Originally posted by xmarksthespot
Many commentators have stated that the bombing [b]of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was wholly unnecessary, including many of Truman's political and military contemporaries.The death resulting from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs was not confined to the day they were dropped. Many times more than the initial 100,000 or so killed due to the blasts, were killed as a result of the radioactivity of the bombs.
(237,062 cum. total according to the city of Hiroshima. 270,000 hibakusha, "bomb affected people," still living in Japan.)
A major reason for Imperial Japan's hesitancy to surrender was that the terms of surrender being offered may have meant the forfeit of their Emperor. After the bombings they were allowed to keep their Emperor anyway.
Dwight Eisenhower
"I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of 'face'."
"the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing."
Admiral William D. Leahy
Chief of Staff in Roosevelt and Truman Administrations.
"It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons."
Herbert Hoover
"...the Japanese were prepared to negotiate all the way from February 1945...up to and before the time the atomic bombs were dropped; ...if such leads had been followed up, there would have been no occasion to drop the [atomic] bombs."
May 28, 1945, to President Truman:
"I am convinced that if you, as President, will make a shortwave broadcast to the people of Japan - tell them they can have their Emperor if they surrender, that it will not mean unconditional surrender except for the militarists - you'll get a peace in Japan - you'll have both wars over."
William Manchester
Biographer to Gen. MacArthur.
"...the Potsdam declaration in July, demand[ed] that Japan surrender unconditionally or face 'prompt and utter destruction.' MacArthur was appalled. He knew that the Japanese would never renounce their emperor, and that without him an orderly transition to peace would be impossible anyhow, because his people would never submit to Allied occupation unless he ordered it. Ironically, when the surrender did come, it was conditional, and the condition was a continuation of the imperial reign. Had the General's advice been followed, the resort to atomic weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki might have been unnecessary."
Norman Cousins
Consultant to Gen. MacArthur during occupation of Japan.
"When I asked General MacArthur about the decision to drop the bomb, I was surprised to learn he had not even been consulted. What, I asked, would his advice have been? He replied that he saw no military justification for the dropping of the bomb. The war might have ended weeks earlier, he said, if the United States had agreed, as it later did anyway, to the retention of the institution of the emperor."
Albert Einstein
“I made one mistake in my life when I signed that letter to President Roosevelt advocating that the atomic bomb should be built."
(Little known fact, Albert Einstein sent a second letter to Roosevelt warning of the destruction that would result if the bomb was ever used, March 25, 1945. Roosevelt died the following month having never read the letter.)
"Prof. Albert Einstein... said that he was sure that President Roosevelt would have forbidden the atomic bombing of Hiroshima had he been alive and that it was probably carried out to end the Pacific war before Russia could participate." (New York Times)
Leo Szilard
Manhattan Project
"In the spring of '45 it was clear that the war against Germany would soon end, and so I began to ask myself, 'What is the purpose of continuing the development of the bomb, and how would the bomb be used if the war with Japan has not ended by the time we have the first bombs?"
May 28, 1945, Szilard attempted to meet with Truman, but instead ended up talking to John Byrnes, he told him that the atomic bomb should not be used on Japan.
"Byrnes... was concerned about Russia's postwar behavior. Russian troops had moved into Hungary and Romania, and Byrnes thought it would be very difficult to persuade Russia to withdraw her troops from these countries, that Russia might be more manageable if impressed by American military might, and that a demonstration of the bomb might impress Russia." Szilard could see that he wasn't getting though to Byrnes; "I was concerned at this point that by demonstrating the bomb and using it in the war against Japan, we might start an atomic arms race between America and Russia which might end with the destruction of both countries.".
Those who defend President Truman's action concede that this was the deliberate targeting of civilians, with the implicit political goal of having the Empire of Japan surrender. Now by it's definition isn't the targeting of civilians in order to achieve a political goal an act of terrorism?
Though I personally don't believe it was necessary or justified, whether it was justified or not is a moot point. History cannot be undone. The important thing is to make sure nuclear weapons are never used again. [/B]