Memorial day is the day that we honor U.S. soldiers who died in for our country. Nuclear tensions are rising in the world amidst talks of nuclear disarmament. President Obama recently visited Hiroshima to speak about U.S. nuclear strike at the end of World War II that leveled the city. Small by today's standards, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people and helped bring about the surrender of the Japanese.
Much has been written about Truman's decision to drop the bomb. The main argument that has been presented by supporters of the decision is that if the bombs had not been used, the Japanese would have fought on. An invasion of the Japanese home islands could have required house to house fighting across Japan and taken hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides. It could have dragged on for months or even years with terrible devastation of major Japanese cities and infrastructure. With the unconditional surrender of Japan after the bombs fell, such an invasion was not necessary.
Critics of the decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki say that it was not necessary. They say that the Japanese had already signaled their willingness to surrender. An invasion of the home islands would not have been necessary and hundreds of thousands of Japanese died for nothing. If the critics are right, the question must be asked, if the Japanese were willing to surrender, why did Truman authorize the dropping of atomic bombs on two Japanese cities? This attack represents the only time that nuclear weapons have been used in combat although they have been a major part of some nations arsenals for seventy years.
One theory of why Truman authorized the use of atomic bombs on Japan has to do with the relationship of the U.S. to a supposed ally at the end of World War II. The Soviet Union invaded Germany in coordination with the Western powers at the end of the WW II. Germany wound up being divided for decades after the war. Historians say that the Soviets were getting ready to invade Japan from the north. The U.S. feared that the Soviets would seize industrial facilities in northern Japan and dropped the atomic bombs to quickly end the war and prevent that seizure. It is also said that the U.S. was concerned about the Soviet Union's territorial ambitions and decided that by demonstrating what a terrible weapon the U.S. had, the Soviet Union would be intimidated.
Perhaps we will never know exactly what the true motivation was or if there were multiple motivations that resulted in the nuclear attack on Japan. There is a theory of psychology that says that the mere existence and presence of tool calls out for its use. Maybe the existence of a devastating atomic bomb guaranteed that it would eventually be used. The casualties were a sort of blood sacrifice that had to be paid to the gods of war.
Atomic mushroom cloud over Hiroshima on the left and Nagasaki on the right:
