Why Did Truman Use The A-Bomb?
Jul 18th, 2012 | By Tim George | Category: History, Misc, Top Headline | Print This Article
With tensions rising in the Middle East over the possibility of Iran pursuing a nuclear option and the fading memory of the Cold War ,it would do us all well to recall how and why the only two nuclear bombs were deployed. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused an accumulated death toll of at least 200,000 with half of those during the first 24 hours. Until now, at least, such weapons have never been used again.
In his 1955 memoirs, Harry Truman dedicated just three pages to what is still remembered as the most devastating two days of warfare in human history. He wrote:
I regard the bomb as a military weapon and never had a doubt that it should be used. The top military advisers to the President recommended its use, and when I talked to Churchill he unhesitatingly told me that he favored the use of the atom bomb if it might aid the end of the war.
President Truman never wavered in his belief that his decision was the correct one. The devastating effects of the two bombs convinced the Japanese that unconditional surrender was their only option and spared tens of thousands of American soldiers from death had a frontal assault been attempted on Japan proper. General Marshall had gone so far as to estimate an invasion of the islands of Japan could cost up to half a million American lives.
On July 26, 1945, Truman issued an ultimatum to the Japanese it what came to be known as the Potsdam Proclamation. There was no mention of a nuclear weapon, but the decree warned Japan to either surrender or face “prompt and utter destruction.” Two days later the Japanese premiere responded that the ultimatum was “unworthy of public notice.” From there it was inevitable that the weapons would be used.
After the war there were a number who questioned Truman’s decisions. Naturally, they were left-leaning pacifists. Dwight D. Eisenhower revealed that he had expressed concerns before the bomb was employed, telling then President Truman of his “belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary.”
Many revisionists contend the dropping of the bomb had far more to do with sending a warning to Russia than ending the war with Japan. The coalition of Truman, Churchill, and Stalin was strictly one of necessity. But with the bomb, there was no need to include Russia in the Pacific conflict. With the fall of Germany, Truman was rightly convinced that Russia was no longer an ally. Communist Russia, he believed, was sure to be a post-war adversary. About that he was more than correct.
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Even if leaving Russia out of ending the war with Japan was a motivation, there is still no doubt the cost Americans faced in bringing an end to Japan’s unreasonable holding out to the end. The campaign in Okinawa left almost 13,000 Americans dead and soldiers’ minds reeling with memories of Japanese kamikaze suicide tactics. It was warfare as never seen before, and many feared more of the same for at least another year if a conventional assault on Japan was mounted.
There was also a bit of political reality that played in the background. Emperor Hirohito was more than the leader of Japan. He was its religious icon as well. Truman wanted a way to bring about the surrender of the Japanese army without having to assault the Emperor himself. He was almost bound by public opinion at home to settle for nothing less than unconditional surrender. By dropping the bombs, Truman accomplished ending the war while allowing the Emperor to remain on as titular head of Japan, a position he held until his death in 1989.
The truth is there was one reason for the use of the bomb. Though it had been tested successfully there was no way to be sure the bomb would even work in an air drop. Had the Potsdam Proclamation been made and then followed by a failure of the bomb, the results would have been devastating to an American military and civilian population worn down by five years of conflict that cost almost half a million American lives.
Much has been learned about the long-term effects of radiation that were not fully understood in 1945. The nuclear option is really no option at all in a world where a number of players hold the same cards. Because of that, the major players on the world stage have all but put that card away. What we need now fear are the wildcards like Iran that are not trying to end a war but rather start one.
©2013 Off The Grid News
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Actually, on that last line, what we need to fear is being manipulated into believing whatever we’re told. Iran has NO interest in war with the US, and most of their craziness is on account of morons in the US who spend half their time debating whether we should go invade them or not. The question the fundamentalists never ask, in spite of what Jesus commanded on the subject, is how would you feel in their shoes?
You would hope we weren’t so stupid as to realize we’ve been stampeded into two or three wars we did NOT need to undertake in the last decade or so – and the fact that they’re bankrupting us – and the fact the Chinese have financed us for all of it. But we are that stupid.
You would hope that instead of believing the mainstream media’s lies about Ahmedinejad (who does not actually run the country) vowing to wipe Israel off the map, we would go check it out ourselves and realize that was a politically motivated distorted translation of what he actually said. But no, pound the war drums and send your kids to go die for Israel again. You would hope we would think for ourselves and find the pictures of him warmly EMBRACING orthodox Jews and realize he is NOT an antisemite (a truly bs term) but an antizionist – and that the two are not the same thing.
You would hope Americans would not be so absolutely ignorant as not to realize WE overthrew a legitimate, democratically elected government in Iran in the 50s – just so our greedy oil corporations could keep exploiting Iranians as an economic colony and trickling pennies on the barrel to them for it if even that. You would hope we would remember we subjected Iran to our puppet the Shah – a tyrant every bit as bad as our boy Saddam, who was our boy till, like Qaddafi, he suggested no longer trading oil in dollars. You would hope Americans gave a s___ about the Iranians the shah tortured like the tyrant he was.
If they had occupied and overthrown OUR government, and they were repressing some Christian people in the world they sympathized with, would we be nearly as forgiving as the Iranian people? Or would we be foaming at the mouth screaming for blood? Or do we already know the answer to that?
You would hope we would realize many Arabs are Christians – not that religion matters to justice – and that many zionists in Israel exploit fundamentalists into massive expensive foreign aid to Israel they don’t actually need, that amounts to way more than the mere billions in the form of outright donation, or that those zionists revile Jesus – again not that religion matters to justice – as the Jewish equivalent of the antichrist. You would think preachers would actually read their bible and realize true Israel is FAITH, not nation or race, that they are NOT all Israel who are called Israel, that there IS neither Jew nor Greek nor bond nor free nor male nor female, that EVERY human of ANY faith is of EQUAL worth. Or that they would realize that AIPAC makes DC an occupied territory of its own where Congressmen and senators do not dare cross it. That people would not be so gullible and naive. That they would read the books of Michael Collins Piper or John Perkins and see the blood on our hands, the betrayal of the people in the world who WANT to love America, and that we have no one to blame but ourselves. You would hope we would care about the people around the world we in our arrogance have made to suffer forgotten, unheard, and unreported.
You would think all these things. You would hope it. But you would probably be wrong
Can we truly do no better?
QUESTION EVERYTHING AND PLEASE FINALLY START TO THINK FOR YOURSELF.
If this is the Isaiah 17 war, which it is looking more and more like every day, there will be very little we can do to avoid what is to come. Living in the USA will not be a pleasant experience, this is for sure. USA will be ground zero for not only external attacks, but internal as well, as the govt will have to quash any resistance to its insane wars.
Nonetheless, this will fulfill scripture so what is to be must be. At least we’ll finally see God come out from behind the veil after thousands of years, and with Him, an end to total control of the world by men, since this war will not go as planned and neither will the ensuing worldwide natural disasters.