General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Hiroshima - quit lying to yourselves [View all]Koios
(154 posts).... sans speculation on motive / morality:
1. It was a juggernaut, and the culmination of a huge effort ... which had legs of its own. Stopping it when it had come to fruition is itself an unlikely outcome.
2. At the time, we were losing near 10,000 US lives per month, overtures of the Japanese notwithstanding; and best estimates at the time were that via conventional means, it would have taken two more years to end the war. So the prospect of telling the families of some 240,000 dead children, that we had a war-ending super bomb we could have used two years prior, was unthinkable to all in the Truman Admin advising HST. So he gave the go to use it.
3. Truman was greatly angered that the second bomb was used without his direct orders. The military thought once they had the go-ahead, that their discretion alone was all that was needed to use the bombs where and when they wished. So Truman immediately created what we still have today: the button that only the President can push.
4. As awful as nukes are, they we not much worse, if as bad, as the incendiary bombing of Tokyo, which was truly devastating and utterly inhumane ... yet, did not result in Japanese surrender. So any with hindsight can speak to what the Japanese were saying at the time, and imagine whatever they wish. But from where the Truman Admin stood, what they saw was a Japan that would fight to the last man, woman and child, in a bloodbath that would have claimed 100s or 1000s of American lives.
So I side with Truman, and believe as awful as it was, the dropping of A bombs on Japan saved 100s of 1000s of American lives, and may have in the end, saved the lives of Japanese as well.