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Bellingham Bill
2013 Aug 9, 3:57pm
"It was not a hard choice to make."
It was hard for them! Always easier to pick up the rifle than put it down.
The militarists knew that if they surrounded, all that they had been fighting for, and all their sacrifices, and their future position in Japanese society, would be gone.
They had launched Japan on the course of war, and in failing to win the war they'd lost a helluva lot of "face".
Sadly President Truman could not read the minds of the Japanese leaders.
Actually he could because we were decrypting Japanese diplomatic traffic to and from Ambassador Sato in Moscow.
Sato was a realist and not insane. Here's what he wrote to the Foreign Minister:
http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/correspondence/togo-sato/corr_togo-sato.htm
"If indeed our country is pressed by the necessity of terminating the war, we ourselves must first of all firmly to terminate the war."
in response to Togo's attempts to get Stalin to cut a deal for peace with the allies.
The Japanese military's position for peace prior to the surrender was retreat back to Manchuria, Korea, Taiwan etc, no occupation of Japan, and limited trials of accused Japanese war criminals.
Ie. there was no mood for total surrender among the Japanese military, and that was the problem for the Japanese state as a whole, since the military had enough political power to get the country on the road to war and more or less keep it there.
It wasn't Truman's job to handhold the Japanese state, his job was to bring the war to an end on our terms.
The atomic bombs of 60-odd years ago were a horrible thing, but so where the B-29 firebombing missions that had already burned out dozens of Japanese cities, killing tens of thousands of civilians on some nights.
The US had already embarked on the low road of terror bombing, and the a-bombs looked like just excellent new tools for that tactic.
Dan8267
2013 Aug 10, 2:38am
I would have used all 3 nukes.
And if you were born in Russia, Pakistan, or China you would have used nukes against the United States for the same reason, you don't value the lives of those not in whatever arbitrary tribe into which you were born.
And that is why you would make a vile and evil leader no matter what country you lived in.
elliemae
2013 Aug 11, 3:35am
The wallpaper on my computer (below). My favorite part is that the word "completely" is misspelled.
I changed the screen saver on my IPad to a picture I took at the large Smithsonian Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport in Washington, DC. They have the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. the Enola Gay hanging from the ceiling. There is a concrete cat walk where you can walk above the plane and look down at the cockpit. When I was at that spot, I looked down at the cramped cockpit with the uncomfortable seats. The pilot, Colonel Tibbets, the co-pilot and the bombadier sat up there. I stared for a long time and was deeply affected. I wondered what went through their minds as they got ready to drop the bomb. I suspect that they did not understand what devastation that they were unleashing. I took a picture. When deciding on a screen saver picture for my IPad I had literally hundreds of pictures to choose from but I chose that one because it emotionally affected me so much. Elena said it was a sad picture. It is sad but also thought provoking. Perhaps it was not even necessary to use the atomic bombs on Japan. The Russians had already invaded Manchuria with a 2.5 million man army. The Japanese leadership knew that the end was near. They had the choice of surrendering to the Americans or the Russians. It was not a hard choice to make. Sadly President Truman could not read the minds of the Japanese leaders. I am thankful that in 68 years no nuclear weapon has been fired in anger anywhere in the world. That is a miracle!