Posted on 08/03/2005 10:06:42 AM PDT by curtisgardner
Cause he had it?
I did read this in the magazine. I'm glad it's available to non-subscribers. Very interesting.
no because he had to
bttt
The article basically says that secret intercepts revealed that the Japanese were not close to surrendering and were preparing a massive military buildup to counter an invasion that might have made that invasion impossible.
I also remember hearing that he made up his mind after someone asked him "what will you say at the impeachment hearings when they ask why you could have ended the war quickly and didn't?"
Bump
The reason the French don't rule Europe is because, a couple of Wellington's cannons were not spiked when Ney's charge over-ran them.
The point? So what.
Duplicate from 29th:
Why Truman Dropped the Bomb
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1453472/posts
Truman had been VP for a few months when FDR died ..and he had been kept completely in the dark about the A-bomb until he was sworn in a President. As far as he was concerned, it was just a "bigger bomb"..he didn't grasp what it could do...no one really did. And HST had served in WW I..he'd seen up close the carnage of trench warfare, so when he reviewed the casualty figures from Iwo, Saipan, and the other island campaigns late in the war, there was absolutely no doubt in his mind that he would use/do anything to save American lives..
Finally, thanks to radio intelligence, American leaders, far from knowing that peace was at hand, understood--as one analytical piece in the "Magic" Far East Summary stated in July 1945, after a review of both the military and diplomatic intercepts--that "until the Japanese leaders realize that an invasion can not be repelled, there is little likelihood that they will accept any peace terms satisfactory to the Allies." This cannot be improved upon as a succinct and accurate summary of the military and diplomatic realities of the summer of 1945.
The military intercepts were closer to the truth than the diplomatic intercepts.
Good Read..............
Japan was about to stop the war and surrender...the only thing they objected to was the trial of the emperor.
The emporer was GOD to the Japanese and they were adamant that he not be held for trial.
Truman was later chastised by Eisenhower for dropping the bomb. Eisenhower was aware of all the politics and hated the idea of killing of all the women & children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Russia was the reason for the nuking of those cities.
sorry about that one. i'll do better research next time. still an interesting article.
Post-war inspections found that the Japanese were stashing aircraft and weapons for a planned invasion - more so than what the US thought they would have. Further, they were training their civilians for resistance fighting.
The second point is important. If, in that time, non-uniformed fighters made a habit of hiding among legitimate noncombatants to launch attacks, the US forces would have killed the bad guy and anybody else around them. It is not too hard to imagine that the Japanese people would have been slaughtered in numbers that would have far exceeded the dead from Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
i think you are underestimating the Japanese aspect of it. The Japanese treated the Emporer like a god and they would have defended him till the death. Millions of Japanese and American soldiers were saved. The island battles in the Pacific were very deadly and Truman didnt want more of that so he did what needed to be done.
Good point.
very true
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.