic cloud over Nagasaki, Japan – 8.9.1975**

Today is the 81st sad anniversary of America dropping the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan just three days after obliterating Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945.

Atomic People – Wikipedia *Atomic People* is a 2024 British television film about *Hibakusha*, the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The film premiered on BBC Two on 31 July 2024.^[1][2][3] The programme received critical acclaim for its interviews with survivors and its treatment of nuclear history. It won the British Academy Television Award for Best Specialist Factual at the 2025 British Academy Television Awards.^[4][5] At the 2025 Venice TV Awards, *Atomic People* won the Special Jury Prize.^[6]

There is no doubt that America, the only country to have used atomic weapons, hastened the Japanese surrender.

The fact remains to this day that hundreds of thousands of Japanese perished.

The toxicity of the radiation caused by these blasts resulted in the death and maiming of thousands more.

The conventional wisdom is that the destruction visited on the Japanese, at least in the minds of most Americans, was a legitimate action. It resulted in surrender by Japan.

81 years later history has not been so kind.

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