n dictates. In any case it is the aim not to allow the escape of a single one, to annihilate them all, and not to leave any traces.” Another factor in the equation of the bomb vs. an invasion was the weather. At close to the time of the planned invasion a typhoon struck mainland Japan almost leveling everything in its path (Ferrell 24).Japan had anticipated a U.S. attack so they readied themselves by assembling 215 Kairya available with another 207 being built; 115 Koryu--five man suicide submarines complete with another 500 more being built, Kaiten--human torpedoes carrying bombs which were capable of sinking the largest U.S. ships. Also in their arsenal was the Fukuryu which was capable of staying under water for up to 10 hours with huge mines attached which could destroy a 950-ton ship. Other precautions they took were to send 4,000 Navy Shinyo to Kyushu with anti-landing obstacles, coastal batteries to set up pillboxes, bunkers, strong points underground fortresses and barbed wire entanglements to force the invaders into the enemy line of fire (Reese 41).Truman made his final decision on August 2, 1945 to drop the bomb on Japan August 6, 1945. Colonel Paul Tibbets flew the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima from an altitude of 31,600 feet. The explosion occurred at 2,000 feet, killing approximately 80,000 Japanese instantly. No single device in the history of warfare had killed so many people so indiscriminately (Hamby 24). On August 9, 1945 at 11 am the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki killing approximately 40,000 Japanese instantly.Everyone knows that millions of lives were lost in this war. Even though we had solders fighting the war civilians lost their lives too. Some of the death tolls are more substantial then others. The U.S. lost only 407,318 military personal, while Japan lost about 1,700,000 military personal and 380,00 civilian. Almost one half of the Japanese civilian cas...
