It was on this date in 1945 that, for good or ill, the “nuclear age” began,
For good or ill? Is this someone who exercises “revisionist history”, and thinks we should not have dropped the atomic bombs on Japan????
I'm surprised that the Japanese weren't expecting to be nuked - after all, when this bomb was set off, it could hardly have been kept totally secret and they surely had spies in the US.
We did not drop the bomb on "Japan." We dropped it on a specific target in Japan.
I have argued elsewhere that dropping the bomb on a city was wrong. It should have been dropped on a military base, naval base, airfield, or some other military target.
Because bombs could not be dropped with pinpoint accuracy on German targets in WW II, the much-touted "precision bombing" of plants producing war materiel degenerated into indiscriminate "city busting." When the atomic bomb became available, no one thought twice about using it on a city. Yes, the aim point at Hiroshima was a steel mill, but the target was a city full of noncombatants: children, the elderly, people in hospitals, etc. Under the Just War Doctrine, they were not legitimate targets. But after our practice in Germany, no one even thought about such things. Instead of 1000 planes equaled one city, it became one bomb equaled one city.
One doesn't have to argue that the choice was between using the atomic bomb and not using it at all. The choice was between using it on a legitimate target, and using it on an illegitimate target. I argue we made the wrong choice.
Following the war, radar bombing became quite accurate. Because I was assigned to Wright Field and working on navigation equipment, I was assigned to take a one-week course in radar bombing at Mather AFB in California. We didn't drop any actual bombs, but the "drop" was scored by radar on the ground at the target site. My "drop" was scored as having landed within 100 yards of the target, the north west corner of an American Can Company plant on the West Coast. Not good enough for high explosive bombs, but entirely adequate for nukes. I still have the coin bank can the company awarded to any bombardier who came within a certain distance of the plant.
Keep in mind that we didn't drop the atomic bomb on "Japan." We dropped it on a specific target in Japan. It has nothing to do with "revisionist history" to argue that we made a bad choice of targets, or that a better choice was possible. If we don't learn from history, we risk repeating our mistakes over and over.
It's worth noting that there was a major Naval base adjacent to Hiroshima. The same aircraft that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima could equally well have dropped it on that Naval base.
Remember, it was the Japanese military that wanted to keep fighting, and worked against any "peace-mongers" in the Japanese government. A direct attack on a military installation would have provided just as much "shock" as did the bombing of a city, and would have brought the message home directly to the military.