Sixty six years ago today, August 6, 1945, the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. President Truman, who ordered the attack, vigorously defended his decision throughout the remainder of his life, saying that his decision saved many American and many Japanese lives as well.
There is continuing controversy about Truman’s decision and there is an interesting article today in The Nation: “66 Years Ago Today: When Truman Opened the Nuclear Era — With a Lie,” written by Greg MItchell. Here is an excerpt:
When the astonishing news emerged that morning, exactly 66 years ago, it took the form of a routine press release, a little more than a thousand words long. President Truman was at sea a thousand miles away, returning from the Potsdam conference. Shortly before eleven o’clock, an information officer from the War Department arrived at the White House bearing bundles of press releases. A few minutes later, assistant press secretary Eben Ayers began reading the president’s announcement to about a dozen members of the Washington press corps.
The first few sentences of the statement set the tone:
“Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of TNT. …The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid many fold. …It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe.” …
From its very first words, however, the official narrative was built on a lie. Hiroshima was not an “army base” but a city of 350,000. It did contain one important military base, but the bomb had been aimed at the very center of a city (and far from its industrial area). This was a continuation of the American policy of bombing civilian populations in Japan to undermine the morale of the enemy. It was also to take advantage of what those who picked the targed called the special “focusing effect” provided by the hills which surrounded the city on three sides. This would allow the blast to bounce back on the city, destroying more of it, and its citizens.
The vast majority of the dead in Hiroshima would not be military personnel and defense workers but women and children.
There was something else missing in Truman’s announcement: Because the president in his statement failed to mention radiation effects, which officials knew were horrendous, the imagery of just a bigger bomb would prevail in the press. Truman described the new weapon as “revolutionary” but only in regard to the destruction it could cause, failing to mention its most lethal new feature: radiation.
…ever hear the story of Lt. Hiroo Onada? A celebrated hero in Japan, Onada took to the Phillipine hills in the waning days of World War II and continued fighting. Convinced that pamphlets declaring the war over to be propaganda, Onada and three subordinates continued a campaign of guerilla war for over 25 years. Only after meeting a Japanese student who was searching for him was Onada convinced of the war’s conclusion, but yet would not surrender until told to do so by a Japanese officer. Finally, in 1974, Onada turned over his sword, his still functioning weapon and 500 rounds of ammuniton. In that quarter century, Onada was responsible for the killing of over 30 Filipinos, but was pardoned by President Ferdinand Marcos. What, you may ask, is the point of this history? The Japanese, it must be remembered, were fanatical about their refusal to surrender. As the War in the Pacific was turning against Japan, home-front militias of citizens were digging trenches, sharpening sticks and prepaing weapons to repel the expected Allied invasion to the last person. Only Truman’s decision to drop the bomb altered an island invasion in which millions of Japanese and American soldiers would have been killed…
That is correct. Once the decision was made for the Emperor to announce the surrender, after both bombs had been dropped, the Japanese militarists attempted to kidnap the emperor. Thank goodness they failed.