Thread: A bomb....

No two ways of putting it, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was nothing short of sheer barbarism. Sure, revenge for Pearl Harbour but even so...the sheer scale of loss of civilian life was staggering, and sickening. God forbid, that anything like that ever happen again.

A lesson learned. History must never repeat itself

There could be many debates on this subject and maybe the best one would be, what if the Germans had got their hands on this first??

Now that is a scary thought.

The main problem I think was that the full effects of an Atomic Explosion on a city were not known until after the event. The Americans had certainly not foreseen the after effects (Although many of the Scientists involved in the Manhattan Project suspected that this might happen) and I believe there is still some guilt felt by some. But you have to take in the bigger picture at the time. What were Truman's options ?

1. The Allies could mount a Full Scale Invasion of the Japanese Home Islands. Casualty Estimates for the Allies - 500,000 to 1000,000 killed & wounded. The Japanese - 1000,000 plus killed & wounded.

2. The Americans could demonstrate the Atomic Weapon off the Coast of Japan. No guarantee that this would induce the Japanese to Surrender.

3. The Americans could drop an Atomic Weapon on a Japanese City to hopefully show the Japanese that it was futile to keep fighting and also to deter the Russians from trying to influence things (As they had in Eastern Europe).

Option 3 was of course what Truman chose to do. The Americans wanted Japan firmly in it's sphere of influence once hostilities had ceased. Therefore only the Americans were allowed in as an occupying force once the surrender was signed. The Russians had invaded Manchuria on August 8th 1945 as was agreed at the Yalta Conference. But by this time the Americans & British had fallen out with Stalin so you could say that the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb one day later was as much a Political Statement as a War Ending act. You also have to factor in Japanese attrocities, particularly against Allied PoW's which were equally barbaric in some cases. The Japanese were by no means an innocent party. And had they accepted the terms of the Pottsdam Declaration earlier could possibly have prevented the Atomic Bombs being used all together.

I would say though that the use of the 2 A-Bombs was definitely regretable. And in the World we now live in it could possibly see the use of a similar device by terrorists (God Forbid). Once the Trinity Test took place in July 1945 in the New Mexico Desert, the Nuclear Genie was well & truly let out of the bottle ...

I don't think the use of the atomic bomb in WWII was an example of barbarism. The fire bombing of Tokyo killed more people in total and was done to weaken Japan and win by attrition, while the atomic bombs were used to force an end immediately.

With lots of countries possessing nuclear power, I think we should all be in prayer that history does not repeat itself (as in the American bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki).

Much has been written and discussed about the rights and wrongs of America’s use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Greater minds than mine still seem to be split, agonising over Truman’s decision.

Being a “child of the sixties”, having grown up during the cold war and “under the shadow of the bomb”, the events which brought the war to a final conclusion at least served as a salutary lesson to the world about the power of such devices.

The atomic bombs of 1945 were small in yield compared with the hydrogen devices of later years; between 16 and 22 kilotons (thousands of tons of TNT) against the multi-megaton (million tons of TNT) H-Bombs.

The frighteningly awesome power of the H-Bomb in part led to the Cold War; an international stand off of nuclear deterrence and the spectre of M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction). Not to be confused with a popular comic book of the time!

History tells us that the closest the world ever came to “the button” being pushed was the Cuban Missile Crisis when the USA and the USSR stood toe-to-toe but finally stood down after certain “back-door” deals were made regarding US missile sites in Turkey. Whatever the real reasons for the two sides pulling back from the brink, we must just be thankful that the only time that atomic weapons have been used in anger (so far) ended a war.