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Was the US right in dropping atomic bombs on Japan to end the 2nd world war?

It was the right decision
Total votes: 11 (34%)
It was a terrible decision
Total votes: 21 (66%)
Total votes: 32

Act:US dropping atomic bombs on Japan

51 by sunlore_Archive
These events exceed any political dimension. Opposing them doesn´t even come close to being politically correct. Moral calculation on behalf of this is speculative, because it is impossible to have a clear notion of all the other possible outcomes. Any good "concept of history" should involve the understanding that there are simply too many variables involved. At least your president Truman formulated serious constraints. This diary entry from july 25, 1945, is chilling:

Anyway we "think" we have found the way to cause a disintegration of the atom. An experiment in the New Mexico desert was startling - to put it mildly. Thirteen pounds of the explosive caused the complete disintegration of a steel tower 60 feet high, created a crater 6 feet deep and 1,200 feet in diameter, knocked over a steel tower 1/2 mile away and knocked men down 10,000 yards away. The explosion was visible for more than 200 miles and audible for 40 miles and more.

This weapon is to be used against Japan between now and August 10th. I have told the Sec. of War, Mr. Stimson, to use it so that military objectives and soldiers and sailors are the target and not women and children. Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot drop that terrible bomb on the old capital or the new.

He and I are in accord. The target will be a purely military one and we will issue a warning statement asking the Japs to surrender and save lives. I'm sure they will not do that, but we will have given them the chance. It is certainly a good thing for the world that Hitler's crowd or Stalin's did not discover this atomic bomb. It seems to be the most terrible thing ever discovered, but it can be made the most useful...


The boldfaces are mine.

EDIT: Audio excerpt from a radio-speech by President Truman, on August 9, 1945, in which he announced the Hiroshima bombing, labeling it "a militairy base".

Act:US dropping atomic bombs on Japan

52 by tmidgett_Archive
sunlore wrote:These events exceed any political dimension. Opposing them doesn´t even come close to being politically correct. Moral calculation on behalf of this is speculative, because it is impossible to have a clear notion of all the other possible outcomes. Any good "concept of history" should involve the understanding that there are simply too many variables involved.


I agree.

Knowing what we know now about the atom bomb, having dropped a couple of them, it's an unusable weapon.

Knowing what we knew then, it's hard for me to say it was an entirely unreasonable thing to do. It was an extreme situation.

Andrew L. wrote:I think so too. The bomb(s) would not have been dropped on a caucasian population. And that is a very disturbing realization.


That is a stretch. Someone already mentioned the firebombing of Dresden. I can't imagine Truman wouldn't've given Germany the same treatment if the Nazis hadn't folded.

The Japanese response to these events (and the ensuing surrender, American occupation, and emergence of Japan as a world power) is fascinating.

Act:US dropping atomic bombs on Japan

53 by Linus Van Pelt_Archive
It's sad when you can't tell the truth in your own diary. Unless this really was his intention, and he changed his mind for some reason. It seems to me that, given all the pros and cons of dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, you would have gotten all of the pros and more, and a lot fewer cons, by dropping it on a more militarily important target.
Why do you make it so scary to post here.

Act:US dropping atomic bombs on Japan

57 by Johnny 13_Archive
We were already at war with the Japanese prior to Pearl Harbor. Congressmen pre Dec 7th were denouncing FDR's baiting of the Japanese. We were supplying China with American aircraft and pilots under the guise that they were volunteers. We were blockading japan, and preventing others from trading with them.

There is no question that the Japanese were doing horrible things in that sphere, but war with them was not inevitable, it was courted.

Regarding the invasion, it was only necessary to achieve an unconditional surrender. A surrender had been offered with caveats, and they should have been accepted, assuming saving lives, especially American lives, was an issue. An invasion would have been terrible indeed, but there was no one to force us to do it.

Act:US dropping atomic bombs on Japan

58 by sunlore_Archive
Johnny 13 wrote:Regarding the invasion, it was only necessary to achieve an unconditional surrender. A surrender had been offered with caveats, and they should have been accepted, assuming saving lives, especially American lives, was an issue. An invasion would have been terrible indeed, but there was no one to force us to do it.


This view is supported by Leo Szilard, who was part of the team that engineered the atomic bomb:

Q: Do you feel that President Truman and those immediately below him gave full and conscientious study to all the alternatives to use of the atomic bomb?

A: I do not think they did. They thought only in terms of our having to end the war by military means.

I don't think Japan would have surrendered unconditionally without the use of force. But there was no need to demand the unconditional surrender of Japan. If we had offered Japan the kind of peace treaty which we actually gave her, we could have had a negotiated peace.


The full interview is here.

Act:US dropping atomic bombs on Japan

60 by unpoppy_Archive
Tom wrote:
What does it have to do with dropping the bombs on Japan?


because the US dropping the bombs on Japan wasn't just a haphazzard decision based on simply one-upping an opponent. Nanking was just one example of the level of dissaster that was being developed in just that one region. The paradime in this period was brewing with nations working to develop the most powerful weapons of dissaster they could and in doing so, wiping out millions of human lives in the quest for power. The bombs were dropped to put and end to this advancement and it worked. War isn't something declared or ended, it's constantly happening all the time as part of the natural world and some horrors require another horror to bring an end to it.
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