It’s here again, August 6, A-Bomb Day–the day we dropped the big one on Hiroshima. Three days later the United States dropped a plutonium type A-Bomb on Nagasaki. Ironically, the last survivor of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, died last week. Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk seemed to have few regrets about the decision to drop the bomb and when asked, once eloquently responded “It’s really hard to talk about morality and war in the same sentence.”
Yet 69 years later, the debate continues. Only select Americans knew anything about an atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project was top-secret and in those days, when things were top-secret, people didn’t find out. In fact, until he assumed the Presidency, Harry Truman knew nothing about an atomic weapon being built. After the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, only then did the rank and file American begin to contemplate and discuss the moral responsibility of dropping such a deadly weapon of mass destruction.
Most people of my parents generation seemed to have no qualms about dropping nuclear WMDs. They also seemed to have no qualms about the horrible fire bombings in cities like Dresden and Tokyo. The atomic bomb seemed to only bring one more horror, that of radiation poisoning. Burning and disfigurement already existed with the incendiary bombings. Post Pearl Harbor it seemed like there was an “anything goes” attitude about how we conducted war.
August 6, without argument, however, a door was opened that could never be closed again. We entered the nuclear age. The race began between the superpowers and we spent nearly 50 years in competition known as the Cold War. Is it totally over? No. Countries like North Korea and Iran still pose a nuclear threat not only to their neighbors but to the world. There is also the danger of the wrong person getting their hands on atomic weapons–the threat of rogue nations or individuals using nuclear materials in nefarious ways.
Dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki provided the incentive to finally force a Japanese surrender. Before the bombs, Japan had stated it would fight to the death of every last woman and child. The United States insisted on unconditional surrender. Was it worth it?
From my point of view, I probably wouldn’t be here having this discussion had the bomb not been dropped. My father was sitting on the West Coast the summer of 1945. (next stop, Japan ground invasion) Once I get past the utter selfishness of of never being born, what a horrific thing to do on a civilian population! As we all know, people do what their governments tell them to do. Good grief, I was totally brainwashed into supporting the Vietnam War. People were vaporized and those who weren’t, were disfigured for life. Many died from radiation poisoning. Can we morally justify such actions, even to end a horrible war?
I am glad I didn’t have to make the decision. What say you on this inauspicious benchmark in history?
My mother told me that my father was not drafted during WWII because he was working on the very fringes of the Manhattan project as a work crew boss. They were in the Washington desert.
My mother kept trying to convince my father to let her buy their neighbors’ sugar rations…which would have been illegal…. so that she could make alcohol……. also illegal….but profitable.
He said….”No.”
Too bad women in those days obeyed their husbands.
Where in Washington state were they working on the Manhattan project? I am watching Man(hat)tan on WGN every Sunday night. So far it has been very good. The setting is Los Alamos for this show. (so far)
This past Sunday is only the second night.
Hanford, Washington was a major site for the early nuclear program.
Most of Europe has been immersed in memorials dedicated to WWI. Some very poignant photos coming from Belgium, France and England. A ceramic poppy field has been created – quite moving.
@Moon-howler
Well, he probably did keep her out of jail……. it WAS the Manhattan project….
Was she out there with him?
The Cold War showed that MAD is an acceptable strategy for nation states. The nuclear bomb prevented a conventional WW III that would have devastated world populations.
However MAD likely doesn’t work for terrorist cells so we have a future threat from the bomb. I’m hoping sensor technology develops faster than terrorist capability to deploy a nuclear bomb and thus we have opportunity to detect and defend against it.
Moon, as we have seen in recent decades, trying to win their “hearts and minds” hasn’t proven to be an effective long term tactic. Those of the greatest generation (and earlier ones) likely had it right, “ashes, ashes they all fall down”. Nuclear weapons, the Great White Fleet, etc., etc. proved to be both effective deterrents and in the case of the bombs, saved innumerable US lives. The Japanese kicked us in the balls at Pearl Harbor, tortured and executed prisoners of war and civilians, tested chemical and biological weapons on the Chinese population and you expect sympathy at the time for the 100,000 civilian casualties, that would have been the equivalent of our first day losses had we attempted to invade the Japanese islands. Oh, should we have insisted on unconditional surrender, abso-freaking-lutely.
Have been to Hiroshima and have seen the War memorial. When you see what these very primitive bombs did, you realize you don’t ever want to see one of the present day strategic weapons exploded over any place in the U.S. Any war involving the present day strategic weapons would be what we once talked about as Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) and the acronym fits. There are tactical weapons also–gravity bombs and short-range missiles, artillery shells, land mines, depth charges, and torpedoes for anti-submarine warfare. Of course, if you fire off one of these, does the enemy answer with a strategic weapon? The $64,000 dollar question.
Mom is correct, the use of Little Boy and Fat Man, while costly to the Japanese, saved uncounted American lives.
Sadly, twelve Americans died as a result of the Hiroshima bombing-twelve American airmen were imprisoned at the Chugoku Military Police Headquarters located about 1,300 feet from the hypocenter of the blast. Most died instantly, although two were reported to have been executed by their captors, and two prisoners badly injured by the bombing were left next the Aioi Bridge by the Kempei Tai, where they were stoned to death.In addition, about 20,000 Koreans forced labor conscripts were killed in Hiroshima and another 2,000 died in Nagasaki.[Wikipedia]
/Users/sailorguy/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Masters/2014/08/06/20140806-093418/A-Bomb_Dome.jpg
George, will you please post that link again? I cant get it to work.
I didn’t realize Americans were killed in those bombings. Thanks for the information.
I have always “voted” that we should have done it. Like I said, the guy who was to eventually become my father was poised and perched on the west coast….his job at the time was supervising transport trains going back and forth…but he knew why he was there.
I am not sure those fire bombings done in German cities and Japan were a lot better than nuclear. It seems to me like a war on a civilian population.
My uncle spent a lot of time in Japan after the war and loved the country. How very odd. I have a rising sun flag left over from the spoils of war. Authentic.
@Moon-howler
In one of my history courses, it was revealed to me just how extensive the destruction of the Japanese cities was. Imagine 3/4 of the US cities…..gone.
And they were STILL going to fight to the death.
They were still going to fight after Hiroshima.
When Nagasaki happened, they thought that we had many more of the bombs.
Anyone who has qualms about the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki needs to read about what both sides expected casualties to be in the invasion of Japan. The atomic bombings saved hundreds of thousands of American soldiers’ lives and millions of Japanese soldiers and civilians lives. (The US expected to have to invade two of the main four “home islands” and that the war would continue into 1947 before Japan would be unable to mount any more resistance.)
Besides the sheer devastation of the bombs, they also delivered a psychological blow that finally forced the Japanese to realize the war was completely lost. The new balance of power, where a single plane with a single bomb could destroy an entire city made them accept defeat. No one knew at the time how many of these bombs we had (only one more) and that if bomb #3 hadn’t done the trick the invasions were on.
Believe it or not, the battle plans for the landings included dropping atomic bombs on the beaches, then landing our own troops in the area we just nuked. We didn’t know enough about fallout and radiation sickness yet to realize we’d have killed thousands of our own. Thank God we didn’t learn that the hard way.
Though few like to admit it, the atomic bombings were the best thing to happen to Japan since the war started. While thousands died, imagine how many millions more would have died in another two years of World War II. (including millions of Chinese, Koreans and the other occupied countries in Asia.)
Furby, I believe that the speculation has been used to support why we committed such a heinous act. as a nation. Isolate the act. Remove it from the war. It’s pretty horrific. A single plane and a single bomb killing 100,000 people and poisoning untol numbers with radiation poisoning.
I am just old enough that I barely wince over it. Like I said, my father was on the west coast. Everyone knew what was next. However, I guess I am also young enough to use the word “barely.” The United States cannot be a super power without having to take the moral responsibility for using this type of bomb on a civilian population. I suppose my letter would say, “Regrettably, we had to do this because your nation was being led by immoral power-hungry militarist idiots from another era and they were stubbornly using the people of Japan to conquer the world.”
Is there something about homogenious societies that make them susceptible to these kinds of dictators? How about an emperor they thought was a god?
I agree with almost everything you wrote expect the concept of having to take moral responsibility for dropping the atomic bomb. I don’t see anything immoral about the use of the atomic bombs *in those specific cases*. The atomic bombs saved millions of Japanese civilian lives and were thus the humane and merciful thing to do. I’m sure the survivors don’t see it that way but 100-200,000 civilian deaths is much better than millions. The US should be *proud* that we were able to limit the casualties on both sides thanks to our scientific ingenuity.
I might feel differently if there had been any credible peace negotiations or any evidence to suggest a coup against Tojo & Hirohito. But there wasn’t. As you said, the Japanese brought this down upon themselves. The moral of this story is a very old one in history: don’t start wars you can’t win. I believe the great philosopher Will Smith put it thusly: “Don’t start nothing, won’t be nothing.”
I don’t think it was about homogeneous societies per se, just that the Japanese, like the Germans, had been whipped up into a frenzy of national superiority and thought they had both the right and were capable of taking whatever they wanted. Look at the genocide in Rwanda in the 90s. The country was about a 60/40 mix between the two ethnic groups, and intermarriage was not uncommon. But that didn’t stop the Hutus from going crazy and trying to exterminate the Tutsi.
Could we slide racial superiority in there? Perhaps I think of Rwanda as being more tribal. I might be wrong also. Thinking to myself outloud here.
I think the use of weapons always involves morality. I can justify the A-bomb but I can’t go so far as to say it makes me proud. At some point I have to just reduce my justification to them or me. Were it really all that cool of a think to do, Nagasaki would be the last time we used atomic weapons on an enemy.
Strange to be an American naval officer visiting the war memorial in Nagasaki only about 20 years after and being surrounded by Japanese visitors. I didn’t know what to say or do at that moment. Mostly what I seem to remember now is staring fixedly at a green glass bottle fused into some other object.
Had that bomb not been dropped, I might have been fatherless.
I guess not only would I have been fatherless, I would have not existed to BE fatherless. That is a compelling argument for me.
Your experience must have felt weird. I just don’t see this as a black or white issue. There are definitely some shades of gray but in the end, as an American who might not even exist today had the bombs not been dropped, I come down on the side of history.