By July 1945, Germany had surrendered, and the war in Europe was over. Japan, however, refused to submit to the terms outlined in the Allies' Potsdam Declaration. It appeared to American leaders that the only way to compel Japan's unconditional surrender was to invade and conquer the Japanese home islands. Although an estimated 300,000 Japanese civilians had already died from starvation and bombing raids, Japan's government showed no sign of capitulation. Instead, American intelligence intercepts revealed that by August 2, Japan had already deployed more than 560,000 soldiers and thousands of suicide planes and boats on the island of Kyushu to meet the expected American invasion of Japan. Additional reports correctly surmised that the Japanese military intended to execute all American prisoners in Japan in the event of an Allied landing. These frightening figures portended a costlier battle for the United States than any previously fought during the war. By comparison, US forces suffered 49,000 casualties, including 12,000 men killed in action, when facing less than 120,000 Japanese soldiers during the battle for the island of Okinawa from April to June of 1945. At least 110,000 Japanese soldiers and more than 100,000 Okinawan civilians, a third of the island's prewar population, also perished in the campaign. American casualties on Okinawa weighed heavily on the minds of American planners who looked ahead to the invasion of Japan. Japan's leaders hoped to prevail, not by defeating American forces, but by inflicting massive casualties and thereby breaking the resolve of the American public.
If we had not used the atomic bombs on Japan, my father would have likely been killed during the invasion and I would not have been born to post this. That’s about the size of it.
In schools it is taught that we committed a brutal act of mass murder as an act of revenge when we dropped the bombs. What is not taught is the fact that it actually saved thousands of lives.
Bill Whittle, Jon Stewart, War Criminals & The True Story of the Atomic Bombs
It is one of the best out there, IMO.
Japan deserved more that two atom bombs.
For what they did to the the people of Korea, China, The Philippines . . . for what they did.
They still do NOT repent for what they did. It’s taught in schools to this day.
Talk to people that lived through the Occupation of their homelands. While you still can.
The hell with allowing unconditional surrender, we should have kept dropping bombs until every rat-bastard was fried, boiled, or otherwise incinerated.
What would Truman have said at his impeachment trial to the mothers of the hundreds of thousands of servicemen lost if he had not used the weapons at his disposal?
It was either that’s or lose a million soldiers lives
The Japanese view is that if they spilled enough American blood, the American people would demand a negotiated peace. They hoped that would leave their government in place and maybe even part of their empire, like Korea and Manchuria. They were willing to sacrifice unlimited military and civilian personnel to accomplish this.
The key was Okinawa. Anyone who survived Okinawa knew this about the Japanese. Project the American casualties, Japanese casualties and civilian casualties through the lens of the population of the Japanese home islands and you understand the horrific casualties they were willing to take to accomplish this goal.
And they were prepared to lose Tokyo and fight on in the mountains. They were preparing mountain bunkers for the royal family and senior military for this phase.
People need to understand the bombs actually saved Japanese lives, not just American. The Emperor only considered forcing the military to surrender after the bombs, never before.
For a good book about a Catholic doctor whose specialty was radiation and who was two miles from the Nagasaki bomb when it detonated, I recommend “A Song for Nagasaki.” It was largely due to him that the city of Nagasaki prayed and still prays for peace and does not have the foreigners flooding in to scream at the US. Good book, holy man.
The Japanese BELIEVED THEIR EMPEROR WAS GOD. They would have fought to the last man, woman and child; they would have fought with KITCHEN KNIVES. The ONLY solution was to get the Emperor to submit, and the only way was an overwhelming show of force. America had given a GENERATION of sons, fathers, and uncles in WWII; we would have lost 200,000 GI’s in a land invasion. It is SO easy to Monday-morning-quarterback this from three generations and 70+ years away. The answer is, yes. We dropped it. TWICE, before clarity appeared in the brains of Hirohito’s generals and unlimited surrender was given. Go review the Bataan death march, the other Japanese atrocities committed against America and the Allies, THEN go rethink yourself. The Bomb was so unthinkable that here, SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS LATER even INSANE leaders are scare to use it. We did the right thing.
The nation of Japan NEVER SURRENDERED. Only the Japanese military surrendered.
Verbatim from the Instrument of Surrender itself:
...We hereby proclaim the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters and of all Japanese Armed Forces and all armed forces under Japanese command wherever situated....
The words "Japan" or "Japanese" appear on the document exactly 24 times and exactly NONE of those mentions addresses the surrender of the state, the nation, the government, the country, its homeland, or its populace.
The word "surrender" appears exactly six times and none of them addresses the disposition any specific entity apart the military or armed forces.
The disposition of the nation of Japan is nowhere mentioned as a separate matter or in addition to the surrender of the armed forces.
Furthermore, despite the great hue and cry to have the Emperor charged with War Crimes, the entire matter of the Emperor is conspicuous in its absence from the Instrument of Surrender. That was primarily due to steadfast insistence from the Japanese that they could not accept a surrender agreement that in any way "prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as Sovereign Ruler.”
So the Potsdam Conference "passed the buck" to Douglas MacArthur through the following statement in the Instrument:
"...The authority of the Emperor and the Japanese Government to rule the state shall be subject to the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers who will take such steps as he deems proper to effectuate these terms of surrender...."
In effect, in order to fashion terms of a surrender the Japanese would sign now rather than later, the Conference altogether ignored the matter of the continued reign of Emperor Hirohito, which was a tacit concession to the Japanese nationalists, and which passed the "tar baby" of any war crimes charges against him to MacArthur.
And whatever decisions MacArthur took, even if he had had the Emperor put on trial and destroyed the monarchy, those still would have been his decisions and nothing to do with the terms of surrender.
After the ship left Okinawa, Dad’s Div Officer said the island of Japan would be much worst. The Wadsworth (DD516) will again be on the tip of the sword for the invasion.
My father was in Sasebo taking walking wounded prisoners to hospital ships in the harbor 3 weeks after Nagasaki was bombed. The USS Wadsworth, provided a Deuse.5 truck and took Dad and anyone off duty who wanted to see what the “new” bomb could do.
Dad never told any siblings he was in Nagasaki, the only reason he told me was because I was telling him about removing the reactor head for re-fueling and how the dose was less than the highest dose I got in the Navy. Then Dad asked me how much dose I think he got from his Nagasaki trip. I said Dad I never knew you were in Nagasaki, Dad shrugged his shoulders then recalled several descriptions from pristine countryside to devastation.
Dad died in 2001, 79yo from smoking - COPD, so the background rad was prob not too bad. He said that close to the city the people clearing the streets and salvaging equipment from the few remaining buildings had the look of death in their face. Those were prob the ones who hadn’t died from rad poisoning yet.
Dad was a firm believer that Truman saved his life and Truman’s decision saved millions of lives.
Read Richard Frank’s book, “Downfall” concerns only the last few months of war in the Pacific and the decision to drop the Bombs.
In the past, I have had Japanese students for the weekend. (I live in NE NJ) I usually took them on the Circle Line Tour to see Manhattan. (fun trip) The tour starts near a military boat that was destructive to Japan. One time I offered an apology that they had to see that ship and one time a student said “Oh -— we’ve forgiven you” I was speechless!
Japanese Intransigence Provoked the Atomic Bombs
The Kokutai principle played a decisive role for Japanese surrender in August 1945. Influential Japanese lived within a spiritual/political fabric of Emperor, citizen, land, Bushido, ancestral spirits, government, and Shinto religion. Subjected to this authority average citizens forfeited individuality to a collective soul defining Japan and awaited the Empire’s decrees. With such national unity committed to Total War beneath the slogan of “Honorable Death of a Hundred Million” the atomic bombs were no longer indiscriminate or disproportional.
By January 1944 Hirohito foresaw inevitable defeat and appointed a Peace Faction. However, his government conducted political kabuki through twenty months of continuous defeats, fire bombings of over 60 cities, looming starvation, and 1.3 million additional Japanese deaths.
As the political factions reached impasse the atomic bombs allowed Hirohito to speak the “Voice of the Crane” in the sweltering palace bunker. The bombs became a force of nature; equivalent to an earthquake or typhoon against which even a god/king was impotent. Only Imperial submission to such a catastrophe could match the disgrace of surrender following 2,600 years of martial invincibility.
Only Hirohito could submit because he held the heaven created Imperial throne. He would bear the unbearable, conclude the war, and transform the nation. The War and Peace Factions could then relent, and no one would lose face. All remained within the fabric of Japanese from all eras who had sacrificed for Emperor and Empire. Only then did Japan contact Swiss and Swedish foreign offices to commence the negotiations leading to surrender.
Partial bibliography:
Hell to Pay, D. M. Giangreco
Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, David Bergamni
Target Tokyo: The Story of the Sorge Spy Ring, Gordon Prange
The Secret Surrender, Allen Dulles
Hirohito, Edward Behr
A quote by film director Akira Kurosawa illustrates the transformation of that generation of Japanese people, who before were resigned to the slogan “Honorable Death of a Hundred Million”.
“When I walked the same route back to my home (after the Emperor’s broadcast), the scene was entirely different. The people in the shopping street were bustling about with cheerful faces as if preparing for a festival the next day. If the Emperor had made such a call (to follow the above slogan) those people would have done what they were told and died. And probably I would have done likewise. The Japanese see self-assertion as immoral and self-sacrifice as the sensible course to take in life. We were accustomed to this teaching and had never thought to question it….In wartime we were like deaf-mutes.”
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, Herbert P. Bix
When you cowardly sucker-punch a naval base of a super power, sometimes payback comes with compound interest. They got the sizzle, not the steak.
