Recently I read an article that questioned whether or not the US needed to drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It made some claim that the US didn’t realize how close Japan was from surrendering. So I thought that it was interesting that 60 years later we are talking about this in a sort of Wednesday morning quarterback type of situation. I mean let’s face it, Monday and Tuesday have passed, and we are well into the week after the game has been played out.
Anyways, I do believe that there is a flaw in this idea that we should become self-loathing American’s for being the only country in the world to use Nuclear Weapons. While we can agree that it is regrettable that they were used in warfare we still have to look at a much smarter view of World War II. The fact is that we firebombed plenty of German and Japanese cities, laying 100’s of Tons of ordnance. Germany developed Blitzkreig, and was ruthless in treating Millions of people.
There are lots of commentary that give the following reasons supporting the Bomb:
- It was developed at great cost to the US and need to be proven.
- We wanted to show the Russian’s that we had the upperhand, and it would give us a better negotiation hand.
- We wanted revenge for Pearl Harbor.
- Dropping the Bomb would save American Lives.
- Dropping the Bomb would end the war sooner.
There may be other reasons as well, but this was the basic thoughts that I have read that is out there. I believe that the last two were accomplished by dropping the Bomb.
When you consider that communications to the Empire of Japan was slow. Their treatment of American’s as POWs was aweful (see Baatan Deathmarch). And the population was dedicated to the Emperor, no matter what. If people did not come to know that this weapon was so aweful, they would have scoffed and continued to fight in disbelief of the US capability.
Nuclear weapons serve their purpose, in the past and in the present. We can regret that they needed to be used, but we can acknowledge that is was necessary. 60 years ago, the earth stood still. Let’s hope that deterrence can now work.