Hirohito's pre-recorded radio message instructing Japan to surrender was
sought out with the intent to destroy it by a die-hard group of army
fanatics.

"Deuteros" <deuteros@xrs.net> wrote in message
news:20070209011049.NNQI1287.aa05.charter.net@smtp.charter.net...

Most history textbooks participate in the lie that nuking Hiroshima and
Nakasaki saved hundreds of thousands of American and Japanese lives. The
reality was that Japan had already been trying to surrender long before we
dropped the bombs:

US Responses to Dropping the Bomb

"...the greatest thing in history."
- Harry S. Truman
President of the United States during the Atomic Bombing

"It always appeared to us that, atomic bomb or no atomic bomb, the

Japanese

were already on the verge of collapse."
- General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold
Commanding General of the U.S. Army
Air Forces Under President Truman

"I had been conscious of depression and so I voiced to (Sec. Of War

Stimson)

my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was

already

defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and

secondly

because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by

the

use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a
measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at this

very

moment, seeking a way to surrender with a minimum loss of 'face.' "
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Japan was at the moment seeking some way to surrender with minimum loss

of

'face'. It wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing."
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

"It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and
Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The

Japanese

were already defeated and ready to surrender. My own feeling was that in

being

the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the
barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was taught not to make war in that fashion,

and

wars cannot be won by destroying woman and children."
- Admiral William D. Leahy
Former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

"I am absolutely convinced that had we said they could keep the emperor,
together with the threat of an atomic bomb, they would have accepted, and

we

would never have had to drop the bomb."
- John McCloy

"P.M. [Churchill} & I ate alone. Discussed Manhattan (it is a success).
Decided to tell Stalin about it. Stalin had told P.M. of telegram from Jap
Emperor asking for peace."
- President Harry S. Truman
Diary Entry, July 18, 1945

"Some of my conclusions may invoke scorn and even ridicule.

"For example, I offer my belief that the existence of the first atomic

bombs

may have prolonged -- rather than shortened - World War II by influencing
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and President Harry S. Truman to ignore

an

opportunity to negotiate a surrender that would have ended the killing in

the

Pacific in May or June of 1945.

"And I have come to view the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings that August

as an

American tragedy that should be viewed as a moral atrocity."
- Stewart L. Udall
US Congressman and
Author of "Myths of August"

"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."
- U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey's 1946 Study

"Careful scholarly treatment of the records and manuscripts opened over

the

past few years has greatly enhanced our understanding of why Truman
administration used atomic weapons against Japan. Experts continue to

disagree

on some issues, but critical questions have been answered. The consensus

among

scholars is the that the bomb was not needed to avoid an invasion of

Japan. It

is clear that alternatives to the bomb existed and that Truman and his
advisers knew it.
- J. Samuel Walker
Chief Historian
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The policy of unconditional surrender was persued and held fast by the
Allies. Any other surrender that Japan thought might come out of some kind
of time consuming negotiation would have prolonged the war. Lives would
have been the price of delay.

To say that the Japanese population was ready to give up is in error. They
were not. And as for the leaders of Japan, there was no consensus on
surrender. All of Japan's leaders saw the end coming, but many were ready
to fight to the bloody end for the Emperor.

Hirohito's pre-recorded radio message instructing Japan to surrender was
sought out with the intent to destroy it by a die-hard group of army
fanatics. This, even after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

Also keep in mind that when instructed to do so by Hirohito, the entire
nation stopped fighting. No hostilities surfaced when the first American
aircraft landed on Japanese soil. "The Emperor has commanded us to quit,
and we do." The killing stopped instantly.

RO