I hadn’t mentioned this when it was first posted, but noticing that Plunge has just linked to one of my recent posts I remembered that I had meant to.
Plunge over at Plunge Pontificates has written a very long article in five parts on the history and ramifications of the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan that bears reading. I do wish he had included footnotes on cited sources within each page, but he promises that a bibliography is forthcoming, so hopefully we’ll be able to see that soon.
The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or Truman: A Modern Day Hero
As the war was coming to an end, President Truman was faced with an incredibly difficult decision. The fighting in Europe was basically over and the focus turned towards Japan. The decision facing President Truman was how to force Japan to surrender. Not just surrender, but to surrender unconditionally. He could call for an invasion of Japan, an action that would likely result in millions of casualties, he could call for a blockade and continued bombing raids, a strategy that would take untold time, tie up massive resources and cause millions of civilian deaths, or he could try a new weapon, one of unknown but suspected massive power. As we all know, he chose the later.
From that point on, his actions have undergone a scrutiny of unbelievable proportions. He has been savaged as a war criminal, compared to Hitler and condemned a mass murder by some. Others consider his actions heroic. I would like to explain why I feel he is one of the later, a hero.
Who has time for Plunge’s Japan-bashing bigotry? If he’s not bitching about apologies (made… but not… “sincere” enough!) and dredging up historical bullshit he’s bitching about whales or Japanese criminal cases.
For Truman to have been a hero, he would have had to make a decision that required political courage. Dropping the A-Bomb required zero of that. Everyone in his cabinet was for it. The military leadership supported it. But whoops, all that matters is that Truman nuked Japan — that’s enough to make him a hero in Plunge’s eyes.
Whales are tasty, I gotta say.