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Revisiting the Hiroshima Horror

Did US have to use the Bomb? And wipe out Nagasaki?

Rafe Mair 8 Aug 2005TheTyee.ca

image atom

On Saturday, it was the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima – tomorrow it will be the same anniversary of the bomb on Nagasaki. Over the past few days, there has been a lot written and said about these bombs and whether or not they were justified.

One positive point we must make is the horror was so great that no one has dropped one since. The continuation of humanity depends on the lessons of 60 years ago being remembered.

When making judgments, it’s critical that one goes back, as best one can, to the mood of the moment.

In August 1945, the worst war in history was ending. It was not only a soldier’s war but one where the public bore the brunt of the terrors of bombardment. The public had been inculcated with extraordinary doses of propaganda. As the Germans had de-humanized the Jews, so Americans – and Canadians – had done the same to the Japanese. They were yellow slanty-eyed little bastards who couldn’t do anything original and could only copy. They had weak eyesight which would not allow them to become decent aviators. Many an American found out that the Japanese could be very innovative indeed and, in their marvelous war plane, the Zero, could fly very well too.

Troubling questions

To this sense of contempt and hatred was added the horrors of the war practiced Japanese style. The treatment of China, especially in the Rape of Nanking, by the Japanese was unbelievably wicked. The Bataan Death March of American prisoners in the Philippines was indescribably brutal. The prison camps were inhuman. This added to the American hatred.

The presence of the atom bomb wasn’t known to the public so, in the summer of 1945 after the European war was over, people generally believed that the taking of the Japanese Islands by force could cost up to a half a million American lives. If the decision whether or not to drop the bomb was left to the American public I doubt that more than a handful would have shown any mercy. In fact, neither the public in the UK nor in the United States had any qualms about the fire bombing of Hamburg, the destruction of Dresden or the flattening of Tokyo.

President Truman, who didn’t himself know anything about the bomb until he became President on April 12, 1945, ordered the bombing and said later that he didn’t lose a moment’s sleep over it.

There are, however, some troubling questions.

Why weren’t the Japanese shown the power of the atom bomb by detonating it over the ocean?

There are two answers given. First:What if it didn’t work? Secondly, the Americans only had two bombs.

A more serious question is this: With the Russians entering the war, by the Yalta agreement, on August 15th, and with the destitute Japanese blockaded, why not simply starve them out?

There were a couple of answers. While getting the Russians into the Asian war seemed like such a good idea at Yalta and Potsdam, it didn’t look so hot an idea by August. The Russians had some scores to settle from the Russian Japanese war of 1904-5 when the Japanese trounced them. With the bomb, the United States scarcely needed Russia in what the Americans deemed their sphere of influence.

Visit to Hiroshima

Should the Americans have used the bomb?

I wrestle with this question because I’ve been to Hiroshima. I’ve seen the replica of the bomb nicknamed “Little Boy”.

I’ve been in the museum and seen the granite step into which is etched the shadow of the man who was sitting there waiting for the bank to open.

I’ve walked through the Peace Park and seen the mound of 10,000 souls, the last resting place of 10,000 mostly unidentified bodies.

I’ve walked down the main road in the park where stands the building known as Atom Bomb Dome, the stripped, exposed ribs of that dome still intact.

I’ve spoken to survivors and spent some time with the mayor of the city. It’s hard to do these things and be objective about the question at hand. Just as it was difficult for those in 1945 to look that the matter objectively.

I personally don’t think the bombs needed to be dropped. Certainly after what happened to Hiroshima it’s hard to justify Nagasaki. I think Japan was on the ropes soon to be hemmed in and blockaded by both American and Russian troops. I believe she would have been forced to surrender.

The decision was taken and it no doubt saved many American troops. But I’m troubled when I consider that the lives of Japanese civilians weren’t a factor at all.

As I said at the outset, at least the horror of these two horrifying examples of mass destruction have kept us – so far – from ever using them again.

Rafe Mair’s column for The Tyee runs every Monday. He can be heard every weekday morning from 8:30-10:30 on 600AM. His website is www.rafeonline.com.  [Tyee]

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