Thank God for the Atom Bomb
James's post below about Hiroshima naturally put me in mind of Paul Fussell's immortal essay, "Thank God for the Atom Bomb." I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the entire essay is on line.
On the other hand, John Kenneth Galbraith is persuaded that the Japanese would have surrendered surely by November without an invasion. He thinks the A-bombs were unnecessary and unjustified because the war was ending anyway. The A-bombs meant, he says, “a difference, at most, of two or three weeks.” But at the time, with no indication that surrender was on the way, the kamikazes were sinking American vessels, the Indianapolis was sunk (880 men killed), and Allied casualties were running to over 7,000 per week. “Two or three weeks,” says Galbraith. Two weeks more means 14,000 more killed and wounded, three weeks more, 21,000. Those weeks mean the world if you’re one of those thousands or related to one of them. During the time between the dropping of the Nagasaki bomb on August 9 and the actual surrender on the fifteenth, the war pursued its accustomed course: on the twelfth of August eight captured American fliers were executed (heads chopped off); the fifty-first United States submarine, Bonefish, was sunk (all aboard drowned); the destroyer Callaghan went down, the seventieth to be sunk, and the Destroyer Escort Underhill was lost. That’s a bit of what happened in six days of the two or three weeks posited by Galbraith. What did he do in the war? He worked in the Office of Price Administration in Washington. I don’t demand that he experience having his ass shot off. I merely note that he didn’t.
Now, as for Thomas Sowell and his pessimism: Some of us are just of a gloomy kidney. I treasure Thomas Sowell's writing and admire him greatly. But how is it possible to read this essay and conclude that the times we live in now are anything but blessed, yes, blessed?
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Aug '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
"Thank God for the Atom Bomb."
Can't help that title reminding me of this song. (Mark Steyn did an essay about it. Well, sorta about it.)
But if you sing along, it's "perdition", not "tradition".
Jun '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
To quote Abe Lincoln:
At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
The external dangers we face today pale in comparison to WWII or the Cold War, but I think what has so many of us feeling pessimistic and downright gloomy is a sense that we as a nation survived all that only to destroy ourselves from within...
Jul '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
What is usually left out of the calculus is the fact about 200,000 people were dying of starvation or for the want of medicines in Asia for every month the war went on. The Japanese had 10,000 kamkaze planes hidden in wait for the invasion fleet, and thousands more small boats rigged with explosive charges. A million American casualties were expected and many more Japanese than that would die given the fact that everyone from children to old people were trained to fight and were given weapons that ranged from sharp sticks to explosives to strap to their bodies. The divine Emperor himself knew there was a great chance he would be murdered by bitter-enders if he called for surrender. Not even the second atomic bomb convinced these that the war was lost. Their fanaticism fully matched that of Hitler in the bunker. Officers loyal to Hirohito had to overcome their resistance when he was finally persuaded to make the radio address. Even at that, to save his face it was in an archaic court language only a few Japanese understood.
May '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
I am puzzled by the desire to create a "world without nuclear weapons." We know what a world without nuclear weapons looks like. It's 1944. In 1944 Japanese were pouring gasoline on US prisoners and setting them on fire. A world without nuclear weapons is a world in which war, <b>real war</b>, is possible again. Not these wimpy little wars like Vietnam and Iraq. Real total war where millions of people die slowly and painfully.
The no-nukes people are crazy and they're gonna get us all killed.
Jul '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
The continued pose of the Japanese as the victims of World War 2 is appalling. How often do we have to be reminded just of the behaviors toward allied prisoners of war but to the Chinese. There was a recent article on City Journal which detailed the testing and use of biological weapons on Chinese civilians leading to the deaths of untold thousands, not to mention what happened in Nanking. If the atomic bomb saved one American life it was worth it, but we all know that it probably saved more than one hundred thousand. Each stage of the American advance toward the Japanese homeland was met with harder and harder resistance. It took the dropping of two bombs for the Emperor to finally see the light. Only a moron would think that they were ready to surrender if just given the time to consider the consequences of their actions.
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
Surely you don't believe that, do you? I hope this is a rhetorical flourish. The decision to use the bomb was the right one, I believe, but only because by ending the war immediately it saved hundreds of thousands of lives--American and Japanese--and spared both nations incalculable human suffering. To have dropped two nuclear weapons on Japan to save one American life would have been indescribably wicked. Numbers matter.
Jul '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
Numbers only matter to those who have the luxury of not being the one whose number is up. If you read Fussell's work you should understand that the only ones who worry about numbers are those who aren't on the front line. I just finished reading his article. It is wonderful. I am also quite familiar with Sledge, Manchester, and Robert Leckie all of whom were Marines in the Pacific. It is easy to trivialize the horrors these men and thousand and thousands more like them went through. The number who died on Iwo, Peleliu, and Okinawa, all young American boys with their whole lives in front of them, each of inestimable value, if not to you, then to those who loved them and would never see them again. You may see my concern for our individual young men as indescribably wicked, but I can assure you that their parent and loved ones would not. I have experienced combat, not like what they went through, but enough to get head around what it must have been like, and what they went through is indescribably wicked.
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
Eugene, do you think Fussell would agree with you that it would have been worth it to save one life? I don't.
Jul '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
I am not sure what he would feel about that. Placed in that position where it was his life or the life of someone very close to him he might. Predicting behavior and choices in a theoretical framework is always dicey. Again, there are those whose fathers were saved by the dropping of the bomb, Peter Robinson, Bill Whittle, and how many others. Do really think their individual concern was for all of the others or, really, just their own sires. I suspect carefully dissected you will find it is the latter that they really care about, and that is absolutely normal. What would I do to save the life of someone I love, the possibilities are boundless.
Jul '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
I've known a couple of men who were expecting to sent to Japan after VE Day. Boy, are they HAPPY the bomb was dropped. They were expecting to die in that invasion.
And yes, I think in war time, the life of ONE of us is MUCH more important than the lives of thousands of THE ENEMY. What is what war is.
Sherman said that War is all Hell. And he was, is, and will be, correct.
Jun '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
heathermc: And yes, I think in war time, the life of ONE of us is MUCH more important than the lives of thousands of THE ENEMY.
Sherman said that War is all Hell. And he was, is, and will be, correct. · Aug 7 at 12:41pm
But don't you think it's important to distinguish enemy soldiers from enemy civilians? Isn't the bright line that divides legitimate military action from terrorism the fact that terrorists deliberately target civilians?
Despite what Sherman said, his army did not round up the women, children, and elderly of Georgia, shoot them, and dump them in mass graves. If he had believed that by so killing thousands of his enemies he could shorten the war and save the life of even one Union soldier, should he have done so?
Jul '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
The Japanese had all become belligerents. They had armed even the children to fight against the American invasion. There were no civilians. Beyond that, the Germans and Japanese brought a very different aspect into western warfare during World War 2. Both attacked and slaughtered civilians in numbers that made Genghis Khan seem something of a piker. The Japanese were incredibly brutal to the Chinese. The Germans bombed London and just about everywhere else within their reach with complete disregard for the population. Not to mention what they did to the Jews. When you create a whirlwind you will likely pay a price for your behavior. The Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as, a number of other cities were warned to evacuate. You cannot do anymore than that. had their losses been less dramatic, they likely would have gone on fighting. In the service I learned the techniques of shock and awe. It is sometimes the only way to end a conflict. More than enough Americans had died. It was time to end the war, no matter the cost to the Japanese. They started it. We ended it. It's just that simple.
Jul '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
When you refer to "the bright line that divides legitimate military action from terrorism", you need to remember that often in warfare the enemy determines the rules of engagement. Terrorism differs from military action in that the terrorist chooses specifically to attack civilian targets with the purpose of killing civilians. The missile attacks on Israeli cities by Hamas and other groups are specifically targeting civilians. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were both military/industrial cities. There were, I believe the number was, 5000+ Japanese soldiers killed in Hiroshima. The killing of civilians, unlike the killing of Israelis and British in London during the Blitz were both specifically aimed at terrorizing civilian populations with no military value to the targets.
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
10,000.
Jul '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
Thank you for the correction. I knew it was in the thousands, but did not want to over estimate.
May '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
I am a student of Japan and have a deep admiration for the country. I have visited Hiroshima and its first rate museum on the bombing. However, I have no patience for any attempt to draw moral equivalence between the atomic bomb and true atrocities.
By summer 1945, the War in the Pacific was won but the Japanese were retrenching back toward the home islands and inflicting as many casualties as possible along the way (see Iwo Jima, Saipan, Okinawa and countless others). They still held significant territory in China, where they had conducted a horrifyingly brutal occupation. They were beaten, but they were not going to surrender short of our overrunning Tokyo (a la Berlin).
The invasion of Japan would have been a certain bloodbath. If you have ever visited Japan, you will see that the options for an amphibious troop landing are extremely narrow. Practically anywhere we would have tried to land would have left our troops as sitting ducks. Even after the terrible price for actually landing the troops, advancing through the mountainous main island of Honshu to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka would have been suicidal. (1/2)
May '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
The bomb was the game changer that altered this calculus. We had several target options. Tokyo, an obvious choice, was scorched by firebombs months earlier and was needed for the occupation. Kyoto was another. American raids had essentially left Kyoto untouched and we decided to spare Kyoto from the atomic bomb. Why? Because of Kyoto's cultural and historical significance. Kyoto today remains much as it was pre-war, and that fact explains why I have no tolerance for moral equivalence games over our decision to drop the bomb.
The process of elimination left Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both were relatively unscathed and offered an appropriate demonstration for the bombs' power. Both were industrial and military centers. The bombs were without doubt devastating. Within seconds, downtown Hiroshima was incinerated. Hiroshima is in a valley ringed by mountains, which just magnified the blast. It was terrible, and I am unaware of any American leader at the time who considered the effects flippantly.
The decision was right, and it worked. The previously defiant imperial leaders capitulated. And hundreds of thousands of Americans - including my grandfather, then in the Philippines - lived to administer possibly the most successful occupation and rebuilding in history. (2/2)
Jul '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
Dittos, Mr. Kriegsmann. Nice volley.
Jun '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
And 80,000+ civilians.
Look, I'm not saying we should apologize. But I do think that we, as conservatives who respect inalienable rights, should not get too enthusiastic about these types of "ends justify the means" and "the greatest good for the greatest number" arguments. I believe these bombings saved millions of American and Japanese lives, but does that alone justify them?
After all, if you selected a healthy adult at random, killed him, and distributed his organs to those in need of transplants, you could save dozens of lives at the cost of one. Does that make it right? Of course not.
The statement "the Japanese had all become belligerents" is absurd. You can't hold every Japanese citizen responsible for the criminal actions of Imperial Japan any more than you can hold every white American responsible for slavery.
Jul '10
Re: Thank God for the Atom Bomb
Mr. Stanko, slavery hasn't been around here for years [unless you count taxes]. As for "the criminal actions of Imperial Japan," that was in real time when the bombing took place.
Personally, I think an H-Bomb should have denotated on 9-12-01.