History

[Grouchy]

On this day,8/15/1945, the Japanese surrendered. That ended the war. Two of my uncles fought in the Pacific. My dad always said his cousin died in the Pearl Harbor attack.

[eford]

The Purple Hearts that have been awarded since the end of WWII were all made during WWII. The expected invasion of Japan was thought to be so bloody that half a million PHs were made, and luckily not all needed then. The war ended because of the atomic bombs, aided by ongoing issues the Japanese government had with maintaining the war. Japan was not going to give it up easy and the number of army divisions in southern Japan were proof of that, along with the arming the citizens with all sorts of things to resist the expected US forces.
Freedom Isn't Free.

[Grouchy]

Interesting,eford!  So the 2 my late USMC older brother had from Viet Nam were made then. He passed 2 years ago.

[Dino82520]

The Purple Hearts that have been awarded since the end of WWII were all made during WWII. The expected invasion of Japan was thought to be so bloody that half a million PHs were made, and luckily not all needed then. The war ended because of the atomic bombs, aided by ongoing issues the Japanese government had with maintaining the war. Japan was not going to give it up easy and the number of army divisions in southern Japan were proof of that, along with the arming the citizens with all sorts of things to resist the expected US forces.
Freedom Isn't Free.

My understanding is that the army estimated 1 million US casualties for invading the Tokyo plain. Estimated Japanese casualties were estimated to be 3 times that, including women and children. I wish the bleeding hearts who constantly demean Truman's decision would recognize the fact that as horrific as the atomic bombs dropped on Japan were, they ultimately resulted in less Japanese and less US casualties in the final outcome.

[eford]

This hour long plus video is a great deep dive the problem Japan faced as the Allies closed in. I believe the decision to drop the bombs was the right one.

https://youtu.be/DrTS3lsjLWA?si=9vwbM-A_AbCT-8xx

[TexWeatherby]

Thanks for the interesting information.