Hiroshima at 75: bitter row persists over US decision to drop the bomb

Obviously it was both. Both sides are correct.

 

Either start linking to prove your fables, or expect this kind of statement to recur here. You consistently refuse and this proves the charge. You are trolling.

 

Prove it. With reputable links instead of blindly mouthing the same empty meme.

 

So it's OK to lose if you stuck to higher principles. Are you entirely sure you're feeling well, advocating defeat?

 

Ike's opposition was feeble to the point of insignificance.

Ike only expressed his opposition to a single person (Stimson).

When Stimson reacted by calling him an idiot, Ike decided to keep quiet and not tell anyone else.

Even if Ike had managed to somehow be convincing, he was too late anyway. Stimson had sent the final orders to drop the A-bombs out to the military and then departed the Potsdam conference on July 25. When Ike voiced his opposition in Frankfort on July 27 it was just hours before Stimson departed Europe for home. Truman was still at sea aboard the Augusta when Hiroshima was bombed, and had not been in the same room with Stimson since July 25.

It was simply a matter of dropping bombs until Japan surrendered, and not dropping bombs after they surrendered.

Had they surrendered earlier there would have been fewer bombs dropped.

Had they surrendered later there would have been more bombs dropped.

 

We were pretty close. The core was just going out the door at Los Alamos when Truman held up the shipment. Had shipment gone ahead as planned, and had Japan not surrendered, the next A-bomb would have been dropped around August 17-18, weather permitting.

 

It's because Hirohito started pushing for the Soviet mediation gambit as soon as we overran Iwo Jima and Okinawa. And then he acted to surrender to us directly as soon as the Soviet mediation gambit proved impossible because the Soviets had declared war.

I did not know that. I'm not super active on this site. Thanks for the heads up.

I see it removes the quotes of his messages from other people's posts as well. Very nice.

 

Yes. Exactly.

 

I found it funny.

An attack on a military target is hardly genocide.

The A-bombs were dropped on military targets.

 

Like Hiroshima for example.

Aside from the timing, what you say is pretty much what we did do. Truman delivered exactly such a message to Japan.

It was the fault of the Japanese no matter how it played out.

 

That easy. Japan had not surrendered yet. Therefore the A-bombs were necessary.

Japan did not present any peace overtures in January.

The July attempts to contact the Soviets might be construed as an attempted peace overture, but they certainly did not result in us receiving any surrender offers.

We did not receive any surrender offers from Japan until August 10, by which time both A-bombs had already been dropped.

 

I was surprised to learn just how much politicking went on between the U.S. Army (then the Air Force predecessor) and the British military over who would drop the first nukes onto Japan. Although the bulk of this approaches the British side, there are some fascinating details about the TWO projects involved --- the Manhatten Project for the bomb itself and the now-famous B-29 Superfortress aircraft...which nearly didn't get the job.

 

Japan: Finished & prepared to surrender

Claims to the contrary: Myths intended to justify horrendous acts of terror

Japanese surrender: Conditioned on retaining the emperor as they'd requested prior to our unspeakable acts of terror

 

They had best not; Google, read the thread and search your conscience for the answers you claim to seek. Utter nonsense. Ditto.

 

See prior post. Ditto.

 

Terrorism: Never okay

 

Repetitive nonsense.

Terrorism: Never okay

 

The only thing more infantile than ignoring posters is discussing same.

 

No doubt.

Irrelevant/Specious.

False.

 

The Hitlers, Trumans and bin Ladens will always have armies of enablers and apologists backing up their terror; such people are as guilty as the monsters they revere.

 

As noted.

Terrorists are made possible by their cult of apologists/enablers.

 

Nope, Little Boy was always before Fat Man

 

How DARE you compare Harry Truman to these monsters?

 

Japan did not surrender even after the 2nd A-bomb, it took direct intervention by the Emperor and even then his general tried to stage a coup. The A-bomb let the Japs give up whilst saving face.

 

After 2000 years Japanese learned their Emperor was not a god when they heard him speak on the radio telling them Japan has surrendered. Let's see if you can wrap your mind around what this did to the Japanese. The Japanese war cabinet wanted a conditional surrender meaning they wanted to keep their military, their government and they did not want the US to occupy their country. And most of all they wanted their citizens to countinue believing the Emperor was a god. Because it was an unconditional surrender the Japanese Emperor and his was cabinet did not get anything they wanted.