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Title: Hiroshima AND Nagasaki: The Inside Story
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URL Source: http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2009/08 ... and-nagasaki-the-inside-story/
Published: Aug 11, 2009
Author: L. Reichard White
Post Date: 2009-08-11 06:26:17 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 410
Comments: 22
At 8:16 on the morning of August 6, 1945, the world got a glimpse of its own mortality. At that moment, the city of Hiroshima was obliterated by a fireball that sent waves of searing heat, then a deafening concussion, across the landscape. Three days later, a second bomb hit Nagasaki. … [President Dwight D.] Eisenhower said in 1963 "It wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing." … Besides the Manhattan Project’s internal momentum was an external motive. Its leaders had to justify the $2 billion ($26 billion in today’s dollars) expense to Congress and the public… Byrnes…warned Roosevelt that political scandal would follow if it [the atomic bomb] was not used. … "How would you get Congress to appropriate money for atomic energy research [after the war] if you do not show results for the money which has been spent already?" …the U.S. had produced two types of bombs–one using uranium, the other plutonium. Whenever anyone suggested that the moment the bomb was dropped the war would be over, [bureaucrat] Groves countered, "Not until we drop two bombs on Japan." As [historian] Goldberg explains… "One bomb justified Oak Ridge, the second justified Hanford." Hiroshima was hit with the uranium bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy"; the plutonium bomb, "Fat Man," was used against Nagasaki. From Why We Dropped The Bomb By William Lanouette, CIVILIZATION, The Magazine of the Library of Congress, January/February 1995 :
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#1. To: Ada (#0)
Note that Ikes statement was made...nearly twenty years AFTER the fact... Revising history is a game played by historians and politicians to make reality fit their own views. Anyone that lived thru those times cannot be brain washed into accepting any such revisions.
Here's one by Chester Nimitz made closer to the event: "The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace before the atomic age was announced to the world with the destruction of Hiroshima and before the Russian entry into war. ... The atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military standpoint, in the defeat of Japan." Public statement quoted in The New York Times (6 October 1945) and in The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb (1996) by Gar Alperovitz
We are reading two different things here as Nimitz points out.. Japan was militarily defeated long before they...surrendered... There is a huge difference there. Also Nimitz nor Ike nor any other Commander was ever on record PRIOR as being against use of the A-bomb...Not one. As you can see below, the decision to use it was made in...1944...not 1945 so there was plenty of time for any negative input. Below is also listed the fact that all commanders were told of its intended usage many months ahead of time. . "By the end of 1944 a list of possible targets in Japan had been selected, and a B-29 squadron was trained for the specific job of delivering the bomb. [9] It was also necessary to inform certain commanders in the Pacific about the project, and on 30 December 1944 Maj. Gen. Leslie R. Groves, head of the Manhattan District, recommended that this be done. [10] At General Arnold's insistence, the responsibility for selecting the particular target and fixing the exact date and hour of the attack was assigned to the field commander, General Spaatz. In orders issued on 25 July and approved by Stimson and Marshall, Spaatz was ordered to drop the "first special bomb as soon as weather will permit visual bombing after about 3 August 1945 on one of the targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata and Nagasaki." He was instructed also to deliver a copy of this order personally to MacArthur and Nimitz. Weather was the critical factor because the bomb had to be dropped by visual means, and Spaatz delegated to his chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, the job of deciding when the weather was right for this most important mission.
The Japanese were subject to the same condition as Germany was: unconditional surrender. They kept hemming and hawing around and that resulted in two nuclear bombs being deposited on their soil. They reaped what they sowed: death and destruction.
_________________________________________________________________________ Their condition for surrender was met. There was no need to nuke them
You are right Ada
If you re read official Japanese military reports form the days surrounding their capitulation, you will find that there was a coup attempted by Japanese officers trying to thwart the surrender, they almost succeeded. Also, there were about two million Japanese soldiers in foreign lands that would only surrender if demanded by the Emperor. Dropping the A-bombs settled all doubts in the minds of the Japanese government that complete surrender was mandatory. What the Japanese did NOT know was that the US had only one more bomb, they assumed we had many, so they capitulated.
No. In 1950 that very same President and government were considering dropping...30...A bomb devices on the Korean/Chinese border. You need to research..Operation Chromite...
Hi Cynicom I guess it counts as a miracle we have not blown up our Planet Love, Palo
True. The Korean War started in late June 1950, and the first eight Atomic bombs were sent to the Far East in August.
We only had two bombs, at that time. But, we had production capability ramped up, and could have followed up the Nagasaki device with another about August 17th or 18th, followed by three devices that could have been dropped in September, and another three in October, with continuing production at a level of at least three if not four atomic bombs per month. (Source: "The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II, A Collection of Primary Sources") [President Dwight D.] Eisenhower said in 1963 "It wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing."
#2. To: Cynicom (#1)
Note that Ikes statement was made...nearly twenty years AFTER the fact...
#3. To: Ada (#2)
"The atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military standpoint, in the defeat of Japan."
#4. To: Ada (#0)
"This man is Jesus,” shouted one man, spilling his Guinness as Barack Obama began his inaugural address. “When will he come to Kenya to save us?”
-Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#5. To: X-15 (#4)
#6. To: Ada (#5)
Their condition for surrender was met. There was no need to nuke them
I read it was retaliation for Pearl Harbor
#7. To: Ada, X-15 (#5)
Their condition for surrender was met. There was no need to nuke them
#8. To: palo verde (#6)
I read it was retaliation for Pearl Harbor
#9. To: Cynicom (#8)
Thank you for telling me this
I did not know it
#10. To: palo verde (#9)
I guess it counts as a miracle we have not blown up our Planet
#11. To: Cynicom (#7)
What the Japanese did NOT know was that the US had only one more bomb, they assumed we had many, so they capitulated.
 | Gold and silver are REAL money, paper is but a promise. |
#12. To: Cynicom (#10)
The Korean War started in late June 1950, and the first eight Atomic bombs were sent to the Far East in August. How do you know this C? Just interested in the place you were in.
True.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" 
#13. To: All (#12)
That would seem to do it.
(Source: "The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II, A Collection of Primary Sources")
"Satan / Cheney in "08"
#14. To: Cynicom (#10)
If you're going to fight a war, and the capacity exists to end it quickly while saving American lives, I say fire those suckers up. I wouldn't waste one American life at the expense of compassion.
#15. To: tom007 (#12)
Eight B-29s of 1st Bomb Sq, Travis AFB departed for Guam. Aug. 1950 I joined them shortly after. The first one off crashed with unarmed bomb aboard, the High explosive went off and about 30 people died. MSM was not told A-bomb was a board.
How do you know this C?
#16. To: Jethro Tull (#14)
Indeed. Truman tied MacArthurs hands into a ground war and we had few grunts. Does that seem like now possible outcome???
If you're going to fight a war
#17. To: Ada (#5)
Bataan was reason enough.
There was no need to nuke them
This guy may be prowling 4um: |
Used Tires Amityville, Babylon, Lindenhurst
#18. To: tom007 (#13) (Edited)
Tom... That crash turned out a hero, a man among men, If I can find the report will give you url. The aircraft crashed close to base bakery. There was one baker in there that went into the flames and dragged men out. finally everyone said no more but he could hear men screaming. That man had on a bakers apron, put it in front of his face and ran back into the inferno. The 500 lbs of Hi Explosive went off and he paid with his life.
#19. To: tom007, Jethro Tull (#12)
read this about a man among men. http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/1986/February%201986/0286valor.aspx
#20. To: Critter, all (#17)
Bataan is quite a story. In case someone out here in the vapor of the 'net hasn't learned about that piece of history, don't delay. While you're at it, google the rape of Nanking. Be ready for some graphic pictures. As for man's capacity for brutality, these two stories should be a sharp reminder of what a government can do when its people idolize a man and elevates Him to larger than life status.
#21. To: Cynicom (#7)
The Japanese had stockpiled LOTS of ammo for the coming invasion of the Japanese home islands and had strategically located thousands of machineguns to deliver infilading fire along with hidden artillery pieces and hidden airfields with enough fuel for one-way trips for numerous fighters/bombers. It took two nukes to drive home the point that they must surrender on our terms.
_________________________________________________________________________
"This man is Jesus,” shouted one man, spilling his Guinness as Barack Obama began his inaugural address. “When will he come to Kenya to save us?”
-Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#22. To: X-15 (#21)
Hitler was defeated militarily long before the war ended, however they did not surrender. Same with Japan, they were finished and would never surrender. Three months after Germany "surrendered" in WW1, their military was drawing up plans for the next invasion of France and the low countries.
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