There is no need for Hot Air
Admiral William Leahy, a great seaman and the first Admiral to have been the US joint Chiegfs of Staff, said : It is my opinion thast 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... Similarly General Dwight Eisenhower stated and I quote his own words: .. 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. These two quote from heroes who faught and won the war for the USA should set at rest those idle minds that presumed to teach me history. But my purpose is far more serious than merely responding to a few impertinent comments made as replies to my serious piece on the Hiroshima Tragedy.
The Files and Papers relating to the Decision of President Truman to use the Atomic Bomb against Japan in August 1945 have been recently declassified and with the Help of the Freedom of Information Act all details pertaining to this issue can be verified. Instead of reading the documents that are avasilable in the Harry L Stimson and Harry Truman Web Sites, I was shocked that some cooments turned quite nasty and even questioned the motives for writing this important piece.
The first point that I would like to deal with relates to the oft repeated justification for dropping the Atomic Bombs: that is shortened the War and saved American lives aas the Japanese were in no mood to surrender. That this myth still persists 60 years after the end of the War shows that the Media is doing a good job in perpetuating such self serving illusions. In fact the very appointment of Admiral Susuki as Prime Minister itslf was a signal sent by Japan that the militarists are no longer in control. Kantaro Susuki was a well known anti militarist and the Office of Strategic Services had in a routine report submitted to the Joint Inelligence Committee had this to say and I quote from the report: Japan's main rail lines are already overburdened while motor transport is totally inadequate. The continued heavy destruction of machinery and equipment will make it impossible for Japan to replace her losses... Japan's will to continue tthe war may be expected tomweaken progressively." This repot was submitted to the President soon after the capture of Okinawa. Repeatedly in the official records we have evidence to show that the military suituation was getting desparate and Japan ran out of its Petroleum stockpile by the middle of 1944 making the military chaff at its bit.
The Question that now arises did the American political leadership know about the situation in Japan and ithe increasing pressure to surrender that was being felt. Since the Japanese diplomatic codes had been broken the American leadership was quite aware from April 1 1945 when the Japanese ambassador to Soviet Union cabled his foreign office that the Soviets under Stalin will abrogate their nuetrality pact. A secret report recently declassified states in clear terms: If at any time the USSR should enter the war,all Japanese will realise that absolute defeat is inevitable. Toward this end Roosevelt at Postdam requested the Soviet dictator Stalin to declare war on Japan and Stalin had agreed. The Japanese too knew that Stalin had made up his mind to recover the Shakalin and Kuril Islands that Japan had seized in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904. Hence with the Soviet factor coming into play there was no need to use the Bomb. The real reason, therefore seems to browbeat the Soviets into accepting American terms in the settlemntt of the post war Europe. The Bomb was dropped inorder to intimidate the Soviets and the defenceless men, women and childredn of Hiroshima and Nagasaki paid with their lives for this piece of skullduggery.
The next question relates to the alternatives to the use of the Bomb. Did Truman have at his disposal realistic alternatives that would haver enabled him to win the War and disengage the other diplomatic factors. Samuel Walker, a conservative historian of the US NUclear Regulatory Commission had stated:Alternatives to the Bomb existed and Truman and his advisers knew it(sic).Even before Potsdam an intercepted telegram that was put up before the President on July 12 1945 has these words written in the handwriting og Truman in the margin; telegram from the Jap[anese] Emperor asking for peace. This is a full three weekks before the Hiroishima bombing."