TRYING TRUMAN

DO NAGASAKI AND HIROSHIMA CONSTITUTE A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY? Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) prohibits the unlawful killing of civilians during wartime. Between 150, ,000 civilians died as a result of both bombs, another 2,000 died later in Hiroshima from cancers that could be directly traced to the radiation emitted by the blast. Orthodox view- Truman had no choice but to drop the bombs in order to end the war. Revisionist view- Truman did not need to drop the bomb as the Japanese were already defeated- he chose to drop the bombs.

THE DECISION TO DROP THE BOMB “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” Robert Oppenheimer, Head of Secret Weapons Laboratory, Manhattan Project

ORTHODOX VIEW Fighting was getting fiercer as the US approached Japan US Military casualty estimates for the invasion of Japan varied from 500,000 to 2,000,000 men. The estimated completion date for such an invasion (commencing in July 1945) varied between 1946 and These estimates were based on the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. US Army sustained 26,000 casualties during the Battle of Iwo Jima 75,000 casualties during the Battle for Okinawa. Between April and July 1945, the USA sustained nearly half of the casualties inflicted upon it by the Japanese in three years of fighting Kamikaze attacks increased as Japanese strategy aimed at creating an unacceptable number of US casualties. Alonzo L. Hamby in “Man of the People”- Truman was motivated by the thought of more US servicemen dying.

ORTHODOX VIEW Japan had no intention of surrendering. William O’ Neill in “A Democracy at War” stated that the Japanese military had no intention of surrendering and had every intention to fight until the last man, woman and child. 94% of 117,000 Japanese troops died defending Okinawa. 100,000 people died during Operation Meetinghouse, a firebombing raid on Tokyo between the 9 th and 10 th of March US air forces continued to heavily bomb Japan until 15 th of August 1945, disrupting industrial production. A US naval blockade was also in place. Richard Frank in “Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire”- The Atom Bomb saved Japanese lives too.

WHAT THEY SAID… “My chief purpose was to end the war in victory with least possible cost in the lives of the men in the armies which I had helped to raise. The face of war is the face of death…The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki put an end to the Japanese war. It stopped the fire raids and the strangling blockade; it ended the ghastly specter of a clash of great land armies.” Henry Stimson, Secretary of War , in “The decision to use the bomb”

WHAT THEY SAID… “Nobody is more disturbed over the use of atomic bombs than I am but I was greatly disturbed over the unwarranted attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor and their murder of prisoners of war. The only language they seem to understand is the one we have been using to bombard them…When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast. It is most regrettable but nevertheless true.” Harry S. Truman, President of the USA , Letter to the General Secretary of the Federal Council of Churches of the USA, 11 th August 1945.

REVISIONIST VIEW Japan would have eventually surrendered. Military advisors had informed Truman that Japan was a defeated nation and that the US blockade would have forced a Japanese surrender by late 1945/early Million Japanese soldiers were stranded in China and could not defend their homeland. Senior military commanders (Eisenhower, MacArthur, Leahy, Nimitz, LeMay) all opposed the use of the atom bomb and felt that the US was surrendering its moral high ground.

REVISIONIST VIEW The USA were sending a message to the USSR The USSR had agreed to join the war within 90 days of the end of the war in Europe. They did so exactly on schedule; they invaded Manchuria on the 9 th of August Aware of the impending Soviet invasion of Manchuria, some historians claim that Truman engaged in “atomic diplomacy” by dropping the bomb. This was a message designed to keep the USSR out of Asia and to warn them of their nuclear capabilities. US Strategic Bombing Survey Report- US blockade would have forced Japanese surrender by November Gar Alperowitz in “Atomic Diplomacy” (1965)- Truman administration knew the bombs were unnecessary and were trying to intimidate the USSR. Soviet Historian, Vadim Nekrasov in “The Roots of European Society” (1984)- the US were trying to show its power to the world, especially the USSR.

REVISIONIST VIEW Message to USST cont. Tsuyoshi Hasegawa in “Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman and the Surrender of Japan: (2006)- Truman used the bomb to win the war without Soviet assistance and therefore limit their expansion into Asia (he also claims that Soviet entry into the Pacific conflict had the greatest impact on Japan’s decision to surrender).

REVISIONIST VIEW The decision to drop the bomb was economic The bomb had cost $2 billion to develop and Truman felt he needed some sort of return on this investment. Other factors Truman was aware of attempts by the Japanese government to strike a peace deal with the USSR. Truman wanted to avenge the deaths at Pearl Harbor. Truman’s decision was racist.

WHAT THEY SAID… “I voiced…my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly that I though our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at the very moment, seeking to surrender with a minimum loss of ‘face’.” General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander Europe during WWII and US President , “Mandate for Change ” (1963)

WHAT THEY SAID… “The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future are frightening. My own feeling 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.” Admiral William Leahy, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , “I Was There” (1950).

SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT The Newsroom- Chemical Weapons-15:30 The West Wing- A Proportional Response- 12:35- 15:10, 18:15- 21:43, 35:50- 38:50