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Bombers and Submarines Against Japan: Which Was More Effective?



Bombers and Submarines Against Japan: Which Was More Effective?

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As the war in the Pacific develops, the United States takes the fight to Japan itself – by crippling its economy, destroying its industry, and crushing civilian morale. To do this, American submarines and heavy bombers wage campaigns beneath the sea and above the clouds. And even 80 years later, there’s a fierce debate about which of these campaigns did more to bring Japan to its knees – perhaps even more than the atomic bombs.

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» SOURCES
Blair, Clay. “Silent victory: The U.S. Submarine War against Japan” Naval Institute Press, 2001
Cox, Sebastian & Peter Gray. “Air Power History: Turning Points from Kitty Hawk to Kosovo” Frank Cass, 2002
Crane, Conrad C. “American Airpower Strategy in World War II: Bombs, Cities, Civilians, and Oil” University Press of Kansas, 2016
Gentile, Gian P. “Advocacy or Assessment? The United States Strategic Bombing Survey of Germany and Japan” Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 66, No. 1 (1997)
Hastings, Max. “Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1945” Alfred A. Knopf, 2008
Miles, Rufus E. “Hiroshima: The Strange Myth of Half a Million American Lives Saved” International Security, Vol. 10, No. 2 (1985)
Pape, Robert. “Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War” Cornell University Press, 1996
Toll, Ian W. “Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific 1941-1942” W.W. Norton, 2012
Toll, Ian W. “The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands 1942-1944” W.W. Norton, 2012
Toll, Ian W. “Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945” W.W. Norton, 2021

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Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Mark Newton
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20 Comments

  6. @Token_Civilian on

    Great stuff as always RTH. And a great outtro, as always.

    Which was more effective, bombers or subs?
    Yes.
    Just say no to mono-causality. Both did yeoman work in bringing the Imperial Japanese Empire to its knees. The subs, plus the mining campaign, strangled imports via blockade. The bombers largely burned down and eliminated what industry was still producing. Each was its own crushing hammer blow at the ability and will to fight on. When you enemy can fly with impunity over your cities, factories, and military bases, liberally sprinkling high explosive & incendiary bombs as they go, there aren't too many more powerful demonstrations of your own military defeat. Ditto when the enemy fleet ranges up and down your coast line, bombarding military and industrial targets at will. Blockade via subs & aerial dropped mines, while effective in cutting off supply, does generally lack this raw demonstration to the whole population & government at all levels of ones own military impotence.

  8. @chocolatecatdad on

    My basic take on strategic bombing is its effects are overstated by AF generals because it was 'sexier' than infantry combat. It was the infantry or the threat of the infantry that won the war. Infantry effectiveness is enhanced by damaging the enemies economy which can be done very effectively with a naval blockade when the conditions are right. The submarine campaign was a type of naval blockade which was reinforced in 1944/45 by naval surface units and strategic bombers. Starvation will end wars eventually; see WWI for a classic example.

  13. @DanTheYoutubeAddict on

    An interesting argument that I've heard in the debate about whether the atomic bombs should have been used or the US could have achieved the same result with more fire bombs is this: the atomic bombs contributed to the Japanese government's decision to surrender because they were a single bomb dropped by a single bomber, which achieved approximately the same results as an entire squadron of bombers dropping fire bombs.

  16. @oli24yt on

    There is a fantastic bit in Garrett Graff's book "The Devil Reached Towards the Sky – an Oral History of the Atomic Bomb" that's just like a full page of people involved in the B29's development rhyming off different creative metaphors for the massive number of bugs it had early on, including that Smithsonian one lol

  17. @Supastar8998 on

    One thing to consider is that many Army officers, especially the younger ones, still did not want to surrender even after the atomic bombs. They want to keep the Emperor from broadcasting his surrender message by storming the palace but couldn't find the recording. There were many people thinking the same thing and were willing to have the people fighting with anything, even sharped stakes, to try to make an American Invasion costly. If the Emperor didn't broadcast Japan's surrender, the consequences for Japan would have been even more grave than they already were.