70 years ago today a nuclear bomb was detonated on Hiroshima. I spent quite a it of time yesterday reading a detailed history of this event put out by George Washington University. The Japanese leadership was not intimidated by the atomic bombs or Stalin's invasion of Manchuria with 1.5 million troops. What stopped any hopes of peace for a long time was that the US refused to recognize the Japanese emperor and allow him to stay as a central part of post war Japan. After this bomb was detonated, President Truman eased his stance on the emperor and treatment of Japan after their surrender. When that happened, a deal was made to end the war.
Was it necessary to use such horrible weapons on Japan? Ironically some of the most senior US generals were opposed to using such an awful weapon. The big argument for using it was that it would drastically reduce the massive US and Japanese casualties that would have happened in an actual invasion. Some historians now believe that the casualty estimates were greatly inflated. The study went on to say that no further atomic bombs were going to be dropped on Japanese cities. Rather, if an actual invasion came, US forces would use tactical nuclear weapons against fanatical Japanese military forces.
Each of us must draw our own conclusion as to whether President Truman made the right decision.
Regardless of how you feel about what President Truman did, every human being needs to give joyous thanks that no nuclear weapon has been fired in anger in 7 decades. Hopefully when the little babies born now are adults, they can say: "Why did we ever need such crude and barbaric weapons?"
