Why Truman dropped the Bomb (Long but a very interesting read)

The Weekly Standard ^ | 8/8/2005 | Richard Frank

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

The Nuking of Japan was a politcal move.....no doubt about it.... Japan had plans to surrender,no doubt about that.

You apparently haven't read the article that we're all discussing here.

No doubt about that.

[nonliberal]

Ike never made it to Japan.

Ike was a political general. Say what you will about "Dougout Doug" MacArthur, at least he faced fire.

Just for comparison's sake...

Casualties from the Battle of the Bulge- 106,502
Casualties in MacArthur's entire theater of command- 90,437

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

Hiroshima was never majority Christian.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Ouch !

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Now, those are some interesting statistics.

[Radioactive]

Sorry, it was not Hiroshima that was Christian, it was Nagasaki.

Nagasaki had the largest concetration of Christians in all the orient.

As a matter of fact, St. Mary's Cathedral was used as a marker for Bock's car bombadier .

Christianity was instantly wiped out of Japan with one fell swoop. Something that the Japanese government tried to do but could not do.

[Radioactive]

I did and I say that the article may be just historic revisionism.

The former President of the US, Eisenhower, said that the nuking of Japan was not necessary.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Wrong again. When I went to school at Yokohama International School, we played St. Joseph's Academy in various sports. Many St. Joe kids were Japanese or Nisei.

[George W. Bush]

Most of this finger-pointing derives from our selection of cities as targets. Had we instead chosen obviously military targets like those 10 divisions in Kyushu, many of these questions would not arise. Also, critics try to assemble evidence that we avoided conventional bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki so we could have a perfect test of bomb effects on cities.

I think that most of the critics are part of the Sixties antiwar bunch who have a stake in portraying America as strutting warmongerers. Their problem is that very few people care anything about the issue or are willing to change their views based on their spurious accounts. When one reads their assertions, one gets the impression of a mentality that must always portray America in a bad light. These scholars are part of the hate-America Left today, just like they were in the Sixties.

[A.A. Cunningham]

The Soviet Union declared war on Japan in late July,

Incorrect. 8 August 1945

The first A-bomb was dropped on August 7,

Incorrect. 6 August 1945

[A.A. Cunningham]

To: 7 x 77
We generally let duplicates go if they are 5-6 hours apart or more, but it is considered old news by then, and will be removed from breaking news.

18 posted on 03/19/2003 8:39:01 AM PST by Admin Moderator
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[A.A. Cunningham]

And all without one American casualty.

No casualties amongst the bomber crews but American and Allied POWs were killed at both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[A.A. Cunningham]

St. Mary's Cathedral was used as a marker for Bock's car bombadier .

Incorrect. The aiming point that was used by Kermit Beahan was the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works not the Urakami Cathedral.

Christianity was instantly wiped out of Japan with one fell swoop.

Incorrect again. There were ~15,000 Catholics living in Nagasaki. ~10,000 were killed in the bombing.

[Radioactive]

Nope. You are wrong...Here are some facts...

St. Mary's Cathedral was one of the landmarks that the Bock's Car bombardier had been briefed on, and, looking through his bomb site over Nagasaki that day, he identified the cathedral, ordered the drop, and, at 11:02 am, Nagasaki Christianity was carbonized, then vaporized, in a scorching, radioactive fireball. And so the persecuted, vibrant, faithful center of Japanese Christianity became ground zero, and what Japanese Imperialism couldn't do in 200 years of persecution, American Christians did in 9 seconds; the entire worshipping community of Nagasaki was wiped out.

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

The former President of the US, Eisenhower, said that the nuking of Japan was not necessary.

As other posters have pointed out, Ike was not in the decision-making loop. It was confined to Truman, his Sect. of State & several other close advisors. Read David McCollough's excellent book on Truman for details on this.

I think you misconstrue Ike's later comments about the bomb. He regretted that it was necessary & speculated that the war might have been won without it, but did not say that he would have recommended against it at the time (had he been in the loop.)

In any case, recently declassified info, including that cited in the article, show that Ike was wrong.

At a minimum, the bomb saved the lives of 100,000 American POWs who were held in Japan at the time of surrender.

[Maigrey]

placemark

[A.A. Cunningham]

You need to provide the source of your "facts" including the source where Kermit Beahan is quoted as saying he used the Urakami Cathedral as his aimpoint. You know very little of the conditions that existed over Kokura and Nagasaki on 9 August 1945.

I suggest you read the following, which was written by the Roman Catholic pilot of Bockscar, Charles W. Sweeney.

To believe that Sweeney and his crew deliberately failed to bomb Kokura, the primary target, after making an unprecedented three passes over the city in search of their aim point, thus placing themselves, their aircraft and their mission in great peril and instead fly off to make a single pass over Nagasaki which was under overcast skies and smoke, and specifically target the Urakami Cathedral for destruction is absurd.

the entire worshipping community of Nagasaki was wiped out.

Another false statement. ~5,000 Catholics alone survived the bombing. Bearing false witness is a mortal sin. You revisionists are fools.

[Codename - Ron Benjamin]

"They were used to show that we would USE THEM!"

Ahem... Before The Bomb, having a weapon was enough reason to believe the one having it was going to use it; or better, there was no precedent of having a given weapon just for exhibition. The concept of "deterrent posession" was created after, and even because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[sitetest]

Dear Radioactive,

Did you actually read this article?

It kinda vitiates the claim that the Japanese were about to surrender, or that they just didn't want a trial of the emperor.

The intelligence that this is based on, according the article, was so secret that even the President was not permitted to retain hardcopy of it. It isn't clear that Gen. Eisenhower, even as Allied Supreme Commander, knew of this intelligence.

Fascinating read.


sitetest

[pax_et_bonum]

ping to read tomorrow....