Bombing Hiroshima ultimately saved lives because Japanese policies coupled with their unwillingness to surrender would have led the country to fight both the US and the Soviet Union simultaneously. As he left the party, he saw a young scientist throwing up in the bushes. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. "startDate": "2023-07-20T11:00", There is considerably more evidence that could be cited. They made many such claims that were not, in fact, right. This first use of a nuclear weapon by any nation has long divided Americans and Japanese. In early 1947, when urged to respond to growing criticism over the use of the atomic bomb, Secretary of War Henry Stimson wrote in Harpers Magazine that by July 1945 there had been no sign of any weakening in the Japanese determination to fight rather than accept unconditional surrender. Meanwhile, the U.S. was planning to ramp up its sea and air blockade of Japan, increase strategic air bombings and launch an invasion of the Japanese home island that November. Commenting on this and other recent articles is just one benefit of a Foreign Policy subscription. The bombing of Hiroshima occurred on the morning of Monday, 6 August 1945. But how can such a plan work when domestic politics on both sides seem in favor of tougher rhetoric and policy? "label": "Register and Add to Calendar", The Operation Meetinghouse firebombing of Tokyo on the night of March 910, 1945, was the single deadliest air raid in history; with a greater area of fire damage and loss of life than either of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. The . Stay updated on the topics you care about with My FP. She has been a frequent contributor to History.com since 2005, and is the author of Breaking History: Vanished! Add to this the murder of all Allied POWs in Japanese hands, as the Japanese had ordered in the event of a direct attack on the mainland. Even Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, while committed to troops on the ground, was anxiously looking for workarounds, including the battlefield use of multiple nuclear weapons. It is certainly true that many more people would have died had the Allies launched a full-scale invasion of Japan. General Douglas MacArthur and other top military commanders favored continuing the conventional bombing of Japan already in effect and following up with a massive invasion, codenamed Operation Downfall. They advised Truman that such an invasion would result in U.S. casualties of up to 1 million. Now Grew basically argued that Stimson (and even more so, Grews successor at the State Department, Jimmy Byrnes) had blown a chance to achieve peace before dropping the A-bomb. Official A-Bomb Justification: Save US Lives. } ); Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki Didnt Win the War. The Trinity Test, July 16, 1945 Safety and the Trinity Test, July 1945 Evaluations of Trinity, July 1945 Potsdam and the Final Decision to Bomb, July 1945 The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima, August 6, 1945 The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki, August 9, 1945 Japan Surrenders, August 10-15, 1945 The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 75 years ago Thursday and Sunday, respectively, are regarded with horror and regret. By Christmastime, blockaded and strangled, the Japanese would have been starving to death by the millions, though the army, which had stockpiled food, would starve last. U.S. Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna has a proposal for improving the most important relationship in the world. Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki had little impact on the decision making of Japans leaders. In later years, two men who were close to StimsonMcGeorge Bundy and Jack McCloywould say that they detected more than a few pangs of regret in their beloved colonel about the decision to drop the atomic bomb. They were clearly not talking "surrender" in any sense of the term we might recognize. They sent them to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where a team led by J. Robert Oppenheimer worked to turn these materials into a workable atomic bomb. It establishes their quasi-magic ability to coerce and deter which grows into the theory of nuclear deterrence in the 1950s. It is only after midnight, after the Soviet Union declares war, that they begin to act like men in crisis. At that point, the Emperor spoke to his people and said, The enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. 15, No. Admiral William Bull Halsey, commander of the U.S. Navys Third Fleet, claimed in 1946 that the first atomic bomb was an unnecessary experiment[the scientists] had this toy and they wanted to try it out, so they dropped it., Was a second nuclear attack necessary to force Japans surrender? Unquestionably. One Bomb: That was just from one of the two bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. Despite the extreme objections of the Army, by the second week of July, work had begun to develop the language of a peace proposal. Four inconvenient truths make this scenario unlikely. In Atomic Salvation, Dr. Tom Lewisan independent historian, former high school teacher, and Australian intelligence analyst who served in the Middle Eastseeks to reexamine the decision, consider the military and operational factors involved, and project how the war might have proceeded if the atomic bomb had not been used. He surrendered on August 10, 1945, thus saving millions of lives both at home and abroad. But it also depends, as Kecks argument depends, on the assumption that bombing Hiroshima mattered. Because World War III is still possible. Even if the Americans had decided to maintain the blockade and continue mass aerial bombardment, there is good reason to believe that an invasion force would eventually have to be launched and that any invasion would have been opposed by the military and civilian populations at enormous cost. Was it only the atomic bomb that compelled his action? But more recently, an alternative school of thought has become popular: ChinaShow more has already peaked. Essential analysis of the stories shaping geopolitics on the continent. And signs of increasing madness and disorder in the world make complacency seem all the more foolish. On the one hand, he argues that "Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki had little impact on the decision making of Japan's leaders. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Their worries focused more on whether Russia would get the bomb, or about whether they could find a new car or a house, a job, or a spouse. \nBut how can such a plan work when domestic politics on both sides seem in favor of tougher rhetoric and policy? Delivered Thursday. As Asia-Pacific war historian Richard Frank has shown, by the beginning of August 1945, Magic and Ultra intercepts showed that the two-to-one or three-to-one advantage in troops initially enjoyed by U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthurs massing invasion force had shrunk to one-to-one or worse. If the atomic bombs were the final straw that pushed the emperor to step out of his traditional role and side with civilians willing to negotiate surrender, then his case is persuasive. Japanese soldiers lay down arms in front of Soviet officers as the Russian army invades and liberates Manchuria from Japan during World War II in August 1945.AFP via Getty Images. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, brought the United States officially into World War II. And the rain of ruin that Truman threatened in his announcement that it was a nuclear weapon that destroyed Hiroshima was an empty threat. More total lives would have been lost through a traditional land-based military campaign. It was unprecedented for the emperor to take a role in breaking a deadlock in the Supreme War Council. But not using the atomic bomb would have been far worse. We strive for accuracy and fairness. You could argue that the situation we are in today large and dangerous arsenals that we seem to perennially have difficulty getting rid of is in part the result of believing in the shock value of Hiroshima. Lewis is correct to note that Soviet forces would have suffered enormous casualties in any operation on the Japanese home islands. Headline photo of Hiroshima peace memorial by Jos Mara Mateos for Creative Commons/Flickr. Grew, the old Japan hand, reminded Stimson that, back in May 1945, the ex-ambassador to Tokyo had first urged Truman to offer the Japanese a deal: surrender in exchange for retaining the emperor. At some point in these debates, you undoubtedly hear the following gem quoted, from the United States Strategic Bombing Survey (SBS): "Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.". Depending on the degree to which Japanese civilians resisted the invasion, estimates ran into the millions for Allied casualties and tens of millions for Japanese casualties, one scholar stated. In fact, between mid-April 1945 (when President Harry Truman took office) and mid-July, Japanese forces inflicted Allied casualties totaling nearly half those suffered in three full years of war in the Pacific, proving that Japan had become even more deadly when faced with defeat. Japans soldiers often fought fanatically. But they werent impressed. Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), Prisma Bildagentur/Universal Images Group/Getty Images, first successful test of an atomic device, https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki. "iCalFileName": "how-to-reset-the-u-s-china-relationship", Who could blame Japans military for losing to a miracle weapon? These are arguments, in other words, that matter. According to Truman and others in his administration, the use of the atomic bomb was intended to cut the war in the Pacific short, avoiding a U.S . By signing up, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to occasionally receive special offers from Foreign Policy. The vast majority of those additional deaths would have been East and South-East Asians, mainly Japanese and Chinese. ", When word of the attack on Hiroshima, Japan, reached the scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States on Aug. 6, 1945, physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was greeted at the base theater by a roaring, foot-stomping crowd. Marking the anniversary of the 1945 Hiroshima bombing, this specialtold entirely from the first-person perspective of leaders, physicists, soldiers and survivorsprovides a unique understanding of the most devastating experiment in human history. Should we continue to fight, it would only result in the ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization.. . He is the author of many books, including The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade. So was the United States right to use the bombs? Any student of life in the Soviet Union and occupied Eastern Europe knows how brutal life would have been for anyone living in Soviet-occupied Japan. After the war, most officers and former government officials followed the emperors lead in blaming defeat on the Bomb. They may well have concluded that it was better to lose to and suffer occupation by the Americans than to do so to the Soviets. For example, up until the end there was a hope among the Japanese leadership that, with the Soviet Union playing the role of a neutral intermediary, it would be possible to enter negotiations with the active allies and avoid the unconditional surrender required of them by the Potsdam Declaration. According to Truman and others in his administration, the use of the atomic bomb was intended to cut the war in the Pacific short, avoiding a U.S. invasion of Japan and saving hundreds of thousands of American lives. if ( ! Japan. Khanna will join FP editor in chief Ravi Agrawal for an in-depth discussion about not only China, but also Ukraine, U.S. national security priorities, trade policy, and more. In late July, Japans militarist government rejected the Allied demand for surrender put forth in the Potsdam Declaration, which threatened the Japanese with prompt and utter destruction if they refused. After five years of speaking to audiences across the country about the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki, the subject of my book, I can hardly tolerate another person saying to me sometimes. Hiroshima, a manufacturing center of some 350,000 people located about 500 miles from Tokyo, was selected as the first target. The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb. Under the unforgiving rule of the Imperial Japanese Army, Chinese, Southeast Asians, and Indonesians were dying at the rate of perhaps as many as 250,000 a month. A member of the House select committee on China, Khanna says Washington needs to rebalance its economic relationship with Beijing. The bombing of Hiroshima just didnt create the kind of strategic impact that coerces experienced military men during wartime. But in his memoir, published in 1948, Stimson cryptically foretold what the revisionists would later proclaim, that history might find that the United States, by its delay in stating its position [that Japan could keep its emperor], had prolonged the war., The aerial view from a B-29 Superfortress of the mushroom cloud resulting from the atomic bomb detonation in Hiroshima, on Aug. 6, 1945. More total lives would have been lost through a traditional land-based military campaign. Even then, some in the Army were convinced that sufficient losses could be inflicted on invaders to compel the Americans to negotiate a settlement. Whats the only national park where US military jets can fly? https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-atomic-bomb-saved-millionsincluding-japanese-11596663957. Nuclear weapons are not a quaint relic of a largely forgotten time of danger (the Cold War), they are a very present reality that we complacently ignore at our peril. But .css-i6hrxa-Italic{font-style:italic;}not using the atomic bomb would have been far worse. On August 15, Emperor Hirohito announced Japans unconditional surrender, bringing World War II to a close. Adding another great power to a war will tend to do that. The Sons of Liberty and the colonial army were able to accomplish what no one thought was possible at the time: defeating the larger, better-equipped British army. const button = document.querySelector( '#register-1117204' ); Yet an emergency meeting of the Supreme War Council was postponed. ", The Japanese had moved close to a million men and thousands of kamikazes of one kind or another (plane, torpedo, boat, frogman) into position in anticipation of the U.S. invasion of Kyushu. The atomic bombs did save lives. The statement about surrender was never accurate, or close to accurate, and it would not be upheld by many reputable historians today. Certainly, games of what if are endless. More powerful than the one used at Hiroshima, the bomb weighed nearly 10,000 pounds and was built to produce a 22-kiloton blast. On Tuesday, an Army communiqu noted the use of a new type of bomb. On Wednesday morning, the Japanese were officially notified that the Soviet Union would enter the war against them the next day. Want to read more on this topic or region? It . Barton J. Bernstein, "Eclipsed by Hiroshima and Nagasaki," International Security, Vol. The use of the atomic bombs was horrifying, but it was a horror that saved lives. In 1940, the U.S. government began funding its own atomic weapons development program, which came under the joint responsibility of the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the War Department after the U.S. entry into World War II. Keep up with the world without stopping yours. The decision to end a war, like the decision to enter one, is at its root political. "name": "Has China Peaked? Associate Professor Emeritus The Bomb Was Horrifying. es to Ukraine? He argues two main points: that Japan would not have surrendered immediately without the shock of the bomb (the Soviet declaration of war was not enough), and secondly that the limited use of nuclear weapons during World War II created a taboo that prevented a larger use during the Cold War. The United States of America was struggling to force the Empire of Japan to surrender by 1945. Oppenheimer was not the only one of the top scientists and policymakers to have regrets, though most hid their second thoughts. The policies of Japan coupled with their unwillingness to surrender would have led the country fighting both the US and the Soviet Union simultaneously, even in utter futility. The Alternatives Would Have Been Worse. Early on the morning of July 16, 1945, the Manhattan Project held its first successful test of an atomic devicea plutonium bombat the Trinity test site at Alamogordo, New Mexico. The New York Times promoted Stimsons Harpers article on its front page, and most of the mainstream media fell in line. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The details were at once quotidian and ghastly, and Hersey described, for the first time to most readers, the grim effects of radiation poisoning. The destruction caused by those bombs was horrific beyond description, and Hiroshima should be always in the minds of policy makers, to prevent nightmares like that ever occurring again. The atomic bomb explosion on Hiroshima in 1945. Theyre wondering when theyll hear from Stalin (Japan wants him to mediate an end to the conflict). askQuestionLink.classList.contains( 'is-active' ) ) ) { United States, askQuestionLink.classList.contains( 'is-active' ) ) ) { Could the Japanese have been counted out at any point, and how many lives might have been lost in the fight either way? This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Did bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki savelives? First, the author limits himself to English-language sources, the vast majority of which are secondary works. If you graph the number of square miles destroyed, Hiroshima is sixth. Does the United States deserve to be condemned for the atomic bombing of Japan? The United States and Russia built huge arsenals of the weapons (arsenals that are still substantial today) in part because of Hiroshima. He said to himself: The reaction has begun., This article is adapted from Road to Surrender by Evan Thomas (Random House, 336 pp., $28, May 2023). The first bomb was dropped on August 6th, the second on August 9th. "label": "Register and Add to Calendar", For his part, Truman doesnt seem to have wavered in his conviction that the attacks were justifiedthough he ruled out future bomb attacks without his express order the day after Nagasaki. Updated: May 22, 2023 | Original: July 21, 2020. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 75 years ago Thursday and Sunday, respectively, are regarded with horror and regret. President Barack Obama's forthcoming visit to Japan has revived interest in the debate over the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Had the war dragged on, it is horrific to imagine the dystopia that would have engulfed vast areas from Manchuria to Borneo. The default username below has been generated using the first name and last initial on your FP subscriber account. "description": "For much of the past three decades, there was widespread consensus that Chinas continued rise was inevitable. In August 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing massive devastation and killing over 200,000 people. The distinction between those who fight for their country, and those who do not fight is one of the most important in war. Still, Stimson was further unsettled when former acting Secretary of State Joseph Grew wrote him after the publication of the Harpers article. On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively. Bombing Hiroshima: The Enola Gay dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Japan Philip Jenkins is Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor University and Co-Director of the Program on Historical Studies of Religion at the Institute for Studies of Religion. Please enter your email to keep reading. "location": "https://foreignpolicy.com/live/has-china-peaked-a-debate/", In the meantime, a policy of imposed starvationof food, as well as materielwould have weakened Japanese capabilities without reducing their resolve. The regime would remain in place indefinitely, and presumably mass killings would continue. Updated: April 18, 2023 | Original: November 18, 2009, On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the worlds first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. In the end, Little Boy and . Sarah Pruitt is a writer and editor based in seacoast New Hampshire. button.addEventListener( 'mouseover', () => { Namely, they desperately wanted to preserve the existence of a separate U.S. Air Force after the war, and so they needed to minimize the effects of the atomic bombs. Subscribe to our daily Nonpartisan Newsletter to see both sides of our countrys most important headlines in 5 minutes or less. The question goes to the heart of the debate about the utility of nuclear weapons and the rationale for keeping them. Examined closely, the contemporary factual record shows little evidence that any of Japans leaders were shocked or considered the bombing of Hiroshima decisive. This article first appeared in The Diplomat on August 25, 2014 and is reproduced with permission. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); In order to begin, we must first flip back through the pages of history to contextualize the conflict. button.addEventListener( 'mouseover', () => { This collection focuses on the decision to drop the atomic bomb. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a timely debate between Beckley and Jin. Herseys article did not moralize or sensationalize. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Rachael Becker, University of Central Florida Abstract This paper aims to show how statistical analysis can be used in the field of History. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. It is also likely that it took both atom bombsas well as a Soviet invasion of Manchuriato shake the Japanese militarys fanatical resolve and finally convert the emperor to the cause of peace, as well as his own self-preservation. In June, a month prior to Potsdam, the Supreme War Council had already decided to pursue a negotiated peace. These two cataclysmic events have preyed upon the American conscience ever since. 1. Delivered Thursday. Because of the extent of the devastation and chaosincluding the fact that much of the two cities' infrastructure was wiped outexact death tolls from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain unknown. Out of the militarys long shadow, Togo might have entertained the offer, and the emperor and his chief advisors, principally Koichi Kido, were beginning to look for an alternative to Armageddon. aboard both planes that dropped the bomb; the Bock's Car and the Enola Gay. This is not just a question of 70 year-old history. Of course, I have seen attempts to make the same point by arguing that killing 200,000 civilians at Hiroshima and Nagasaki prevented the deaths of many more civilians who were dying as a result of harsh Japanese rule in the occupied territories in China, Burma, Philippines, and the rest. The first, against the Southern island of Kyushu, had been scheduled for . "Yahoo" It would have made the ethical debate so clean and simple. FP subscribers are encouraged to send in questions in advance. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki produced effects in Japan and around the world that changed the course of history. In addition to introducing the world to the previously top-secret atomic research program known as the Manhattan Project, Truman doubled down on the threat that nuclear weapons posed to Japan, Americas only remaining adversary in the war. The author does an admirable job of summing up the operational conditions for the Japanese and American militaries until August 1945 and the strength of the resolve of the military and the Japanese people to fight to the bitter end. They are not what one would expect from the conventional narrative. All rights reserved. Its an answer that is simply impossible to pin-down with absolute certainty, but its one that deserves to be analyzed from every angle. FOR 20 years after Harry Truman ordered the atomic bomb dropped on Japan in August 1945, most American scholars and citizens subscribed to the original, official version of the story: the. Bernstein acknowledges (p. 152, note 3) that he dismissed information on this option when it was initially cited, but has now changed his mind. But it was also intended to send a message to the Soviets. To this day, Japanese territory seized and held by the Soviet Union remains a point of contention with Russia. I made it to save 250,000 boys from the United States, and I'd make it again under similar circumstances.. "background": false, Invasion was impossible. In August 1945, most Japanese were living off meager diets. How we see the end of World War II affects the way we see nuclear weapons, and nuclear weapons remain potentially the source of the swiftest, most complete devastation the human race faces. This is where the alliance might be headed. Hiroshima in ruins after the dropping of the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945. It couldnt, therefore, have saved lives., Limited Use in WWII Prevented Larger Use Later. It is second, behind Tokyo, an attack using conventional bombs. Please follow our comment guidelines, stay on topic, and be civil, courteous, and respectful of others beliefs. These were the people who would teach the next generation, he said, and he worried about weakening the resolve of future Cold War leaders.
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