At the end of World War 2 surveys revealed that 85% of American citizens believed that the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war. They applauded their use and celebrated as hundreds of thousands died or were dying. As malformed children left the womb they remained convinced that the bombs were a necessity to bring peace. How wrong they were. This article reveals how the dropping of “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” were conscious decisions not aimed at Japan but at a much bigger perceived threat thousands of miles away in Europe. Russia. An illusion was created and then exaggerated as the predictions of US neo cons proved to be entirely wrong. How different the last 70 years could have been if different people had not so obviously abused their power and prejudice.
On the 6th and 9th of August 1945 well over a hundred thousand people died instantly as the United States dropped two atomic bombs on two Japanese cities. The first in Hiroshima was dropped at 8.15am as the people were starting their day. From a height of 31000 feet at a speed of 331 mph, Enola Gay (named by the pilot after his mother) released the first atomic weapon against 300,000 civilians; 43000 soldiers; 45000 Korean slave labourers and an unknown number of American prisoners of war. A 1.2 mile area was destroyed and the resulting mushroom cloud was recorded to have reached 400,000 feet in to the atmosphere. 140,000 people were dead by the end of 1945 and 200,000 by 1950 as a direct result of just one explosion. It was predicted that by the end of the 1940’s each bomb was hundreds (if not thousands) of times more powerful.
Three days on, this time later in the morning another was dropped on Nagasaki. 40,000 died instantly and many more were to follow. The events that preceded and followed paint a picture that is rarely told and remain events that every US administration since prefers to keep quiet. The reality is that this was not about stopping a war. It was about a deep rooted prejudice against an ideology that at the time was perceived as a major threat to American capitalism. It went to the very heart of what the US establishment held most dear.
At the heart of both the Republican and Democratic parties is a desire to satisfy billionaire donors who have an open door when it comes to the ear of powerful politicians and lobbying their special interests. This was no different in 1945. When Franklin D Roosevelt died in April 1945 he could and probably should have been followed as President by Henry Wallace. However the corporate and right wing sympathisers within the Democratic Party opposed him for his perceived humanitarian principles. Eventually following underhand tactics at conference the more pliable and less principled Harry S Truman was victorious. The direction of American policy both economic and political travelled in a very different direction as a result.
Harry Truman had had a troubled childhood in which his father considered him a girl in a boy’s body. Thus he always had to prove himself to himself as well as to others both domestically and within the sphere of the politic. When he was suddenly elevated to the position of President of the United States he found himself out of his depth especially following in the very considerable footsteps of Roosevelt. However with the successful testing of the atomic bomb by those involved within The Manhattan Project all this was to change. As Churchill observed following the Potsdam Conference in Berlin following the German surrender “he bossed the meeting”. Russia and Stalin in particular no longer held any fear.
Part of the negotiations with Russia had involved an agreement regarding their participation in the continuing war in South East Asia. They were to invade the territories around Manchuria and then to head south towards Japan. However the USA knowing that they now had an atomic weapon ready to go hoodwinked both Russia and just as importantly Japan. Japan had been willing to surrender but they were not prepared to give up their emperor. The God like status of the emperor which for centuries fulfilled a role that Jesus Christ played in the west was too sacred and off the table. The USA demanded unconditional surrender and thus an impasse existed. The lack of compromise played in to the hands of Truman and others including Lieutenant-General Leslie Groves (in charge of the Manhattan Project) and General Curtis Lemay. For them Japan became an opportunity to prove their power and their weapon.
As Lemay himself admitted at the time the atomic bomb was ‘not about defeating Japan but making Russia more manageable in Europe… to send a message “Don’t mess with us”’. After the war he went on to say that ‘even without the atomic bomb and the entry of the Russians in to the war Japan would have surrendered in two weeks’. For Lemay he had been brought in to continue the policy he began in Europe to drive Germany in to surrender by targeting heavily populated areas and using civilians as part of that strategy. Once Europe had been won he set about doing the same to Japanese cities and the use of the atomic bomb was the next logical step in this ‘terror bombing’ crusade. He believed that no one would question what was already being sold as a successful methodology in winning the war.
However the scientists involved at the Manhattan Project were not of the same mind. The physicist and inventor Leo Szilard; the Nobel Prize winning chemist Harold Urey and renowned astronomer Walter Barkley were particularly vociferous in their opposition. They alongside others warned Groves that the use of the atomic bomb would precipitate a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. In all 155 scientists on the project signed a petition against the use of the bomb. However the theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer barred its circulation and Groves ensured that Truman never heard of it. Oppenheimer would later deeply regret his actions and was along with many others threatened by right wing conservatives if they spoke out.
Following the dropping of both bombs the Japanese did not surrender. What finally drove the emperor Hirohito to order that surrender was the threat of the Russians sweeping through Japan and murdering those within the imperial palace as they had their own in 1917. Atomic bombs destroying yet more cities was one thing but being overrun by the Russians was quite another. On the 14th August 1945 (formerly signed on 2nd September) following the killing, injuring and capture of 700,000 more Japanese the unconditional surrender took place.
However for Truman and others they remained resolute in public that the bombing was the decisive factor. So much so that Truman himself continued to focus upon the casualties that were avoided by his order. In 1945 he stated that 250000 US soldiers were saved as a result. By 1949 he was quoting it as 500,000; by 1953 it had become one million and by 1959 – millions. For many the repetition of the lie has become their ‘truth’. Although he left office with some of the lowest recorded approval ratings; by the end of the 1980’s he had become an all American hero. However for many others the lie and the attribution of the bomb as the reason for surrender specifically insults the many men and women who gave their lives in the war.
What has this collusion led to? A nuclear arms race as was predicted by the scientists but denied by many of those involved in the decision to bomb. Truman himself denied to Oppenheimer’s face that Russia would ever be able to develop the bomb. A Cold war that cost many lives and subjugated many more. The expenditure of trillions on weapons that could have been spent on people. The creation and repetition of numerous lies…
However given all this there is one fact that is also obfuscated in the history books by many. Japan who would have surrendered four months earlier if The US had agreed to them keeping their emperor were allowed to do just that. The whole death and destruction could have been avoided. So what’s changed?
Douglas James
