August 4, 2003, by Charles Schott

Sometime before dawn on August 6, 1945, a lone B-29 bomber named Enola Gay took off from Tinian island in the Marianas, about 1500 miles southeast of Japan. Its destination was Hiroshima, on the main island of Honshu, a beautiful city known as a center for the arts. At 8:09 a.m. the plane neared the bridge over the river in the center of the city that was the intended target. A few minutes later the bomb exploded...

Three days later a second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, a shipbuilding center about 175 miles southwest of Hiroshima. The casualties from these two bombs were staggering. About 130,000 people died instantly in Hiroshima and another 70,000 in Nagasaki. Another 120,000 died in the aftermath of the two explosions from radiation sickness, burns, and other wounds. Why were the two bombs dropped? Were they necessary to end the war, or were they used for other reasons? A look at history may provide some answers.

On September 28, 1937, the U.S. State Department issued a statement condemning Japanese bombing of civilian targets in China, arguing that "any general bombing of an area wherein there resides a large civilian population is unwarranted and contrary to the principles of law and humanity." (John W. Dower, War without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War). The principle espoused in this statement was completely disregarded once the United States entered the war. In the firebombing of Tokyo that took place March 9-10, 1945, hundreds of 2000-lb. incendiary bombs were dropped by 334 U.S. B-29's, causing a firestorm that raged for four days, completely incinerating everything within a 16-square mile area. About 100,000 people were killed, a million injured, and a million made homeless. Nearly 100,000 more people were killed in the next few nights in similar raids on the cities of Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe. (Clive Ponting, Armageddon: The Reality behind the Distortions, Myths, Lies, and Illusions of World War II). All in all, sixty-six of Japan's largest cities had been destroyed by incendiary bombing by mid-summer of 1945. This constituted the heaviest bombardment of civilians ever undertaken in any war. (Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States).

The city of Hiroshima, however, was spared the firebombing. Citizens there speculated that because so many people from Hiroshima had emigrated to the United States, the U.S. would show sympathy toward their city. But the real reason was far more chilling. R. J. Lifton and Greg Mitchell, in their book Hiroshima in America: A Half-Century of Denial, include this diary entry by Secretary of War Henry Stimson written on June 6, 1945:

I told him [President Truman] how I was trying to hold the airforce down to precision bombing... I was a little fearful that before we could get ready, the Air Force might have Japan so bombed out that the new weapon would not have a fair background to show its strength. He [Truman] laughed and said he understood.

Hiroshima was spared for mass killing at a later date.

By the end of June 1945, U.S. military planners had concluded that Japan had already lost the war. Its cities had been devastated, its people demoralized, and its soldiers no longer had the capacity or will to fight. (Paul D'Amato, International Socialist Review, Nov.-Dec. 2001). Most of its navy and merchant marine had been sunk, and the U.S. sea embargo had deprived it of oil, scrap iron, and aviation gasoline--the raw materials necessary to wage war. "Japan was in a hopeless strategic position," wrote New York Times military analyst Hanson Baldwin. (Zinn, A People's History of the United States).

Intelligence information available to President Truman indicated that from May 1945 on, Japan wished to surrender. Her only stipulation was that the emperor, a holy figure to the Japanese, be spared. (Gar Alperovitz and Kai Bird, Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 6, 1992). Truman, however, rebuffed Japan's overtures, demanding "unconditional surrender." In July the emperor indicated that he was interested in suing for peace. Again the offer was refused. Truman's adamant insistence on unconditional surrender was the obstacle to ending the war. Why didn't the President take that small step for peace and allow the emperor to remain in place?

The consensus among historians today, after consideration of recently released records and documents, is that the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan primarily for two reasons--to keep the Soviet Union out of the Pacific and to establish who would be the dominant power in the postwar world. Historian Howard Zinn (A People's History of the United States) writes:

The Russians had agreed to declare war on Japan on August 8. But by then the big bomb had been dropped, and the next day the second one would be dropped on Nagasaki; the Japanese would surrender to the United States, not to the Russians, and the United States would be the occupier of postwar Japan... The dropping of the bomb was the first major operation of the cold diplomatic war with Russia.

Some other factors figured into the decision to use the atomic Filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, in his superb documentary "War and Peace," stated that "the bomb was dropped on Japan, but the target was Moscow." Rather than end a war, the atomic bombs began a new war, the Cold War with Russia. The nuclear arms race, with its grave consequences for world survival, would follow.
Some other factors figured into the decision to use the atomic bomb. For one thing a great deal of money and effort had been invested in the Manhattan Project, the project to develop the bomb. Given the go-ahead by President Roosevelt in 1941, the project started slowly, then picked up speed until it eventually comprised some 6000 scientists and support personnel. By early 1945 it had gained a life of its own and had acquired enormous momentum.

Secondly, racism was at work. Fleet Admiral William Halsey stated in a press conference in 1944: "The only good Jap is a Jap who's been dead six months." (Dower, War without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War). Time magazine, reporting on the battle of Iwo Jima, stated: "The ordinary unreasoning Jap is ignorant. Perhaps he is human. Nothing...indicates it." (Zinn, A People's History of the United States). The Japanese were considered suitable subjects on which to test the atomic bombs. Dr. Rosalie Bertell, epidemiologist and author (No Immediate Danger: Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth), states that soon after the atomic bombs were dropped, teams of U.S. medical personnel were sent to both Hiroshima and Nagasaki to observe the victims and to assess the nature and extent of their injuries. A comparison was made between the victims of the Hiroshima blast (a uranium bomb) and the Nagasaki blast (a plutonium bomb). The medical teams dispensed no aid--they merely recorded observations. This was a bizarre venture, and it demonstrated a deplorable lack of regard for the Japanese people, and for human life in general.

The justification for the use of the bombs was that they would end the war quickly and make unnecessary a land invasion of Japan. The U.S. government stated that the atomic bombs saved the lives of "half a million" American troops. This was a gross exaggeration. The Joint War Plans Committee estimated on June 18, 1945, that 40,000 Americans would be killed in an invasion of the Japanese mainland, not "half a million." (Gar Alperovitz, The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the Architecture of an American Myth). Moreover, as noted earlier, Japan was in such dire straits by early summer of 1945 that she wished to surrender. There was no need for a land invasion. But the myth of saving half a million American lives has persisted, and has been repeated so often down through the years that it has become part of the American psyche.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki constitute one of the darkest chapters in U.S. history, and they are cloaked in myths and lies. It takes an enormous propaganda to justify atrocities of immense proportion. If the people of this country wish to understand their present situation, they must first understand their history. The veil of denial must be set aside, and a deadly sincere search for truth must ensue. Only then can a people come to grips with themselves and find peace and freedom.