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Title: The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb by Gar Alperovitz, Peter Dimock, Sanho Tree, Gar Aplerovitz ISBN: 0-679-76285-X Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: August, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.18 (11 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: Fantasy Masquerading as Fact
Comment: Through an extremely selective use of facts and a heavy reliance on opinion and speculation, this book makes the case that there was no military necessity to drop the atomic bomb - it was all the result of a conspiracy by Secretary of State James Byrnes to send a message to the Soviets. Before you start laughing, consider the book's storyline:
By mid-1945 every military and political leader knew we had won the war. The Japanese were virtually waving a white flag - sending out peace feelers and discussing how to end the war at the highest levels. All it would have taken was a flick of Truman's wrist (in the form of offering the right surrender terms) to bring peace. Many clairvoyant officials foresaw that as long as the Japanese were assured that the emperor would not be removed they would surrender in a heartbeat. Instead Truman waited until after the bombs were dropped to make this slight concession, at which point the Japanese did surrender.
Here is where the author inserts an element of mystery. There are some documents missing and others may have been altered. Every last word spoken on the subject was somehow not written down. Most surprisingly some of the politicians involved might have tried to make themselves look good to the public. He says it's all very suspicious, with the evidence we do have pointing unmistakably in one direction. The conniving James Byrnes pulled all the strings and manipulated the stuation to his liking. Deleting a couple of words from the Potsdam Proclamation made it impossible for the Japanese to surrender until after the bombs were dropped, thereby making the Soviets "more manageable in Europe".
The problem with this fantasy isn't that it's based on lies or fabricated evidence - that's a charge thrown out by the book against the U.S. Government's explanation of these events. It's that huge mountains of evidence to the contrary are either dismissed with a few easy sentences or, most commonly, ignored altogether.
Ending only weeks before the atomic bombs were dropped, Okinawa was one of the costliest battles in American history. Fanatical resistance by the Japanese led to a great desire to end the war before an invasion of Japan came about. This was an enormously important factor in the decision to drop the bomb yet the true significance of the battle is barely hinted at. In fact, you would hardly know from reading this 800-page diatribe that a war was being fought.
Like any country facing defeat in an all out war, Japan was certainly in bad shape. But like Germany before the battle of Berlin, the country was still capable of inflicting heavy losses on an invader. The peace feelers were half hearted attempts to end the war on terms favorable to Japan and were opposed by the military, which was completely in control of the country. At one point the implication is made that the so-called peace party could have easily brushed the Japanese military aside, as though there were a British style parliamentary system in place. In reality those who advocated peace negotiations were in fear for their lives. There are endless references to the MAGIC intercepts of Japanese diplomatic traffic and almost no mention of the ULTRA intercepts of Japanese military communication, which revealed only an iron willed intention to continue the war at any cost. Japanese reverence for their emperor is discussed ad nauseum but the equally prevalent bushido code, which prohibited surrender under any circumstance, is never mentioned. The unconditional surrender policy is portrayed as an impediment to peace without any attempt to explain why it was agreed upon. With the existence of a war avoided, fears of Soviet expansion are given huge importance.
After using a team of research assistants to examine thousands of pages of documents, it's utterly amazing that Alperovitz can offer no explanation of why a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. It's portrayed as just another mystery of this complicated subject. The real mystery is how someone writing non-fiction could willfully ignore or obfuscate the basic facts behind his subject and still be taken seriously. American strategy behind using the bomb was to inflict a series of shocks to the Japanese that would convince them that further resistance would be futile. A second atomic bomb was dropped in order to give the impression that the U.S. had a large quantity of these weapons and would continue to use them until Japan was destroyed. After Hiroshima, the Japanese militarists argued that the U.S. had no more atomic bombs to use against them and that even if they did, negative world opinion would prevent another attack. The bombing of Nagasaki proved them wrong and along with the Soviet declaration of war provided the shocks needed to bring peace. These facts contradict the thrust of the book, which is clearly why they were excluded.
After the bombs were dropped the world was horrified. Some leaders expressed regrets and wished that events hadn't taken place as they did. The impression is given that these people were on their hands and knees pleading to spare the poor Japanese from this weapon, which is a total falsehood. The biggest howlers are the anti-bomb quotes from those who wanted a third bomb dropped on Tokyo before Truman overruled them. Such omissions and distortions are too numerous to catalog here.
This book is a tangled and repetitive mass of "what if" history and carefully selected quotes. It's hard to decide if it's more like an infomercial, a UFO documentary or an overzealous prosecutor trying to convict an innocent defendant. The main arguments are based solely on speculation about what might have happened given certain conditions. An objective work of history it is not.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Momentum of Martial Logic
Comment: Although the issue remains controversial it is important to consider the historical background given here for the decision to drop the bomb. After the account here it is impossible to take conventional wisdom for granted here. 'What might have been' has been rendered implausible by a series of mental images of the 'fanatic homeland defense' scenario, which was never tested and under suspicion of being wrong. Indeed, the available facts show that diplomats at the time expected Japanese surrender without the atomic option. To say nothing of the reservations of the scientists involved. If Admiral Leahy and Eisenhower saw fit to break ranks here in the years after the war, we can be sure something is awry here. This book amply shows the what's what. Very important case, and the manipulation of the 'myth' is as upsetting as the details of the emergence of the decision.
Rating: 2
Summary: Missing an important point.
Comment: The dropping of the atomic bombs were absolutely neccessary. I am not saying it was right, but the USA simply had no choice. The victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were victims of their own leaders who led their nation into war by invading Asia and attacking Pearl Harbor. USA already warned the emperor but even after one atomic bomb, he remained obdurnate. Through the Japan's warfare, and about their way of fighting, the Japanese would fight to the last blood drop. If the bombs were not dropped, even more would be killed. Japan would have fought until the entire nation of Japan would be extinct. More Americans, Japanese and other Asians would be killed if the bombes were not dropped. The bombs brought Japan out from their obsession over nationalism. To sum my point, the Atomic bombs were wrong, but it achieved a great purpose: Stopping the war quickly.
Please don't think I hate Japanese. I just despise their history during WW2. I feel sorry for all of the victims of WW2 on all sides, both soldiers and civilians alike. And I hope there will never be another war that would require nuclear weapons or other mass destruction.
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Title: Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb by Ronald Takaki ISBN: 0316831247 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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Title: Prompt and Utter Destruction: President Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan by J. Samuel Walker ISBN: 0807846627 Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Hiroshima in America: A Half Century of Denial by Robert Jay Lifton, Greg Mitchell ISBN: 0380727641 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: August, 1996 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Day Of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor by Robert B. Stinnett ISBN: 0743201299 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: May, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam: The Use of the Atomic Bomb and the American Confrontation With Soviet Power by Gar Alperovitz ISBN: 0140083375 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: August, 1985 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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