The myths of Hiroshima
By Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, KAI BIRD and MARTIN J. SHERWIN are
coauthors of "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J.
Robert Oppenheimer," published earlier this year by Knopf.
SIXTY YEARS ago tomorrow, an atomic bomb was dropped without warning
on the center of the Japanese city of Hiroshima. One hundred and forty
thousand people were killed, more than 95% of them women and children
and other noncombatants. At least half of the victims died of
radiation poisoning over the next few months. Three days after
Hiroshima was obliterated, the city of Nagasaki suffered a similar
fate.
The magnitude of death was enormous, but on Aug. 14, 1945 — just five
days after the Nagasaki bombing — Radio Tokyo announced that the
Japanese emperor had accepted the U.S. terms for surrender. To many
Americans at the time, and still for many today, it seemed clear that
the bomb had ended the war, even "saving" a million lives that might
have been lost if the U.S. had been required to invade mainland Japan.
This powerful narrative took root quickly and is now deeply embedded
in our historical sense of who we are as a nation. A decade ago, on
the 50th anniversary, this narrative was reinforced in an exhibit at
the Smithsonian Institution on the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped
the first bomb. The exhibit, which had been the subject of a bruising
political battle, presented nearly 4 million Americans with an
officially sanctioned view of the atomic bombings that again portrayed
them as a necessary act in a just war.
But although patriotically correct, the exhibit and the narrative on
which it was based were historically inaccurate. For one thing, the
Smithsonian downplayed the casualties, saying only that the bombs
"caused many tens of thousands of deaths" and that Hiroshima was "a
definite military target."
Americans were also told that use of the bombs "led to the immediate
surrender of Japan and made unnecessary the planned invasion of the
Japanese home islands." But it's not that straightforward. As Tsuyoshi
Hasegawa has shown definitively in his new book, "Racing the Enemy" —
and many other historians have long argued — it was the Soviet Union's
entry into the Pacific war on Aug. 8, two days after the Hiroshima
bombing, that provided the final "shock" that led to Japan's
capitulation.
The Enola Gay exhibit also repeated such outright lies as the
assertion that "special leaflets were dropped on Japanese cities"
warning civilians to evacuate. The fact is that atomic bomb warning
leaflets were dropped on Japanese cities, but only after Hiroshima and
Nagasaki had been destroyed.
The hard truth is that the atomic bombings were unnecessary. A million
lives were not saved. Indeed, McGeorge Bundy, the man who first
popularized this figure, later confessed that he had pulled it out of
thin air in order to justify the bombings in a 1947 Harper's magazine
essay he had ghostwritten for Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson.
The bomb was dropped, as J. Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of
the Manhattan Project, said in November 1945, on "an essentially
defeated enemy." President Truman and his closest advisor, Secretary
of State James Byrnes, quite plainly used it primarily to prevent the
Soviets from sharing in the occupation of Japan. And they used it on
Aug. 6 even though they had agreed among themselves as they returned
home from the Potsdam Conference on Aug. 3 that the Japanese were
looking for peace.
These unpleasant historical facts were censored from the 1995
Smithsonian exhibit, an action that should trouble every American.
When a government substitutes an officially sanctioned view for
publicly debated history, democracy is diminished.
Today, in the post-9/11 era, it is critically important that the U.S.
face the truth about the atomic bomb. For one thing, the myths
surrounding Hiroshima have made it possible for our defense
establishment to argue that atomic bombs are legitimate weapons that
belong in a democracy's arsenal. But if, as Oppenheimer said, "they
are weapons of aggression, of surprise and of terror," how can a
democracy rely on such weapons?
Oppenheimer understood very soon after Hiroshima that these weapons
would ultimately threaten our very survival.
Presciently, he even warned us against what is now our worst national
nightmare — and Osama bin Laden's frequently voiced dream — an atomic
suitcase bomb smuggled into an American city: "Of course it could be
done," Oppenheimer told a Senate committee, "and people could destroy
New York."
Ironically, Hiroshima's myths are now motivating our enemies to attack
us with the very weapon we invented. Bin Laden repeatedly refers to
Hiroshima in his rambling speeches. It was, he believes, the atomic
bombings that shocked the Japanese imperial government into an early
surrender — and, he says, he is planning an atomic attack on the U.S.
that will similarly shock us into retreating from the Mideast.
Finally, Hiroshima's myths have gradually given rise to an American
unilateralism born of atomic arrogance.
Oppenheimer warned against this "sleazy sense of omnipotence." He
observed that "if you approach the problem and say, 'We know what is
right and we would like to use the atomic bomb to persuade you to
agree with us,' then you are in a very weak position and you will not
succeed…. You will find yourselves attempting by force of arms to
prevent a disaster."
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| User: "tw" |
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| Title: Re: The Myths of Hiroshima |
09 Sep 2005 01:20:55 AM |
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"goozlefotz" <granteer@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1126198906.912516.140760@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
tw wrote:
"goozlefotz" <granteer@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1126106427.119609.36570@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
ibm_97@yahoo.com wrote:
"Revenge is absolutely the worst reason for any action."
So why does US try to capture Bin Ladin?
That is not revenge. That is beheading the dragon.
Do you really think it will all mgaically stop if Bin LAden gets
captured or
killed? You're a fucking idiot if youdo, but then again we knew taht
already.
I do not discuss issues with those who only know how to be rude and
insulting. That includes you, tw.
Ah, but I'm not only rude and insulting, I have shown you up to be full of
*****, That's the REAL reason you won't discuss issues with me, because you
know you'll be made to look foolish, and because you can't back up any of
the stuff you say.
.
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| User: "Tom" |
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| Title: Re: The Myths of Hiroshima |
06 Sep 2005 01:44:31 PM |
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"goozlefotz" <granteer@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1126024979.247515.234740@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
tw wrote:
"goozlefotz" <granteer@yahoo.com> wrote in message
Well, it obviously was, seeing as they surrendered within days of
the
second
one.
That logic is like saying that a rooster crowing is what causes the
sun
to come up.
Only if you're particularly fucking stupid, can't read and and don't
know
anything about the history of WWII. Besides, all I wrote was that they
surrendered days after Nagasaki was bombed, thus no more atomic bombs
needed
to be dropped (it was "enough"), There is no implied or explicit causal
link
in that sentence. Besides, roosters crow AFTER the sun comes up, idiot.
Tsk, tsk! I assure you that my knowledge of WWII history exceeds yours
by several orders of magnitude.
Well, THAT's a fairly arrogant presumption. Especially seeing as you haven't
displayed it...
Anyway, your insults and profanity
only serve to reflect on YOU, not me.
Your inability to addres the salient points I made, instead focusing on a
few salty adjectives reflects on you in a rather worse light though.
The original article of this thread was essentially correct. The bombs
were not needed.
So I gather you believe. Can you explain why the Army element of teh war
cabinet were overruled in their desire to keep fighting AFTER the bombs, yet
not before? I notice you snipped my link which was a transcript of a metting
between Hirohito and teh cabinet whcih SPECIFICALLY mentioned air raids,
expecially ataomic ones and the inability to defend against them as part of
eth surrender decision making process. That reflects pretty badly on you...
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