Cappy H's List: term paper atomic bomb

• In this   desperate new war governments became aware of this potential   source of immense power. Germany, Japan, Britain with   America all had active programs during World War II to   develop atomic weapons. As the theoretical underpinnings of   atomic energy came into focus so did the staggering   complexity of the industrial effort required to make an   atomic bomb. This is where Germany and Japan were left   behind as the United States spent $2 billion to design, test   and manufacture the atom bomb under the Manhattan project.
• From a   political stand point it would have been unthinkable not to   use the bomb.
• No one knew exactly how the Japanese   leaders would respond to an atomic bomb blast on one or even   several of their cities.
• The likely   number of casualties the armed forces of the United States   would suffer invading Japan was given as 200,000 to a   million men, depending on the source. But everyone realized   including President Truman, who fought in the first World   War, that the number of casualties was more of a guess than   a fact. The atomic bomb was seen as a potentially war   winning weapon and in that hope it was used but no one alive   then truly comprehended its horrifying power.
• At 7:42 came   the coded message from the Hiroshima weather scout   recommending bombing the primary target. Enola Gay was now   at 26,000 ft and in a slight climb at a little less than 200   miles an hour. For the first time, his crew was told that   they were about to deliver an entirely new type of weapon of   staggering destructive power.
• At 1,800 ft,   the barometric pressure device triggered the detonating   mechanism.
• The explosion vaporized the   tower, left a 300 foot wide crater some 8-10 feet deep and   released energy equivalent to 15,000 - 20,000 tons of TNT.

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• Most people who were alive at the time of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, especially veterans, subscribe to the “traditional” belief that Truman decided to drop the atomic bombs on Japan for solely military reasons. A timely end to the war would mean that no land invasion of Japan is necessary. Such an invasion would have been extraordinarily costly in terms of not only American lives, but also in terms of Japanese dead. Ending the war quickly would return soldiers to their homes and allow Americans to begin a life of normality again.
• The Revisionists, however, believe that Truman had either partially or entirely different reasons for bombing Japan. They believe that the destruction of two Japanese cities would accomplish several things. Most obviously, it would punish the Japanese for the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the atrocious treatment of American prisoners of war. Also, an atomic bombing of Japan is also the only thing that would justify the expense of the Manhattan Project. If this expense was not justified, Truman would have faced a Congressional inquiry into the misappropriation of $2 billion. Not only did he want to avoid Congressional hearings, but he also wanted another term of office. His chances of reelection would have been nil if it were learned by the general public that he wasted money and American lives by shelving a weapon that could have ended the war more quickly. The final Revisionist claim is that Truman wanted to give the U.S. and edge in the coming Cold War by showing that he was not afraid to use these weapons of mass destruction.
• However, these figures were based on such tentative intelligence that George Marshall, the army’s chief of staff, bluntly rejected them.
• These numbers do not even begin to account for the Japanese dead. In Okinawa, twice as many Japanese were killed as Americans.
• According to samurai tradition, there was no more honorable way to die than to do so for Japan and the emperor, and the civilians were quite prepared to take this philosophy to heart.
• . Ironically, atomic bombs were to be used to clear the beach heads for Operation Olympic, if an invasion would have been necessary.
• Even if Truman had chosen to invade instead of use the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they would still have been used, just in a different capacity.
• However, it is evident that in the “grand scheme of things” the use of the atomic bomb saved lives. About 105,000 Japanese lost their lives in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While this is a high number, the number who died in the American bombing raids on the six largest Japanese cities is far greater, about 250,000. Consequently, such a large number of deaths is by no means unprecedented. An invasion of Japan would possibly have cost between 250,000 and three million Japanese and American lives and ended the war four months later, at the very earliest. It may be concluded that no more people died in the atomic bombings than would have in an invasion of Kyushu, and that said bombings did have the effect of ending the war more quickly. Truman’s motives, therefore, cannot be called into question in light of the results of his decision. At least in this case, the end justifies the means.
• David Dinkin

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