A lot of people - particularly of the 'armchair general' type who like to say "war is hell" - believe the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were entirely justified.
I used to have that opinion too.
However, these are the opinions of William Leahy, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D Eisenhower and Carter Clarke:
"It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons...The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future are frightening. My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children."
- William Leahy, Chief of Staff to Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.
"When I asked General MacArthur about the decision to drop the bomb, I was surprised to learn he had not even been consulted. What, I asked, would his advice have been? He replied that he saw no military justification for the dropping of the bomb. The war might have ended weeks earlier, he said, if the United States had agreed, as it later did anyway, to the retention of the institution of the emperor."
- Norman Cousins, a member of General Douglas MacArthur's Staff
"...the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing."
- Dwight D Eisenhower
"...when we didn't need to do it, and we knew we didn't need to do it, and they knew that we knew we didn't need to do it, we used them as an experiment for two atomic bombs."
- Brigadier General Carter Clarke
My grandfather was a war hero, awarded the Order of the British Empire (among other decorations) for his conduct in fighting the Japanese, who could have landed in Australia. He lost a great many of his friends and brothers in that conflict. He did not believe it was the right thing to do either.
I regard these opinions as being of consequence.
Agreed. The debate here can be fierce, however, there's simply no justification in bombing civilians, conventionally or otherwise.
ReplyDeleteThe use of nuclear weapons was nothing more than a show of force to terrorize potential enemies of the future, especially USSR/Russia.
Now that nuclear proliferation is a genuine threat against the US, the US government suddenly seems concerned about the use of these horrific weapons, all while we're the only ones to have ever used them against an enemy.
Typical US government policy - we can, but no one else can, for God ordained us as the neighborhood bully.
I'm always amused at the argument that the use of the bombs saved thousands of lives through rapid surrender by the Japanese.
#1 as you pointed out, they were on the verge of surrender anyway with their military structure virtually collapsing around them
#2 the bombs killed in excess of 200,000 – 300,000 people, mostly civilians (many of which were Koreans who were conscripted by the Japanese for labor) either as a direct result of the blast or the ensuing radiation sickness, burns and infections.
Regardless of the propaganda, the numbers just don't add up.
War has within it the capacity to generate atrocities. It always has and always will. War makes people do horrific things, things they would have never have dreamt possible. BUT! The use of nuclear weapons is beyond immoral and barbaric, it is pure evil and we still have the ability to literally destroy the planet with them.
The U.S. saw first-hand the destruction in Hiroshima, knew the horrific and devastating affects upon everything living, yet they chose to continue with the bombing of Nagasaki. Evil in its purest form!
So, was this just a Truman temper tantrum? Why did they decide to it then?
ReplyDeleteThe rape on Nanking was no picnic either.
War is hell, and I wish more people would learn that. "Ethical" and "humane" are incompatible with war, regardless of what the Geneva Convention says.
There is no such thing as a humane war. War is the ultimate human rights violation.
Magpie: Thanks for posting these words from history. Those bombs never should have been dropped for all the reasons stated here.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your views guys.
ReplyDeleteFire bombings of Japan killed just as many as the A-bomb did, in one night.
ReplyDeleteThese weapons were not necessary, but if Truman had not used them and an invasion was necessary, what would History say about the 100's of thousands of lives lost invading Japan?
What would the relatives and friends of the soldiers say? What would the soldiers say?
I am very aware that the incendiary attacks killed more people, Tom. I have sought to address your questions and perhaps a bit of those above in a second post about this topic...
ReplyDelete