Stephen Harding wrote:
MLenoch wrote:

Just a factual question: was there ever a
statistic of the number of deaths via
fire bombing vs. the nuclear bombs? Just
wondering. Thx,

Yes there have been some such stats, but they
vary a bit.

There is the issue of how many people died during
the explosion
versus days/weeks/months after.

Firebombing (or any sort of bombing) can produce
lingering, or
drawn out deaths, but the nuclear bombing this
was more pronounced.

I've read that some "counters" in Japan continue
to add to the death
toll of Hiroshima/Nagasaki as people who were
there and survived that
day finally start to die off. Basically *everyone*
in those towns
becomes part of the death toll eventually for
these types of counters.

The numbers I've come across, with some [maybe]
small percent variation
due to faulty memory, are something like this:

Hiroshima: 85,000 (I've read stats going
up over 100,000)
Nagasaki : 65,000 (max I've seen is around
80,000)

One night firebombing of Tokyo by LeMay and
company: 120,000-150,000.


SMH


I used similar stats in my MA thesis on the Invasion v. bombs: more died
in the Tokyo fire raid that died in the two nuclear strikes put together.
Although I felt the U.S. casualty figure for Kyushu was too high-USSBS used
75-100,000, MacArthur's HQ (which I used) said 55,000 to 70,000, not including
Navy casualties. No figures available for CORONET: the plan was published
on Aug. 15th-the day of the surrender announcement-still incomplete.

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