“Thank God for the Atom Bomb”

TNR ^ | August 1981 | Paul Fussell

[BigCinBigD]

It was a scorcher that day.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Dr. Strangelove was a good piece of satire, but there's one part that betrays the true intentions of the people who produced it. It occurs after the Army troops have fought their way into the base where General Ripper has been holding out, and Captain Mandrake is trying to find a working phone in order to call the President and give him the code to call back the bombers:

I'll tell you what I'm talking about. I'm going to pick up this red telephone which is connected to SAC. And I hope... blast. Blast! Shot away, I expect by one of your men during this ridiculous fighting!

Only, of course, there was nothing "ridiculous" about the fighting, because it freed Mandrake from being held hostage and allowed him the opportunity to relay the code to the President.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

How many baby boomers, now in their 60’s and older, would never have been born?

My father was on a cruiser participating in the shelling of the coastline when the bomb was dropped. Japanese submarines and kamikazes were still active at the time, and there is a very good possibility that I owe my existence to the bomb.

[BigCinBigD]

Indeed.

[riverdawg]

“Japan was sending out peace feelers thru the Swedish Embassy weeks before the bomb dropped.”

Here is an interesting document from the National Security Archives at George Washington University, dated July 24, 1945.

http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/42.pdf

The key paragraphs are the last three, in which Ambassador (to Moscow) Sato (1) sent a long message home recommending the acceptance of any peace terms, including unconditional surrender, as the only way of preserving the Emporer and the State; (2) concludes that he may be alone in his quest for peace but that his conscience demanded that he pursue it; and (3) the Japanese War Council received his message, rejected it, and determined that “the war must be fought with all of the vigor and bitterness of which it is capable as long as the only alternative is the unconditional surrender.”

[rlmorel]

LOL, it is good satire...hard not to appreciate it, even with their underhanded hatchet job on Curtis Lemay, who was widely rumored to be the template for General Ripper.

Funny, I was watching the movie a few years, back, and all of a sudden I sat up and went "Hey!"

When I backed it up, I saw this:

I was all excited, I thought I had discovered something nobody had seen before...stupid me...:)

[central_va]

B-17 shadow?

[rlmorel]

LOL, yes...I was, in my naivete, crushed to see only 10 gazillion people had seen it before me...:)

[dfwgator]

Ozzy Osbourne - Thank God for the Bomb

Like moths to a flame
Is man ever gonna change?
Time’s seen untold aggression
And infliction of pain
If that’s the only thing that’s stopping war

Then thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Nuke ya, nuke ya

War is just another game
Tailor made for the insane
But make a threat of their annihilation
And nobody wants to play
If that’s the only thing that keeps the peace

Then thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Nuke ya, nuke ya

Today was tommorow, yesterday
It’s funny how time can slip away
The face of the doomsday clock
Has launched a thousand wars
As we near the final hour
Time is the only foe we have

When war is obsolete
I’ll thank God for war’s defeat
But any talk about hell freezing over
Is all said with tongue in cheek
Until the day the war drums beat no more

I’ll thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Nuke ya, nuke ya

[Wally_Kalbacken]

My father was en route to staging locations in the Pacific when the war ended. He served in the occupation forces in Japan for perhaps a year before returning home to attend college and law school on the GI Bill. And then about 8 years later my brother was born, about two years later I showed up. What was the likelihood of that happening if there had been a conventional invasion of the home Islands of Japan? Not great, I would think.

I still remember reading Fussell's piece when it was first published in 1981. I later read The Great War and Modern Memory which is an excellent analysis of how the experience of WWI impacted literary culture.

In this piece he cut to the essential evaluation that was, it seems, inescapable. The choice to deploy the two bombs preserved the lives of countless Japanese and Americans. But in 1981, amazingly, you still had a debate on his topic.

[rlmorel]

That was pretty much what I meant. There were still some rational people in the Japanese government, but they took their lives in their hands if they did this in anything other than a very quiet, behind the scenes, private process known to very few.

You could have a bunch of fanatics with samurai swords and pistols show up at your house, as happened.

[RJS1950]

E.B. Sledge’s book along with a number of other books detail very well where the Pacific war was headed. The combat Marines knew the fanaticism of the Japanese close up and personal. They had already witnessed the fatalistic viciousness and mindless obedience to the Emperor that most Japanese troops had. They knew that the general population would also mostly follow like sheep. Even the second bomb dropped did not sway the fanatics and a coup was attempted to keep the war going.

The apologists are scumbags of the lowest order and have no credibility. The Japanese today still fail to admit their primary role in the war that led to the bombs being dropped. They also have no credibility; they were more than willing to sacrifice their entire population in any attempt to kill any invaders. Those lost from the two bombs and from the fire bombings that preceded them are the sole responsibility of Japan, nobody else.

My father was on Okinawa after an ETO tour flying in bombers and they were dropping on Japan almost daily. He noted that every soldier, sailor, airman, and marine on the island was relieved that they wouldn’t be thrown into a series of suicide missions, mandated by Dugout Doug, to take the main islands. Historically, the only person upset that the bombs ended the war was Dugout because he was being denied his moment of glory as the overall commander.

[Red Badger]

You may be reading a bit much into the script, seeing that Mandrake (Peter Sellers) was a Brit, and the ‘ridiculous fighting’ he was referring to was between soldiers of the same side, so he was referring to the insanity of people on the same side fighting each other..................

[snowtigger]

BTTT

[dhs12345]

Yup. And the people of Japan believed that Hirohito was a god or godlike.

The bombs were decisive and left little room for argument. The only problem, we only had two. But Japan didn’t know this.

It is ironic that such a weapon forced Japan to surrender which resulted in peace. Since then, Japan has been an ally although sometimes an economic and technological competitor. Without the bomb, the Japan AND the United States would have been a lot worse.

[M Kehoe]

Bttt.

5.56mm

[FirstFlaBn]

It is ironic that such a weapon forced Japan to surrender which resulted in peace. Since then, Japan has been an ally although sometimes an economic and technological competitor. Without the bomb, the Japan AND the United States would have been a lot worse.

Excellent point - and don't forget, a protracted campaign in Japan might have given Stalin a claim to occupy part of Japan after its eventual defeat. In turn that would have meant the U.S. could not have defended South Korea. The Cold War would have been lost before it began - or would have resulted in a hot war with the USSR over western Europe.

Though sometimes perplexing, MacArthur's brilliance in the occupation in concert with the good qualities of Japanese culture, led to a mostly peaceful world for two generations.

[DickBrannigan]

Had it not been dropped, I and millions of others in my generation would never have existed. My father was on a yard mine sweeper on its way to clear mines off the coast of Japan when his naval group was given orders to go back to their base. It wasn’t until after they got back to port that the surrender notice was made known to them.

Weeks later, his ship docked in Tokyo. He recalled that an elderly gentleman and two small girls, dressed in traditional clothing, gave them each a flower when they stepped ashore. He thought it odd as he figured that just a few weeks prior these people would have tried to spear him with bamboo sticks.

[dhs12345]

Excellent point.

Stalin claimed Eastern Europe. He certainly would have tried to claim Japan.

Wow, dropping the bombs changed world history in a MAJOR way. Truman saved the world in ways that we will never know.

Too bad you can’t convince the hate America so called Peace activists that they might be wrong. Their simplistic view of the world might have gotten a lot more people killed. Unfortunately, we are stuck with one of them in the oval office.

[Axenolith]

It was actually a close call that they caved on 2. The military brought in one of their scientists who rightly assessed they were fission atomic bombs and also correctly guessed we at best had one more completed and would be months away from further production after that. There was a weak attempt at a coup around this time which was to be justified by the Emperor being surrounded by people “giving him bad advice”.