Groups like farm labourers were strengthened, and women were considered for drafting. America's human resources were depleting. The German Ardennes Offensive caused 88,000 American military deaths in December 1944. Nearly a million deaths occurred in the war's final year, June 1944–June 1945. The US suffered 1.25 million war casualties in WWII, including killed and wounded. Most Japanese military forces fought valiantly, ensuring an expensive Allied triumph. The Pacific War among Japan and the Associates reached its fourth year in 1945. Critics contend that the Japanese government might have been forced to surrender without using atomic weapons, citing the moral and ethical consequences of nuclear weapons and the killing of civilians. Scholars have carefully analyzed the repercussions of the bombings on later world history and popular culture, and the ethical and legal rationale for the bombings is still debated. On September 2, Japan surrendered, thereby ending the war. Six days later the Soviet Union announced war and bombed Nagasaki, Japan surrendered to the Allies on August 15. Despite a significant military presence, most of the dead were civilians. Throughout the months that followed, many people died from burns, radiation sickness, and injuries, in addition to illness and starvation.
![ans enola gay smoke ans enola gay smoke](http://www.cronacadiverona.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/nagasaki.jpg)
![ans enola gay smoke ans enola gay smoke](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/EX6JHH/enola-gay-boeing-b-29-on-6-august-1945-during-the-final-stages-of-EX6JHH.jpg)
Two to four months after the bombings, between 90,000 and 146,000 people were killed in Hiroshima and amid 39,000 and 80,000 in Nagasaki. Three days later, Nagasaki got a Fat Man. Prime Minister Suzuki underlined the Japanese government's commitment to defy the Allies' demands and fight on August 6. These targets were picked because they were large cities with military facilities. The bombing of Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, and Nagasaki was ordered by General Thomas Handy, acting Chief of Staff of the United States Military, on July 25. According to the Allies' Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945, "prompt and total destruction" was the alternative to an unconditional surrender. It was trained and equipped with the specialist Silverplate version of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress and sent to Tinian in the Mariana Islands.
![ans enola gay smoke ans enola gay smoke](https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/DXLDTBWRYAI6VATLZQ4U3ASOGU.jpg)
A plutonium implosion-type nuclear weapon, "Fat Man," was developed by the Allies' Manhattan Project in July 1945. After Germany capitulated on May 8, 1945, the Allies focused only on the Pacific War. An earlier conventional and firebombing campaign damaged 67 Japanese cities. In the last year of WWII, the Allies planned a costly invasion of Japan. Between 129,000 and 226,000 persons died in the two attacks, most of them civilians. The US launched two nuclear weapons over Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945.