What the Oliver Stone docu says about the nuclear bombing of Japan is...

[jimlup]

114. It is absolutely accurate

I was a graduate student in physics in the 90's and decided I had to know the answer to the question because I worked at one of the national laboratories (Livermore). I did a fair amount of research and eventually was lead to

http://www.amazon.com/The-Decision-Use-Atomic-Bomb/dp/067976285X

The evidence is convincing - Japan didn't really even know what the atomic bomb had done when they decided to surrender. All that they really knew was that Hiroshima and Nagasaki had "gone offline." They were much more attentive to the Soviet declaration of war.

Truman could have easily finessed the situation into exactly the surrender that was obtained.

My opinion eventually became that the bombing were not justified morally even under the American mythology that they ended the war and prevented the invasion of Japan but I am also absolutely convinced that Japan was more than ready to surrender and that the Soviet declaration was the tipping point not the atomic bombs.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0804704600/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&sr=&qid=