72 Years after WWII ended, it still
surprises me that the issue of whether or not America should have
used the atom bomb on Japan in WWII is still debated. Any fair
analysis of that decision needs to be based on what was known in 1945
about the war and about nuclear bombs. Much was known about the war;
little was known about the bombs. It was clear through each conflict
in the Pacific, that Japan, no matter how hopeless the military
situation, would fight to the last man; surrender was not an option.
Even the civil population would either fight or commit suicide,
rather than surrender to the enemy. Kamikaze (suicide) attacks on
ships using planes, human rocket bombs, and human submarine bombs
were employed, rather than surrender. The civilian population in
mainland Japan was being trained to fight however they could
alongside the Japanese Army the expected American invasion. They were
expected and willing to fight for their emperor to the death.
American generals estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 American deaths in
the invasion of mainland Japan. The number of Japanese dead was
expected to number several million. The number of kamikaze planes and
submarines found after Japan’s surrender indicate that these
forecasts were probably quite accurate.
What’s little known or talked about
is that both Japan and Germany were working on developing atom bombs
and both planned to use them against the Allies. Japan had two
facilities working on atom bombs, one in Japan and one in Asia. As
the Allied victories placed them closer to Japan, the Japanese
attempted to accelerate their atom bomb program with the intent of
using them on the allied invasion forces.
When it became clear to Japan that they
were unlikely to develop a functional atom bomb in time, they planned
to develop and utilize a ‘dirty’ conventional bomb with
radioactive material and explode it in San Francisco, hoping to kill
thousands of Americans. They made elaborate plans. Japan asked
Germany for and was sent 1,000 pounds of uranium by submarine.
Fortunately, the war with Germany ended in May, 1945 while that sub
carrying the uranium to Japan was still in the Atlantic Ocean and was
surrendered to American forces. Japan had the two largest submarines
ever made at the time, capable of carrying three small planes safely
underwater and launching them at the surface wherever they pleased.
The date had been set to drop the dirty bombs on San Francisco. It
was August 17, 1945. Note that this planned date is only a few days
after America actually dropped atom bombs on Japan (August 6 and 9,
1945). There was also a plan by Japan to drop carefully constructed
bubonic plague bombs on our West Coast cities in September, 1945.
So when America captured the sub with
the uranium in May, 1945, we knew then that Japan was working on an
atom bomb. We did not know if they had or were close to a working
model and we did not know if earlier shipments of uranium had been
shipped to and received by Japan. Such news had to be alarming to
America and its WWII allies. If Japan had or developed such a bomb,
there is no doubt that it would have been used. Even if Japan was not
close to a working model, a conventional war with Japan would have
bought the Japanese much more time to successfully develop and use
such a bomb.
Even after we used the two atom bombs
against Japan, the Japanese military leaders tried to convince their
emperor not to surrender. It was their (accurate) opinion that
America had no more atom bombs to use. When the emperor made the
decision to surrender, some of the military leaders unsuccessfully
tried a military coup to dispose the emperor and prevent Japan’s
surrender. These actions show the tenacity of the no surrender
attitude of Japan and its people and therefore further validate the
forecasts of millions of casualties in a conventional invasion of the
mainland.
When you look at the man (President
Truman) who made the decision to drop the atom bomb against what was
known about the war and the Japanese at that time, it is hard to
dispute how he could have come to any other decision. The decision
actually saved millions of lives on both sides of the conflict. We
killed as many people (100,000) in one night of conventional bombing
of Tokyo as did a single atom bomb. The atom bomb was more effective
in ending the war and ultimately saving lives.
Finally, look what America and
President Truman did after the war. We did not respond like some
vengeful monster. Despite hundreds of billions of dollars of
crippling war debt, America rebuilt the economies of Japan and
Germany by taking on additional debt of many billions of dollars. We
also established democracies in those nations that still flourish
today. We took no land. We took no reparations. Those nations are
free and independent. They are also our allies today, not because
they had to (they were not forced), but because they wanted to be our
allies.
All war is horrible. The dead and the
wounded of that war, whether by conventional arms or nuclear arms
were not any less dead or less wounded. If we had not used the bomb,
Japan would have. All nations today are more knowledgeable of the
dangers and consequences of nuclear war, particularly on the
incredible expansion in number and size of today’s weapons. The
situation is much different today then it was then. Unfortunately, it
hasn’t been enough of a learning curve to avoid war altogether.
Hopefully, it is enough to avoid nuclear war which today could easily
wipe out humanity.
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