@JTT,
Quote:One thing Truman insisted on from the start: The decision to use the bombs, and the responsibility it entailed, was his. Over the years, he gave different, and contradictory, grounds for his decision. Sometimes he implied that he had acted simply out of revenge. To a clergyman who criticized him, Truman responded, testily:
Nobody is more disturbed over the use of Atomic bombs than I am but I was greatly disturbed over the unwarranted attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor and their murder of our prisoners of war. The only language they seem to understand is the one we have been using to bombard them.88
Such reasoning will not impress anyone who fails to see how the brutality of the Japanese military could justify deadly retaliation against innocent men, women, and children. Truman doubtless was aware of this, so from time to time he advanced other pretexts. On August 9, 1945, he stated: "The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians."89
This, however, is absurd. Pearl Harbor was a military base. Hiroshima was a city, inhabited by some three hundred thousand people, which contained military elements. In any case, since the harbor was mined and the U.S. Navy and Air Force were in control of the waters around Japan, whatever troops were stationed in Hiroshima had been effectively neutralized.
Hiroshima was a huge military center that contained tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers. It was Japan's primary military port, and the launching point for most of Japan's genocidal invasions of their Asian neighbors. It was also the military headquarters in charge of repelling any invasion in the southern half of Japan (and for a while we were contemplating launching our invasion in the south).
Quote:On other occasions, Truman claimed that Hiroshima was bombed because it was an industrial center. But, as noted in the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, "all major factories in Hiroshima were on the periphery of the city – and escaped serious damage."90 The target was the center of the city.
Truman may have confused Hiroshima with Nagasaki.
Nagasaki was the one that was bombed because it was an industrial center.
Quote:That Truman realized the kind of victims the bombs consumed is evident from his comment to his cabinet on August 10, explaining his reluctance to drop a third bomb: "The thought of wiping out another 100,000 people was too horrible," he said; he didn't like the idea of killing "all those kids."91 Wiping out another one hundred thousand people . . . all those kids.
Abhorrence is relative. Truman only delayed the third bomb by three days, from August 17-18 to August 20-21.
The lack of a third bomb had more to do with Japan surrendering on August 14 than it did with Truman's brief delay of the bomb.
Quote:Moreover, the notion that Hiroshima was a major military or industrial center is implausible on the face of it.
Hiroshima was a huge military center that contained tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers. It was Japan's primary military port, and the launching point for most of Japan's genocidal invasions of their Asian neighbors. It was also the military headquarters in charge of repelling any invasion in the southern half of Japan (and for a while we were contemplating launching our invasion in the south).
Quote:The city had remained untouched through years of devastating air attacks on the Japanese home islands, and never figured in Bomber Command's list of the 33 primary targets.92
That is because it was chosen as an A-bomb target early in the bombing campaign, and was thereafter off limits to conventional bombing.
