With the Second World War, we witnessed the end of a cruel and oppressive regime, of the Asian equivalent to the Nazis. They had lost all the territories they had conquered — China, Korea, French Indo-China,  Thailand, Burma, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia etc –, they were isolated back on the Japanese archipelago, without a hope of winning the war; Japan was on its knees.

The United States had finished and tested nuclear weapons, leaving them with a new tool to consider. Rather than accept the costs of a land invasion on Japan, which had refused to surrender, it was decided that nuclear weapons should be used, so as to force them into an unconditional surrender.

Was it necessary to use nuclear weapons on them? No, it was not, but few things in life are necessary; rather than focus on necessity, we should look at what was for the best.

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