What Were the Alternatives to Dropping the Bomb? with Jon Parshall Episode 438

The Unauthorized History of the Pacific War

Captain William Toti, USN

Halsey, Station Hypo, World War Ii, Macarthur, Seth Paridon, Pacific War, History, Stavridis, Cactus Air Force, Fargo, William Toti, Aircraft Carriers, Nimitz, Mush Morton, Wahoo, Imperial Japan, Cruisers, Wake Island, Battleships, Spruance, Courses, Submarines, Midway, Cincpac, Guadalcanal, Documentary, Naval History And Heritage Command, Society & Culture, Admiral King, Imperial Japanese Navy, New Guinea, Cincpoa, Cryptology, Navy, Sam Cox, Pearl Harbor, Education, Bill Toti, December 7, Us Navy, Bombers, Fighters

4.8 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2025

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week Seth, Bill and good buddy Jon Parshall take a look at the moral decision to drop the atomic bombs. Was there a viable alternative? Why did we drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Did the dropping the bombs help end the war? Did the bombs save lives? All these questions and more are answered on this very important episode.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The Hello and welcome to episode 438 of the unauthorized history of the Pacific War podcast.
0:43.6	My name is Seth Peridon, historian and deputy director of the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum.
0:47.3	And with me, as always, is my esteemed co-host, retired Navy Captain Bill Toaddy,
0:50.7	former skipper of the Fast Tech submarine USS Indianapolis, Commmarine Squad and Three in Pearl Harbor, and many others.
0:55.6	How are you this fine?
0:56.8	I don't know what today is, Bill.
0:58.3	So in great, Seth.
0:59.7	You know, a couple weeks ago, you recorded an episode without me because I did.
1:04.5	I was having bandwidth problems.
1:06.6	And I got a couple of emails that were very heartwarming where people worried that my bandwidth problems, quote unquote, were actually health problems. They were not.
1:17.6	They were actual bandwidth problems.
1:20.6	So Luke in Belgium, Leonardo and Italy, thank you for the notes, and I'm just fine. Thank you. Yeah. And I can assure you that they were most certainly bandwidth problems.
1:31.3	I haven't seen Captain Tody that frustrated ever.
1:35.3	So, obviously, the third member of our crew is with us today.
1:40.3	Fantastic friend and historian John Parshall. How are you today, John?
1:45.3	Well, it's, yeah, it's been an exciting few days for me. Yeah, oh my goodness. I just wanted
1:51.7	to say, too, that this is the first time that the three of us have been recording together since
1:56.6	we all got back from San Diego. Yeah. The Western Naval History Association.
2:02.2	And I just wanted to give a shout out to all the people that came to the Midway to see us during that symposium.
2:11.5	It was great to meet you.
2:14.8	And we had dinner with a number of you.
	...

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