[doggieboy]

Cause he had it?

[cvq3842]

I did read this in the magazine. I'm glad it's available to non-subscribers. Very interesting.

[Claytay]

bttt

[sandbar]

Bump

[Boundless]

Duplicate from 29th:

Why Truman Dropped the Bomb
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1453472/posts

[ken5050]

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..

[PeterPrinciple]

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..............

[Radioactive]

He dropped the bomb so Russia would know we would use it if they tried anything. Truman knew that Stalin was a monster and had to let him know we would not hesitate.

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.

[shekkian]

BOOM!!!

[BostonianRightist]

I think Truman used the atomic bomb for two reasons: 1. defeat Japan, 2. intimidate the Soviet Union. Hiroshima's bomb was to get Japan's surrender, Nagasaki (only 2 days later) was to show the USSR that Hiroshima wasn't a fluke. We also needed to win the war with Japan quickly. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan in late July, if they had helped in defeating Japan then they would have expected a role in rebuilding it. The first A-bomb was dropped on August 7, before the USSR could plan a blockade or invasion of any type. We saw what damage the USSR did in post-nazi Germany, and how well the US rebuilt Japan without the USSR.

[colorado tanker]

Had the bombs not been dropped, Curtis LeMay would have burned down what was left of Japan's cities and far more Japanese civilians would have died than died in the A-Bombs.

And even then Tojo wouldn't have surrendered. He thought if enough Americans could be killed, public opinion in the US would call for an end to the invasion. Had the horrors of Iwo Jima and Okinawa been duplicated a hundred fold, he might have been right.

Little publicized fact: Hiroshima was a military HQ for the island from where forces opposing Operation Olympic would be directed.

[Americanexpat]

I am not a fan of Harry Truman, but IMO he made the right decision on this one and millions of Americans, our allies and Japaneses are alive today because of it.

[N. Theknow]

Why did Truman drop the bomb?

It must be August and time for the annual anti-nuke-nut festival to start ranting about how Japan was/might/could surrender instead of the US dropping the bomb(s).

So, here is my annual answer to those revisionist historians who "know better" than anyone alive at the time.

Since you like historical facts, here is a suggestion for you.

Take a trip to Okinawa and visit Peace Prayer Park.

It's easy to find. It's right next to the Suicide Cliffs just down the road a ways from the Japanese Naval Underground Headquarters.

There you will see the names of 200,656 men women and children inscribed on black marble slabs who died on that tiny island in the last battle of World War II.

Japanese 188,136
From other prefectures (soldiers and civilian employees) 65,908
From Okinawa (soldiers and civilian employees) 28,228
From Okinawa (civilians fighting in battles) 56,861
From Okinawa (non-fighting civilians) 37,139
Americans 12,520

Following the battle there was not one thing on the island growing or man-made that was over 24 inches high. The entire population of the island was 574,368 and there were 4.72 artillery shells fired per person during the battle.

Keep in mind that this is a time when the Japanese had no problem finding enough volunteers for their Kamikaze planes and submarines.

While you are there be sure and view the Naval Underground Headquarters. While there you will see a room into which the high command entered with hand grenades and pulled the pins on themselves rather than surrender. The pock marks remain in the walls from the grenade fragments. Of course, they only go down so far because of the mound of bodies that "protected" the bottom of the wall from getting any fragments. This was only days after the Japanese soldiers there had slit the throats of the babies of civilian employees, who willingly gave their children to the soldiers, to keep them from crying and giving away their position to the Americans.

Be sure to enjoy the crystal clear waters under the Suicide Cliffs. They were not always so clear. In June of 1945 civililians and soldiers alike jumped to their deaths rather than surrender to the Americans. The bodies were so thick in that part of the bay, one could have walked on them.

Then consider that not one but two bombs had to be dropped on the mainland before the Japanese surrendered and how many lost their lives compared to Okinawa, one tiny little island. And all without one American casualty.

Oh! By the way. The civilians who died on Okinawa. They were not a part of any industrial base either. But they fought, and died, just as energetically as their cousins on the main Japanese islands most certainly would have.

[N. Theknow]

Not directed at you. Just jumping in with my take on things.

[Captain Rhino]

This account is not accurate.

Here are some links that might provide useful background on the decision:

CASUALTY PROJECTIONS FOR THE U.S. INVASIONS OF JAPAN, 1945-1946: PLANNING AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

http://tigger.uic.edu/~rjensen/invade.htm

Transcript of "OPERATION DOWNFALL [US invasion of Japan]: US PLANS AND JAPANESE COUNTER-MEASURES" lecture by D. M. Giangreco, US Army Command and General Staff College, 16 February 1998

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/giangrec.htm

(Be advised these are long detailed accounts, written by scholars, and fully footnoted (unlike the article above).)

And here is a good general reference site on the subject:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/PTO/FatLady/index.html

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

But in the 1960s . . .

The author need not say more.

That short phrase there makes his line of thinking irrelevant.

[nonliberal]

Said it before...

Harry Truman saved civilization.

[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.

[Maigrey]

placemark

[pax_et_bonum]

ping to read tomorrow....