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TechnoratiThe Terror America Wrought
During a week of mayhem in Iraq, in which terrorists have rightly been condemned for targeting schoolchildren, it is sobering to recall that this week is also the 62nd anniversary of a U.S. attack that deliberately took the lives of thousands of children on their way to school in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As noted in the Strategic Bombing Survey conducted at President Harry Truman's request, when the bomb hit Hiroshima on April 6, 1945, "nearly all the school children ... were at work in the open," to be exploded, irradiated or incinerated in the perfect firestorm that the planners back at the University of California-run Los Alamos lab had envisioned for the bomb's maximum psychological impact.
The terror plot worked all too well, as Hiroshima's Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba recalled this week: "That fateful summer, 8:15 a.m. The roar of a B-29 breaks the morning calm. A parachute opens in the blue sky. Then suddenly, a flash, an enormous blast-silence-hell on Earth. The eyes of young girls watching the parachute were melted. Their faces became giant charred blisters. The skin of people seeking help dangled from their fingernails. ... Others died when their eyeballs and internal organs burst from their bodies-Hiroshima was a hell where those who somehow survived envied the dead."
Like most of the others killed by the two American bombs, neither the children nor the adults had any role in Japan's decision to go to war, but they were picked as the target instead of an isolated but fortified military base whose antiaircraft fire posed a higher risk. The target preferred by U.S. atomic scientists-a patch in the ocean or unpopulated terrain-was rejected, because the effect of hundreds of thousands of civilians dying would be all the more dramatic.
The victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were available soft targets, much like the children playing in Iraq, suddenly caught in the crossfire of battles waged beyond their control. In "White Light/Black Rain," a devastating HBO documentary released this week, there is an interview with the sole survivor of a Japanese elementary school of 620 students. The murder of the other 619, and the 370,000 overall deaths attributed to the bombings, 85 percent of which were civilian deaths, has never compelled a widespread examination of the "end justifies the means" morality of our own state-sanctioned acts of terror. Indeed, the horrifying footage taken by Japanese and American cameramen soon after the devastation, and shown in the HBO film, was long kept secret by the U.S. government for fear that an informed American public might question this nation's incipient nuclear arms race.
Just exactly what distinguishes the United States' use of the ever-so-cutely-named "Fat Man" and "Little Boy" atomic bombs on cities in Japan from the car bombs of Baghdad or the planes that smashed into the World Trade Center? To even raise the question, as was found in one recent university case, can be a career-ending move.
Of course, we had our justifications, as terrorists always do. Truman defended his decision to drop the atomic bombs on civilians over the objection of leading atomic scientists on the grounds that it was a necessary military action to save lives by forcing a quick Japanese surrender. He insisted on that imperative despite the objections of top military figures, including Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who contended that the war would end quickly without dropping the bomb.
The subsequent release of formerly secret documents makes a hash of Truman's rationalization. His White House was fully informed that the Japanese were on the verge of collapse, and their surrender was made all the more likely by the Soviets' imminent entry into the fight.
At most, the Japanese were asking for the face-saving gesture of retaining their emperor, and even that modest demand would likely have been abandoned with the shift of massive numbers of Allied troops and firepower from the battlefront of a defeated Germany to a confrontation with its deeply wounded Asian ally. Instead, the U.S. played midwife to the birth of the nuclear monster, the ultimate terrorist weapon that presents a continuing and growing threat to the survival of human life on Earth.
This is a lesson to be pondered at a time when President Bush plays power games with a nuclear-equipped Russia while coddling Pakistan, the main proliferator of nuclear weapons to rogue regimes, and Congress authorizes an expansion of the U.S. nuclear program to better fight the war on terror by "improving" the ultimate weapon of terror, which the U.S. alone stands guilty of using.
Robert Scheer is editor of Truthdig.com and a regular columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle.
© 2007 TruthDig.com
59 Comments so far
Show AllI watched an excellent film called Barefoot Gen about the tragedy of Hiroshima at a memorial for the bombings. I thought it was excellent - it is a film everyone should watch.
As one of the many USAmericans, I have respect for Truman and us all. We continue building on our old and new worlds words,
"What goes around, comes around."
And more than ever before - If I feel the need of a weapon, I am too ignorant to use it. We fear the unknown. That fear creates our fight or flight violence,
There is another quote about having nothing to fear but - - -
Thanks All, for good points.
KEM & WIFE et al. - The thing is that "all these wonderful people" are all over this United States of America. Yes, there are some bad apples, but taking a note from my blogger friend, Jane P. Stillwater, who always ends her e-mails: "Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World Peace in one generation!" I totally agree with her.
Having volunteered in prison and working with incarcerated, mostly men of color ... intelligent, creative, good people, eager to learn, who growing up had everything thrown at them or taken away, I understood fully the destructiveness of prejudice and unequal opportunity. And that's really "the work" and what might have been these last years after the Vietnam War if the realizations of Martin Luther King, Jr., were fully understood and followed. Of course, he was killed.
If you read JFK's last speeches to the U.N. and elsewhere when he emphasized an International Court ... being brought into disputes about war, and then he and Jackie together wanted the wealth of this nation going toward alleviating poverty and disease ... a new kind of going to the Moon ... plus it seemed as if he was going to pull out of Vietnam ... all reasons his life was shortened, I believe ... Can't have that when all this stuff is there for the taking!
And since then, the roots and seeds that were already there in the particular family [whose name is now very familiar and sounds somewhat like FLUSH] and their Skull-and-Bones cronies et al. and then the Zionists whose own "Master Race" pathologies obviously flourish in their dark hearts ... began to spread and grow ... since then, what we are in the middle of is no accident.
Most of us nice people, however, don't think in scheming ways to HAVE IT ALL, to BE KING OF THE MOUNTAIN, ALL THE MOUNTAINS for real. So, just like in the movie, "The Natural," we didn't see it coming. "Why didn't I see it coming?" the wounded hero says. We don't think that way, that's why.
Just like in Germany ... little by little, as one essayist wrote, and things were hectic and so much was going on and was changing, changing so fast, and little by little, nibble, nibble on rights and laws ... and suddenly all hell breaks loose, and there is FEAR, and there you are with the S.S. at your door. Who would have thought? We are really good people, nice people. ... and then the Bad Apples come out of the woodwork like worms, and now they are given power by the super powerful ... and watch out!
Things are heating up in a good way now, however ... unhypocritical, righteous anger is a good thing. So let's believe/ project that this long national/global nightmare is going to be transformed into the beautiful dream of generosity and love and caring and kindness and all the rest ... and Gaia herself with flowers in her trees will breathe freely again. Like chicken soup, it can't hoit ... to dream the dream ... We've got work to do and the doorways are opening and the people are starting to wake up and come out into the sunshine ...
And TO: SIOUX ROSE: Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine political activist powerhouse, in a great interview in THE SUN magazine a couple of months ago, stated that the translation from Hebrew to Aramaic or Greek or whatever was incorrect. Jesus was described, not as the Only Son of God, but as a Unique son of God. And the Virgin part of the Virgin Mary in proper translation only meant that she had not yet had a child.
When asked whether the Pope ever gave her trouble, Sister J.C. said something to the effect of "Not yet." In another speech, I heard, she said that The Roman Church was usually about 500 years behind, but eventually it would catch up.
And on Jesus who, in the very loving church of my childhood, was a very loving figure to children in the stained glass window. And even though I turned away from organized religion as an adult, Jesus as a person, I realized, embodied both the masculine and feminine principles in full measure. Yes, he was masculine and probably sturdy and muscled because he was a carpenter and he also was assertive and brave and sometimes mouthy to the powers that were, but also he was a healer, and he wept, and he sat around visiting with Mary and Martha, and he held children on his lap and he said, sometimes he wished he were a mother hen to take the chicks under his wings, and he laughed a lot sitting with the poor and the misfits who he loved ... That's a fully balanced being. Women need a developed masculine principle, and men need a developed feminine principle ... similar to the old Goddess cultures. Art, music, dancing, athletic games ... egalitarianism ... and no walls and no wars ... until THE "REAL," RUPERT-MURDOCK/GWB-MEN WARRIORS came with their BOATS AND new-fangled METAL SPEARS & SWORDS ...
Little by little ... and maybe these dark-shadow soul anomalies will fade away in time, and we can get down to the business of really living and loving what we have been given ... with no strings, other than to take care of what we have been so freely given, ... this earth with all of its intricate interdependencies with humans no more superior to the bear or the butterfly than the monkey to the fish. It's all ONE beautiful symphony ... if we could only hear it that way.
And since we're coming up to 2012 ... we'll likely know soon enough ... whether it's just a Mayan Calendar number or a time of transformation ... away from the Nightmare towards the DREAM ... or the other way around.
I think that last is really up to us. And we've got the Internet, and the newly fired GRID, and a lot of us have resolve, and a lot of us are out there, and a lot of us are teaching new ideas that are actually very old ideas, and a lot of us are just loving our families and turning out wonderful, more broad-minded children and young people, and a lot of us are making our communities more beautiful or forming new communities and getting back to the land ...
WE CAN DO THIS ... 20,000 people don't have to starve everyday ... 40,000 don't have to die EVERYDAY from starvation, and disease, and no water ... AND WAR!!!!
Does it take a rocket scientist to figure that out?
A long time ago, I did figure out, sometimes it's time to bypass government ... yes, obey the laws, but there's a lot of freedom in there to be creative, peaceful and get your point across with good information ... Knocking on doors is one way ... spending a few bucks and distributing flyers in a supermarket parking lot is another way ... little ways ... little by little ... and yeah, sitting-in at home on September 11th is a safe way and could be quite effective ... and going out and singing in the streets is a good thing too:
You can't forbid me everything.
You can't forbid me to sing.
You can't forbid my tears to flow.
You can't stop the song that I sing.
... and I wish I could give you the tune. Make one up.
Whew ... on a roll.
well, anyway ... I'm in GOOD COMPANY with many GOOD people. LET's DO IT!
Miracle
Those were their flags, hold them close whenever YOU feel betrayed by our government.
Bush is nothing like your dad and his brother.
This list of postings is probably the best I've yet to read on this CD website, or anywhere. What a great bunch of people. I especially appreciate the comments and insights from the WWII vets. We all need to hear more from you guys.
My dad, a WWII Navy vet recently passed on and I know he took some very sad and painful memories with him to his grave. His brother, my uncle, was a Marine in the 1st Marine division; fought at Guadalcanal, New Guinea, etc. and was eventually killed on Peleliu. Dad was stationed in the Pacific and they often saw each other and shared stories. A good friend of mine was an Army Ranger during the war and fought in Burma. The stories they tell, of Japanese brutality at that time, is horrifying. All were dreading what seemed to be an inevitable invasion of Japan. When the A-bombs went off and the war was immediately ended, not one I've spoken to who was involved with the fighting felt regret about it. There was tremendous relief and joy that the brutal war was finally over.
That being said, every one of those same people I've spoken to are sickened by what has happened to this country recently. Even my Dad, a lifelong Republican and conservative, was ashamed of what he saw happening to "his country". I know he died feeling bewildered and betrayed.
The flag from his coffin, as well as the flag from my uncle's coffin, sit folded in the bottom drawer of my desk. I'm so very proud of those guys but I'm too ashamed and saddened to open the drawer and look at those flags.
Although Scheer's comments are important and timely, he neglects to point out the biggest flaw in debate over the years about whether use of the atomic bombs on Japan were necessary to save American lives.
Taking into account the established fact that Japan had been willing to surrender conditional only that their emperor be spared, if we had accepted those offers in a timely fashion not only would close to a million Japanese have been spared but thousands of Americans who died while politicians dithered would have been spared as well. Waiting for the bomb cost American lives - it did NOT save them!
I just finished reading all the comments (including Siouxrose's last)...What? I think we have come full circle.
From prior threads I know that Aymon respects the LOGOS, and I'd like to point out something here. LEO in astrology (my sign and Kem's sign) signifies the HEART of creation. We speak of the SON of God (as Christ or other manifestations) and this speaks in part to the sun-worship of earlier civilizations. In the Star Wars trilogy it falls to the "royal" twins, Luke and Leah, to bring down the death star. Luke could easily constitute a persona of Apollo, god of the son to the ancients; whereas his twin sister, Leah, in my view would represent the opposing sign, Aquarius, which I happen to know is Aymon's sign. These two signs as a polarity represent the shift from the past 2200 year focus (Pisces-Virgo). It's not surprising that we find ourselves so active in this forum as a result.
I find it a fascinating congruence that the atomic bombs were dropped during the phase of Leo (August 6/9); as if breaking the HEART of creation. To the Biblcal, "Let no man tear asunder what God hath joined together," might speak of the dire process of atomic fission. I believe something in the fabric of creation was torn as a result of these martial initiatives. Once again, the Zodiac plan of 12 positions corresponds with Jesus' CHOICE of 12 disciples and Abraham founding 12 tribes. There is a metaphysical meaning to this number: in terms of geometry, divisions into 12 create a number of important relationships, and at their core is a system of balances. ALL 12 are needed on earth to reflect HEAVEN'S democracy! As I have argued in this forum, patriarchal religions in moving from polytheism to monotheism have essentially subsumed all the archetypes into ONE dominant one, supposing to represent the Deity. The problem with this "one" is that it too closely matches the image and likeness of Mars, the destroyer god of war. The concept of "big bang" in my view extends from this religious theology in that it entirely excludes any concept of the Divine feminine counterpart from the very essence of Creation. There are compelling theories about societies that pre-dated those we are most familiar with, those of the past 2200 years which have been formed under the theoretical bases of patriarchal religious thought. In these matriarchal societies the feminine power to GIVE life is what was revered. It's interesting to me that the all-out negation of female spiritual representation occured not only with the domination of patriarchal societies, but that theories about our origins negate the feminine aspect, too. I find these fallacious and I don't care how many scientists bring their math to the fore. The theory is flawed! DNA demonstrates EQUAL input from both genders. It clearly takes both to make life, and LIFE is the ongoing dance of creation. It is the universe making love to itself! Until this is understood, until the Divine feminine is brought back into our equations and understanding, we will see dangerous deluded behavior such as exploding weapons (Divine strake, anyone?) which supposedly simulate god's will (the present insane quest towards Armageddon). These beliefs are primitive and must be discarded! When the US military (see article on video games and the Baldwin brother on yesterday's posting, or check out Truthout.org on the military's use of evangelical programming) pushes a religious agenda, it makes MY case that war has been made holy under thrall to Mars.
I see life way beyond dual designations such as The Course in Miracle's LOVE or FEAR paradigm, however, to the extent a society identifies with fear, it will create enemies and justify killing. And to the extent it identifies with Love, it will recognize that it's never worth the struggle when there are tools that enable human beings to transcend the matters they would otherwise destroy each other for. FROM THE HEART of creation, this LEO bids you adieu! LOVE IS ALL.
Truly commondreams provides a forum that wins the designation, "Secondary Education." I am grateful to contributors on this thread. Coming in as a female a decade or so after WWII's conclusion, I have not had to face the issue of being a warrior. Still KEM portrays in his comments an adage I respect greatly, "The ENLIGHTENED warrior best understands the benefits of peace."
KUDOS to AYMON for a very indepth explanation of the forces, psychological and political, ever at play.
CEE Miracles: Excellent points.
KEM: We all joke about the fact we sometimes feel our comments are being scrutinized. When I mentioned (yesterday) that it was my birthday (today), I didn't expect a kind congratulation from the CD editor! Having received that unexpected acknowledgement I asked if I could make a few suggestions and ONE is for a meeting of our virtual community. I compare it with a more localized version of "The World Social Forum." He told me that topic/subject/plan was something the CD site originators were contemplating. So... maybe our birthday wish will be granted?
Cee Miracles, my wife and I just fnished readng your comments and she teared up and quietly said, "Kem, do you think we will ever have the opportunity to meet these wonderful people, like this person and Aymon, siouxrose and the others"?
"Sure do hope so", I replied.__She didn't see that I'd also teared up.__Thank you, Cee, Aymon and all of the others.
RobertScheer and others need to review David McCullough's extensive study of this event in his biography of Truman. McCullough's numerous contemporary sources suggest that Scheer is wrong on a number of counts: first, while the Japanese (whose coded messages to each other the Allies could read) knew they would lose the war, they had no intention of surrendering. Instead, they trained and armed every civilian between ages 12 and 60 to wield whatever rough weapons they could lay hands on to kill invading forces. Second,the Russian invasion of Manchuria would not, in itself, have been enough to force a Japanese surrender. The invasion would have required massive use of infantry from other Allied forces-- with estimates of deaths to both all civilians and soldiers on both sides in numbers at least equal to those who died from the two atomic bombs. According to some sources, no Japanese soldier had yet surrendered to any Allied force. On another point: the question of allowing the Japanese Emperor to continue in office was debated by the Allies, with Truman supporting a compromise, allowing the Emperor to remain but not to have any more power. Finally, there was, in fact, a great deal of awareness of the complexity and horror of this decision, on the part of both scientists and leaders in the Truman administration, about the wisdom of this decision. It was not a decision lightly made, but it was one chosen by most of the Los Alamos scientists and by most of those involved in the political side. Oversimplifying this matter does no justice to our history or to our understanding of the differences between American leadership then and now.
In defense of Harry S. Truman, who first found out about the atom bomb when Roosevelt died, and later made the decision to use the bomb and always felt that was the correct decision because of the estimated close to a million American soldiers who would have been needed to defeat the Japanese forces ... sea, land, and air ... if a landing in Japan was required. he said later this terrible weapon must be banned, must never be used again.
According to historical research information I've read, there was a plan on the books at the then Department of War headed by Henry Stimson that two bombs were to be dropped. When Truman gave the order for the first use of the atom bomb, the order for the use of the second one was not cancelled. Henry Stimson went ahead with it on his own, and true to form where the buck stopped, it stopped. Truman never blamed Stimson for not consulting him on this. Stimson resigned a month later, although that may not be connected to his decision.
Truman said shortly after the bombs were dropped that these terrible weapons must never be used again; that no one had truly understood the full extent of their horror.
When asked after his terms of office were over, whether he had any regrets about his decisions, he always maintained that he had done the right thing in using the bomb on Hiroshima, and didn't mention the Nagasaki bomb.
His biggest regret it turned out was signing the order to create the C.I.A. or to increase its powers. He again had come into the presidential office as an uninformed Vice President. That was the way it had always been back then. The Vice Presidential candidate was chosen to balance the ticket, was essentially a ceremonial figure, often a lightweight choice, and was not privy to the inner workings of the presidential plannings and secrets. What Truman signed, as the new President, shortly after Roosevelt's death was already in finished form. He said later he had unwittingly created an underground, separate government that had a disturbing independence and power, and was like putting the fox in charge of the chickens.
Roosevelt's sudden death put the weight of the world on Truman. Fortunately, Truman was one of us ... the people, extremely intelligence and well-read in the history of the world--the rise and fall of empires, etcetera, and he was a moral man [using and licking his own postage stamps at his presidential desk to send letters to his wife and daughter] and a decisive leader. No, he wasn't perfect. My Republican parents thought he was a jerk, but I came to appreciate who he was and what he did and what he was confronted with and what he did decide and what he did, as I studied his life and his presidency later. Churchill, who had a partnership with Roosevelt, looked down on him, and buttered up Stalin at the last post-war conferences, and Truman was hurt, confused and angry, and did the best he could. He was a quick take on people, and he didn't trust Stalin as far as you could throw him.
I think the best tribute to him is that his integrity was like a rock. And some might argue that, but if you read his statements and decisions about civil rights [desegregating the armed forces, for example, by executive order] in the face of his party of Dixiecrats before the election to his own first elected term, which he wasn't supposed to win, he was a brave man who did the right as far as he could see it, despite the possible cost.
In these last years of the destroying of the fabric of the United States, I've often thought of Harry Truman. Oh, boy, could we use him now.
For a perhaps kinder, gentler version of Harry Truman, but also tough and moral and one of us, and intelligent and far-sighted, Dennis Kucinich IS the one in the midst of a piss-poor crop of hypocritical, twisted-spine back stabbers who play to the corrupt press and television stations and their corporate/zionist donors.
*************
Appreciate what you've written KEM PATRICK about WWII. My brother who was 17 [he had lied about his age] was on the ship next to the Arizona in Pearl Harbor. He only suffered a broken knuckle from a jammed machine gun on deck, but certainly never forgot what happened next to his ship. Five uncles were all over the place in Europe and Asia, including one pinned down in a foxhole for weeks ... with dysentary yet ... and broken glasses [temporarily blind signal corpsman] in the battle for Iwo Jima. Uncle "Boo" [his name was Adolph ... "Boo" was better at that time], from his experiences, would likely have agreed with your [and Truman's] assessments about the the U.S. military-life costs of invading Japan.
War is hell.
I truly would like the whole pack of Chicken Hawks, including Condi and the NeoCons like pink-cheeked William Kristol and the Prince of Darkness, Richard Perle [I can think of another word that begins with sh that they really are], who "lead" us into our mutually-assured devastation, to be placed just outside of the Green Zone for thirty days with an AK-47 in their respective hands and then told to go at it for the glory of country and the American Way and the Zionist cause.
I think their minds might be changed ... that is, if they had any minds left or they were minimally functioning still by then.
They don't understand, and what must it be like to be so devoid of deep human feeling and connection to all of humanity ... all of this beautiful earth's life forms, other than wearing alligator shoes and calf-skin gloves.
***********************
Well, here we are ... and what was it that guy said at the last supper he had: LOVE ONE ANOTHER? What makes it so hard to get that? especially when so many indulge in that showy bowing and scraping and lip-service in their "worship" of that man and what he hung for.
Just tears for what a mess we have made of it all, and it seems we haven't learned very much along the way. And my grandchildren ... everyone's grandchildren deserve more than what we have bequeathed them as a future.
Well, hope springs eternal ... We'd better hope and better yet, get our mutual asses in gear to keep on keeping on to turn things around ...
Very interesting historical perspective on this thread. It is too bad there is some name calling thrown in. I was reading about the dolphin extinction on a mainstream site like MSNBC. I looked at a few of the blogs and it was nothing but name calling. Idiot, dumb *!#. etc. Vulgar and pointless. I would hate to see this website deteriorate to that point.
I was interested in the perspective brought by Vegasboy, and he shouldn't be called an idiot for his musings, even if not everone agrees.
This is a dark time for the United States. However, unbridled America bashing is disturbing. All eras and all nations are full of bad leaders. As someone pointed out above, if the other side had an atomic weapon, they might have used it also, might have used it first. Germany was certainly trying to develop one and probably would have if they hadn't lost all of their Jewish scientists.
I have to wonder about human nature. Peace doesn't come naturally to any of us. It requires great effort.
Lessons:
War plans are hard to stop once started.
Talk of use of nukes by our leadership indicates they are barking mad.
The use of nukes is a war crime.
I wish to clarify a statement I wrote on my 2:11 blog. When I wrote, (I would have been right in there klling evey Jap I could,) I meant it as if I were a ground pounder fighting in Japan during WW11 against, (at that time), our mortal enemy.
Knockonwood: Well stated. It's frustrating to see a person like that with so much power.
I'll stick to my comment from yesterday's CD article titled: "Hiroshima's Peace Declaration", about the 1975 Saturday Review article by Norman Cousins. I except the opinions of those of you who believed nuking Japan was the correct thing to do. What happened in August of 45 cannot be overturned, like a court judgement, so let us all try to prevent it from happening again, anywhere in the world.
When the vast majority, in any country, under any system of government, let a small minority do the thinking for them, tyranny takes over, and we wind up back on square one talking about right and wrong decisions in murdering people we don't know. Whether we kill for the emperor, the fuher, the president, the king, the queen, the pope, the chief, the war lord, the gang leader, or our own misunderstandings and fears about others, it is wrong. My friends, we have got to stop this absurd obedience to the ruling class.
Japan and Germany were two examples of total obedience to destructive authority. What if millions of young men and women said, "hell no, we won't go!" and gave Hitler and Tojo the finger. When the people are united for a common purpose, the tyrant loses control and has nobody to fight the war. Yeah...there's always the die-hards that cling to the tyrants, but their numbers are few, compared to the majority who want to live and let live.
Maybe I sound simplistic, but peace must be paramount. Controlling our thoughts is the first step.
I'm sorry, I attempted to correct the errors in spelling up there, but ran out of time and many words are still spelled wrong. I hate it when that happens. My eye hurts tu.
Aymon you are one fine person and my hope is, to someday be able to meet you and many others who comment here at Commmon Dreams.___ Not meet in one of Cheney's death camps however.
Our military in 1945 did indeed plan to invade the Japanese mainland. Truman was not informed of the Manhatten Project until Roosevelt died. Very few of the top military officers and their planning staffs, including Eisenhour and MacArthur among most others, were aware of the atomic bomb.
Until just shortly before an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, it had not even been tested at the Trinity site, no one even knew if it would explode. MacArthur learned of it after it had exploded over Hiroshema. Some now say he was informed, he said he was not. It pissed him and Eisenhour off too, it wasn't a nobel way to wage war, they disliked General Curtis LeMay also, and I do not believe LeMay was aware of THE bomb either.
There BTW is another interesting point, many of the top scientists who worked to perfect the bomb, feared and worried, it may set off a nuclear chain reaction, that would never stop reacting and might destroy our solar system,___ or worse. Wondering that, they pulled the tigger anyway. KA-BOOM! It worked as designed. Whew, bet you couldn't have shoved a needle up any of their asses during that sixty second countdown.
This is what President Truman and General Marshall did and did not know at that critical time in world history. First, they knew that Germany had shipped nuclear materials and nuclear scientists to Japan. In fact, when Germany surrendered, one of their subs sailed into a harbor on our East Coast and surrendered. The cargo that had been destined for Japan, included materials for making nuclear weapons. How much nuclear materiial had already been sent to Japan was not known by our president.
Secondly, Truman was aware, that Japan was building monstrous submarines that were aircraft carriers, each housed three, very large bomber aircraft. In fact, when Japan surrendered, one was on it's way to attack our Panama Canal. Truman did not know, nor could he have known, how far along Japan was in developing atomic bombs. Would they bomb American cities with them before we could stop them? That was a most pertainent question for the president?
How could Japan possibly keep on producing weapons, aircraft, armored cars, giant subs and the ammunition they did manage to produce, right up December 6, 1945?__ It was done with violation of the good managent law, of (span of control.) For example: In 1960, a good friend of mine lived near Tokyo, we were stationed at Tachikawa AFB. In the walled yard garden yard next to a Japanese families walled rear patio garden, a man had a hi-tech metal lathe under an awning. He worked there alone, all day, making lug nuts. We watched him one day while drinking hot saki with cold beer chasers. In the afternoon the man took off on his three wheeled motorcycle with two bamboo baskets full of the nuts and delivered them to a Toyota factory. He made all of the lug nuts for the wheels of the Toyota automobiles.
Span of control was not an issue, diligent and dedicated workers were spread out all over the land during and after the war, much was hidden underground. That same process was well used by North Vietnam, They never won a single land batle fightin us in Vietnam, but that was irrelevent,___ they won the war.
Next, the argument that Japan was beaten to a crisp and wanted desperately to negotiate a conditional surrender. Conditional? The Emperor had nothing to say about how the war was being conducted, he was their spiritual and devine figurehead. IF,__a big IF, he ever had publically announced, that the war was over and for the troops to lay down their arms and surrender, they would have had to obey. That is how they were, it was a long tradition and an honor thing with them.
The Emperor was devine, a God. The Emperor did not surrender and if he had attempted to do so, officers in the Japanese army had plans to stop him. Those confirmed warriors, didn't believe he was God and they actually were in charge and they were going to fight until every last human in Japan was dead if that is what it took.__ NO surrender!
Truman meanwhile, could not afford to negotiate a conditional surrender, knowing Japan was working juat as feveriously to build atomic bombs as we were. Wha woud the terms be, would we put troops on their soil, woud we accept payent for damages instead of occupation? Who in hell knows? Afte the war ended woud Japna ht us with giant sub aircraft carriers and atomic bombs? Who knows or knew? No one knew, and Truman had those most seious questions to consider.
There was no trust, how could anyone trust the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. Truman was not a devout intellect, he was a tough and intelligent man, who displayed a high degree of good common sense and honesty and he had a ton of weight on his sholders. He also had his intelligence service to advise him and everyone knows how good or bad that can be.
Where are we here? Okay, back to the invasion.
Japan was beaten, on the ropes? Not hardly. japan was a mountainous country, narrow roads, not many of those in Southern Japan. The country is a series of Islands a natural fortress which is not difficult to defend and tie up an entire army for months. First, an army wuld have ot get on the land. Japan had more than three thousand aircraft hidden in underground bases, including long runways prepared to strike an invasion fleet. Suicide bombers, of which at least a thousand were the rocket propelled Baca bombers. We ahd alredy discovered at Okinawa, those were near impossible to shoot down. The Japoanese used soe ther to test their effectiveness and kep most in readiness for the up-coming invasion on their main Island homeland.
If we had not used the atomic bombs, or had it been discovered they didn't work and we invaded Japan. It is not sifficul tto understnad that we could have lost much of the invasion fleet and most of our troops on that fateful day. Most of our sailors killed durng WW11 were killed durng the battle of Okinawa due to Kamakazi strikes. It wol dahve ben far worse on the mainland as the aircraft woud have been much closer to th eaction and less chance of being shot down on their way to our ships. It would have been a slaughter with lilile more atn a millio dead Americans the firs tcouple of days. Never sell the enemy short, it was their homeland. Never surrender, it was an honor to die in battle.___ Oh my God.
After time, if we did manage to gain a beachhead, and I'm sure we would have, it would have been a long, bloody war that likely would have lasted for at least two years. A nobel war of course, lots of medals, flags flying and terrific photographs of our troops fighting for us. I would have been right in there killing every damn jap I possibly could and would have been proud to kill them.___That is how it is.
Nobel? MacArthur would have thought so. So would the bands of troops, fighting and dying for one other, that too is how it is. And we would have known that Japan started it, because they did. We would have known they publically be-headed the airmen who were shot down and captured durng the Dolittle raid. We would have known about the Battan Death March and the hundreds of thousands of other atrocities the Japanese committed during that war and the one they started with the Chinese and Koreans. The atocities and war crimes the Japanese have never, ever, apologized for. And we forgave them. And Macarthur did good, he drove into Tokyo alone in a chauffered jeep the day after the surrender documents were formally singned and never once attempted to see their Emoperor, McArthur did not want to embarrass the Emperor or his subjects. He was nobel.
We could have continued the fire bombing of cities for another month or two, until we had bombed Japan back to the stone age, destroyed the entire countries infastructure and killed millions of civilians. When we attempted a landing, all hell would have brocken loose on our men. Just as it ahd on every Island we bombed and shelled, until they were a smoking, barren wasteland. Then the landing and the killing began and our mothers hung the gold starred flag in the front window, placed the folded American flag and the boxed purple heart medal in a ceder chest and never saw their son or daughter again. Never, and that wound never healed.
So, to drop the bomb and end it, that was Trumans call and I nor anyone else, was walking in his lonesome shoes.
I'll shed my tears at the Arizona memorial in Hawail thank you. And I have forgiven the Japanese, who are truly wonderful people. I would hope, that someday they would forgive us, forget what we did and remember what they did and then forget it all and live in peace with all. Hope is nice, but it is just a word, unless we act to make hope real.
this article reminds me of the line used by neocons and others that in matters of averting terrorist acts, military and law enforcement personel have to "bat 1000" - that is, successfully uncover every possible plot, all the time - and the terrorist only has to beat the odds once, presumably while happilt enduring countless failures, to achieve his/her ends.
we are now in a situation where virtually all of humanity must successfully utilize every conceivable strategy to avoid nuclear annihilation, while one lone cowboy only has to wake up one morning grumpier than usual and life as we know it is history. talk about a terrorist threat.
Well I would like to thank everyone for the debate. I don't begrudge you your opinion, and I hope you don't begrudge me mine. The entire argument was just that, a difference of opinions, thats what public forums are for. None of your comments hurt me and i hope i certainly didn't hurt you. In the end we all have our own opinion on everything so keep on contributing and I hope to participate in more debates, and again thank you.
Well Vegas Boy you certainly must be a BOY and not a very informed one either. What you don't know and what you never saw is monumental! The Japanese were in fact at the end of their collective rope and would have given it up if given a real opportunity. Any goddam fool like you who attempts to justify using nukes should be immediately suited up and sent to Iraq for disposal. What a dumb ass like you thinks and believes is not worth the space you are allotted on earth. Ohh, sorrrryyyy, for my strong language I guess I got carried away. You also remind me of one who has never heard a shot fired _______ as the adage goes.
Didn't Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project, admit in his journal that the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan was not the last act of the Second World War, but the first act of the Cold War?
To defend those who defend the A-bomb's use: WWII was a wake-up call to many of man's inhumanity to man. Germany and Japan both behaved reprehensibly and this undoubtedly had a callousing effect, even on (at the time) more even-handed Americans. I think it was a mistake to drop the bombs as they did, but a defensible mistake.
I tend to hold America to a higher standard, I don't know why. I once lost a good friend when I started arguing that a demonstration of the A-bomb on an emptied Hiroshima or some other target, would have been just as effective. He would have none of that. The A-bomb was no ordinary weapon: a demonstration would have shown that decisively. Just exploding ONE bomb told the world: conventional war, as fought by men on a battlefield, is over. We are still dealing with the shock of that. But, really, all war now is unconventional. Even Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq are 'unconventional' wars, in the sense that the targets mean, really, nothing to the U.S.
If they had meant something, we would have threatened to nuke someone, and let it go at that. It's sad that so many soldiers go on dying. But, really, you know, today, that the U.S. doesn't really 'mean' it when she threatens conventional warfare on an expressed 'vital' target. If she meant it, the threat would be nuclear.
Thomas More:
Your comment is beside point. You may ask children and grandchildren of those who fell on May 8, 1945 in Berlin and elsewhere.
A-bomb opened gates to totally new level of destruction. There is no point to compare life of your father with that of zillions of others. Truman could abandoned policies of unconditional surrender, he could chosen blockade etc. etc. Instead, Truman singlehandedly at his free will has chosen to show Soviet Union, what US had in its pocket. The whole of Truman philosophy, while still a Senator, was, and I quote his words loosely:
"If we see Germans are winning, we'll help Russians. If we see Russians are winning, we'll help Germans. And let them kill each other as much as possible.
He, who does not understand the game plan of US of A before, during and after WW2, cannot understand Iraq to-day and future of American Republic to-morrow. Think about this, please.
Vegasboy:
I think that you were the same victim of political machinations as tens of millions other people, who were not so lucky as to sirvive.
Yes i believe the last Japanese solider to surrender was 30 some odd years later, he was an officer on a small island, all the men he was in charge of died. When the Japanese government sent an envoy to tell him the war was over he did not believe them. He thought it was a trick by the Americans. The Japanese even sent the guys brother to tell him that the war was over and he didn't believe his own brother! It took a long time for the guy to accept that the war had ended. He was shocked when they flew him home on a jet airplane among other technological advances that had passed by him.
Were any of you sitting in Manila waiting to go on the invasion of Japan where thousand's of we U.S.A servicemen would have been slaughtered? I was one of the service men and President Truman surely saved my life.I am very sorry that so many innocent people got killed but you don't understand a Japanese Soldier they thought it was an honor to die for their country and the only way to stop them was to kill them life meant nothing to them. So it was either drop the bomb and stop the war or fight to the bitter end or until all of them were dead.If you weren't there it's easy to sit here 60 years later and judge a president who had a awesome decision to make.I just don't think you understand what was going on.What Truman did as awful as it was was not nearly as bad as what George Bush did when he ordered Badhdad to be bombed for no reason other than greed for oil which has killed more people than the bomb. What Truman did was an act of war what Bush did was an act of murder
Modern research places the number killed in Dresden at 25,000 to 30,000. So Shakker you're wrong on that count. The fire bombing of Tokyo, however, rivals the Hiroshima numbers.
Japanese today proudly point out that modern Hiroshima is much larger than the destroyed Hiroshima. They really do believe in re-birth and that's part of the reason they are not as bitter as Americans would be if the Japanese had atom bombed two American cities. (Which they would have done, if they could have).
The Showa emperor was a kind and modest man who was a mere figurehead. The militarists/Cheney-types ran the show. MacArthur called him "The first gentleman of Japan."
PJD,
Actually the US had detailed plans for the invasion of Japan. It was called Operation Downfall. It was divided into two parts: Operation Olympic and Operation Coronet. I agree with Mr. Scheer's essay. The world would have been better off had it not dropped the bomb. A blockade would have been a better choice than invasion or bombing.
The U. S. broke the Japanese code in 1939 and knew what the Japanese were saying. Towards the end of the war the U. S. knew the Japanese were willing to surrender if they could keep the emperor. The War in Europe was over and the Russians were coming to help on the Japanese front and there was no hurry to defeat Japan. The U. S. dropped the bomb because they did not want to divide the Japanese spoils with Russia and was a warning to Russia.
The U.S. also fire bombed Dresden in Germany. It was as bad or worse than the atomic attacks. There were few if any legitimate military targets in Dresden and it was well known that non-combatants had moved there trying to stay out of the way of the war.
The Russians said we didn't kill enough Germans and were pushing for us to kill more.
SO WE DID!
Look, you may think that but there were plans drawn up by senior military planners for the invasion of Japan and the projected costs of doing so. If you would like to argue over this more, I can refer you to Prof. Goertemiller, an exellent history professor.
good article and good discussion, all. the most chilling thing for me is this quote from aymon's post of truman's diary:
It seems to be the most terrible thing ever discovered, but it can be made the most USEFUL…(useful for what? ending the war? scaring the soviets? demonstrating american muscle?)
it boggles my mind to think that after the horrors of ww2, the primary concern of leaders in the US was how to win the next war.
'The final fact is have any of you ever heard the estimate for what it would have cost to take Japan by invasion? 1 and a half million, I'll repeat that MILLION, men and the deaths of probably about 4 and a half MILLION Japanese civilians"
It is well established that this years-after-the-fact hogwash to justify the bombing. Not a shred of paper supporting any serious plans for such an invasion, has been found. They had Japan besieged and no mass invasion would have been necesary.
To add as a response, the one thing that we always forget when judging history is the fact that it is history. We may now look at as an act of terrorism, I'm not trying to argue that it is or isn't. The one thing we forget though is the mentality of the American people at the time. Who are we to judge what they did back then, back then the overwhelming majority supported the bombing, although shocked, they thought it was the best thing then, it ended the most terrible war in history.
While I'm not trying to be insensitive to the deaths of the civilians and even the military personnel, the deaths that occurred as the result of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were but a mere fraction of the deaths that occurred throughout the war. The bombings prevented the deaths of many more. And to the argument that the end justifies the means, take into consideration the means that would have to have been taken to invade Japan.
Also as a note to the Japanese trying to save face and surrender, the official policy of the administration at the time was to accept nothing less than complete surrender. The reason for this was because administration wanted to prevent another World War from happening and the continued oppression of peoples that were happening under the Japanese empire. That was the policy used for both Italy and Germany too.
REBEL FARMER: you are correct.
AYMON: As usual, you bring important commentary to this forum. Thank you.
The anniversary of the US choice to use these diabolical weapons has led to some profound articles on C.D and some equally compelling commentary on the part of posters. The thing that stands out for me, however, is how human beings could find it possible to continue to invest in weapons of this nature having SEEN the effects. The disconnect from humanity is spellbinding. That our nation not only failed to learn anything, but continued to invest a disproportionate share of the blessing of its wealth on yet more efficient nuclear weapons trumps the very statement that it leads the world in crimes against humanity. We MUST put a stop to this wreckage!
Permit this analogy. I know some alcoholics who seem to go on and on and never have the "hit bottom" experience that would potentially turn their lives around into more worthy ventures. In some ways it's more tragic when the wake-up call comes later rather than sooner. I wish to apply that analogy to our nation, drunk on its martial hubris... had its citizens truly taken into account the level of destruction wrought upon Japan and Vietnam and now Iraq (with many other lethal conflicts in between these 3 big ones) perhaps we could not allow the military-industrial complex aided and abetted by the masculine insecurity of so-called leaders to continue to make gigantic lethal displays of ejaculatory weapon systems to satisfy their own twisted concept of power. That Bush and his band of armed, murdering thieves is trying to posture similar lies to justify attacks on Iran is so past sanity and reason and decency that I do not think words exist yet in any language to properly sculpt the nature of their depravity.
I'd just like to add that the U.S. is doing TODAY in Afganistan and Iraq, just what it did to Japan. The only differnece is there isn't the same "shock and awe" of mushrooms clouds. NOW we do it in slow motion. The new weapon of choice is depleted uranium (DU) tipped explosives. The following sites are just a taste of what we are doing NOW.
WARNING: The following are very graphic and disturbing.
http://www.bushflash.com/pl_lo.html
http://www.traprockpeace.org/jawad_al-ali_iraq.pdf
It's all bad folks. There are some lessons from history that are never learned by leaders of nations. There is no such thing as "collateral damage". There is only death of the innocent.
Peace
..at least now I understand why they called President Truman "Give-em-Hell Harry"!!
Vegasboy, how can you know for a fact that killing any number of civilians is better than another number? What about not killing any civilians - does that even occur to you as a possibility and as a good outcome? If what Aymon quotes is true, then it means that very important decisions our "leaders" make must not be made based on ego, but on taking the time to get the facts. This is why so many find W to have such a dangerous legacy; he is not inclined to listen to or study the facts. An idea forms in his head (supposedly given to him by God) and is then extended and justified, with "facts" created to match his idea!
The "Truman mentality" seems to continue in DC today, and I can see why, for example, environmental issues are so vehemently opposed by the neo-cons - it isn't their idea to address these issues! It isn't going to help line the pockets of their friends. So their choice is to ignore the facts, oppose the facts, discredit those who bring the facts, just as their predecessors did (and some of the neo-cons ARE the predecessors who made poor decisions in the past)! Isn't it clear yet to American voters and "leaders" that ignoring a problem (that based on that 1945 decision, a mad arms race ensued and has us all scared today; if global warming is a fact, ALL life, not just poor people's lives will be adversely affected) doesn't make it go away? That believing that we are the "greatest country in the world" doesn't make everything we do/have done morally right? (Still haven't defined for me in other than a materialistic way what we're "greatest" at!!!)
My goodness, even Conservative thinking should be updated some time!
"No shipment of arms to Britain=Britain falling to Nazi Germany. No entrance into the war by America and a second and third front would have never been opened. Rommel would have steam rolled over Africa and the Normandy invasion would have never happened. This means that Hitler gets to throw all of his forces at Russia, defeating them. What would be the result? a continued Nazi regime in Europe to this day."
This is just a mixture of hogwash and bluster; not a fact in it, and the insinuations are complete drivel.
Vegasboy, you're using the "ends justifies the means" argument, which Sheer mentions but it's not the point of this article. What he is arguing is that Hiroshima/Nagasaki are terrorist acts. Spectacular killing of civilians to further a political cause. Sounds just like 9/11, right?
...at least now I understand why they called President Truman "Give-em-Hell Harry"!!
@auberon, I deal in facts, not emotive response; you should learn the difference.
To further vinlander's statement of facts, Roosevelt ordered a total trade embargo on Japan that was supported by the US Navy. The US had been discussing total trade embargoes on Japan since August 1939. When the embargo was emplaced July 1941, Japan could not get any raw (oil, bauxite) or finished materials (steel) for its own needs. This forced Japan into a military expedition to the Dutch East Indies. The obvious conclusion of this was an eventual war.
Moving closer to 12/7/41, this issue of knowing the location of the Japanese fleet was also long with-held from the public. 6 months prior to the attack the US obtained cipher boxes used by the Japanese Navy, a coup equaling the breaking of the Enigma cipher during the European War. The FoIA has exposed all the intercepted signals that detailed location, strength, and code words that would commence the attack. The White House and top Pentagon officials knew precisely when, where and how the attack would begin. We have documents signed by Roosevelt commanding that CINCPACFLT be not told any of this. The only hint Adm. Kimmel received was an order to deploy the carriers on Aug 6. Kimmel was subsequently used as the scape goat and his career ruined. When all this stuff came out in the mid-1990s, the United States Senate passed a resolution exonerating Kimmel. "(He) was denied vital intelligence that was available in Washington," said Senator William V. Roth Jr. (R-DE), noting that he had been made scapegoats by the Pentagon. Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) called Kimmel "the final victim of Pearl Harbor." Both President Clinton and his successor George W. Bush declined to sign the resolution.
The only conspiracy left is the people who still believe that Pearl Harbor was a surprise; it is likely they also believe in the Easter Bunny.
Vegasboy, you need to get some facts straight. There are memos showing that the Japanese were desperately trying to negotiate a surrender with face saving honor before the bomb was dropped. Go watch Tora Tora Tora. It shows film clips from that time.
If Truman wanted the bomb dropped on a military target, who overruled him? I didn't glean that from the article.
Aymon, that was a fascinating extract you posted. It's too bad Presidents live in such a bubble. It sounds suspiciously like Byrnes had a major role in the decision of killing civilians.
ezeflyer, I haven't seen the HBO documentary, but there is a Japanese movie (not the American version) called Black Rain. I'm sure not as graphic without those pictures, which I've known were being suppressed and unavailable. Still, it shows the experience from the perspective of the victims, something Americans seem tragically unable to comprehend.
We also must remember that Japan's leaders were not all of one mind in making peace. The armed forces want to retain Korea as a colony, the right to an oceangoing battlefleet, the right to try their own war criminals (not that there were any in their view) and to avoid an occupation of Japan. Even after we sent its merchant fleet to the bottom of the Pacific, after we firebombed its capital and other major industrial cities and AFTER we nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there were STILL military leaders who wanted to wanted to fight on to save face and force the Allies to water down their demands. It took Hirohito's personal intervention to force Japan's surrender. See Wikipedia's article on "The Surrender of Japan". Yeah, I know it's not scholarly or reliable, but it's a start.
There is no greater criminal terrorist state than the USA. It has killed and maimed more people than any other nation. The American people are so brainwashed that they understand nothing concerning the crimes their nation commits against humanity every day. The USA needs to disappear from the page of history.
There's an important flaw in Mr. Sheer's argument that shows itself here:
"At most, the Japanese were asking for the face-saving gesture of retaining their emperor..."
Scheer, like many others, assumes Emperor Hirohito was merely a ceremonial figure, not an active commander-in-chief of the Imperial armed forces, and that he had no responsibility for Japan's launching and conduct of its war against China and the Western powers. At least one historian, Herbert Bix, has argued in "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan" that Hirohito had and used the supreme power while hiding behind his supposedly "ceremonial" role. Others have rejected Bix's argument, but perhaps it has some merit. If Germany had conditioned its surrender on Hitler retaining control, dropping the A-bomb on it wouldn't have seemed quite so outrageous.
If Japan, or any other country, lobbed a couple of nukes into Vegas, or Denver, or Orlando, would Americans ever "forgive" them and move on? Before answering, think: Cuba.
The Japanese should hate us more. Especially since, as RS points out, "we" certainly haven't learned a single lesson since.
good article but please people. lets get some facts straight. While Roosevelt and the intelligence community knew an attack was coming, they didn't know exactly where. It could have been one of three places where the attack could have happened. The president did let the attack happen but think of this what if America went along with the isolationist policies. No shipment of arms to Britain=Britain falling to Nazi Germany. No entrance into the war by America and a second and third front would have never been opened. Rommel would have steam rolled over Africa and the Normandy invasion would have never happened. This means that Hitler gets to throw all of his forces at Russia, defeating them. What would be the result? a continued Nazi regime in Europe to this day.
The final fact is have any of you ever heard the estimate for what it would have cost to take Japan by invasion? 1 and a half million, I'll repeat that MILLION, men and the deaths of probably about 4 and a half MILLION Japanese civilians. And to the question of bombing civilian targets and attack civilians, when in war have they not been targeted? The base support of the military is the civilians, without them the military cannot continue. While the incident was horrible and it killed many civilians, in actuality it saved more people from dying.
Tedious though the facts can get, FDR's policy was to embargo oil that Japan needed to continue its war in China. Pearl Harbor was a response to economic sanctions (a desperate if calculated plan to knock out the US Navy and grab the oil in the Dutch East Indies -- now Indonesia), and an abject lesson in the Law of Unintended Consequences. By denying a belligerent power the oil needed to continue a war, the non-violent strategy of economic sanctions only served to widen that war.
Great article and great comments. Just think about it: mere dozen years ago Smithsonian Institution planned an exhibition to commemorate 50th anniversary of A-bombing and the whole of f@#$%ing establishment followed the American Legion, that last refuge of scoundrels to oppose an exhibition.
I recommend everybody to read book Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam by Gar Alperovitz, hour by hour records of fatal decision making.
Truman and Burns were in total isolation from the top military and civilian leaders. Even Curtis LeMay, proud creator and implementer of Hamburg and Dresden incineration, was opposed to A-bombing.
One comment might be interesting for all participants in discussion. New data uncovered after 1991, had shown that the bristle march of several tank armies toward Prague, which was taken on May 10, 1945, 2 days after VE-Day, has everything to do with A-bomb. Czechoslovakia was main source of uranium before discovering rich ores in then Belgian Congo. Now, of course, uranium ores considered to be the most widely spread around the globe. So, such a tank march to Prague was the first indication of incoming atomic arm race.
I'll take comments of Dr. Leo Szilard (Q. "…Russians probably were working on the bomb? A I had no idea of this) with a grain of salt. Dr. Szilard new perfectly well that when German physicists Otto Hahn, working with Fritz Strassman, first achieved fission of Uranium atom in 1939, only two scientists interpreted results of Hahn's experiments as opening door to nuclear chain reaction – Austrian Lise Meitner and Soviet G. Flerov. By mutual agreement physicists stopped further publication of their research in this field being afraid of it military catastrophic implications. As early as in 1942, Gregory Flerov convinced Joseph Stalin to start work on A-bomb project, that is, about the same time as Manhattan Project. All Soviet nuclear physicists were recalled from active military service even prior to that date. So much about American ingenuity and Soviet spies Julian and Ethel Rosenberg.
Actually, it's "revisionist history" to claim that Fol (do you mean FOIA?) has revealed Roosevelt "deliberately orchestrated" Pearl Harbor. The facts simply do not support that conclusion, but you folks on the conspiracy-loving fringe never let facts get in the way of a point of view, now do you?
All good comments so far, and the "terror America wrought" is completely in accord with the revisionist history now revealed through FoI that Roosevelt deliberately plunged America into WWII by orchestrating Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.
Make ya proud to be American, huh?
I dispute that the nukes dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were really any different than the firebombing of Dresden and Tokyo. OK, technologically, one bomb taking out a good chunk of a city is rather nifty, but logistically, filling the skies with bombers and dropping enough incendiaries to have the place spontaneously combust is a bigger "achievement."
The problem is far less with the weapons than with the underlying will to use them.
The B-29 that dropped 'Little Boy' was named 'Bocks Car', so it was a Car bomb that fell on Nagasaki.
No difference from Baghdad except for the size of the blast and the radiation.
And sooner or later even those differences will disappear along with further multitudes of lives and souls.
Good article -- typo though with the Hiroshima date -- August, not April (although the time is right -- I have kept a broken watch set to that time for years).
Dropping those bombs is surely among the greatest crimes against humanity in history. We should all recognize this. I wonder why the Japanese aren't more aggressive about condemning it.
As I watched the HBO documentary, I was asked, "Granpa why are you crying?" How can you explain this to a little kid?
The HBO documentary should be required viewing for all Americans. I will be haunted by the horrific images for the rest of my life. This was a crime of almost unimaginable proportions. These terrible weapons should never be used again.
You know, if any of you folks had been sitting on a troop ship waiting to invade Japan like my father was you might have a different view.
If you had been on Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Bouginville with him you might vote to drop that bomb yourself. You might have a different opinion of the Japanese will and commitment at that time.
I wonder if any of you have any idea when the last Japanese soldier surrendered?