Background

In 1938, nuclear fission was discovered accidentally. A small group of German scientists watched a radioactive atom as it split. They observed that it releases a huge burst of energy. The new discovery, they found, could be a powerful weapon. At the time, the Nazi government began placing more controls on the German people. So many scientists fled Germany. Some of these scientists came to the United States. They told the famed scientist Albert Einstein about nuclear fission’s power.

In August 1939, Einstein signed a letter. It was sent to the United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The letter warned the president of a new possible weapon. The Einstein-Szilard letter stated, “that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future.” This new finding could lead to the building of “extremely powerful bombs,” they added (Einstein).

Einstein’s letter alarmed President Roosevelt. He worried Germans could use the weapon against Europeans and Americans. Hitler invaded Poland later that year. Now Roosevelt knew he had to act. Americans created the Manhattan Project in August 1942. The mission was to use nuclear fission to create a bomb. Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was put in charge. The top-secret project took place in New Mexico. It was directed by the U.S. military. Military professionals, scientists, and private companies were also involved.

Roosevelt died just before the war ended in Europe. It was in the spring of 1945. In July 1945, the Trinity Test confirmed the nuclear bomb’s deadly power.

The new American president was Harry S. Truman. Truman sent a final warning to the Japanese emperor. He warned Emperor Hirohito of Japan to unconditionally surrender to the Allies: France, Soviet Russia, the U.S., and the U.K. If not, Japan could expect “prompt and utter destruction.” This warning was called the Potsdam Declaration. On August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The bomb was called “Little Boy.” It was dropped from a plane named the Enola Gay. About 80,000 Japanese citizens were killed instantly. The explosion crushed an area of 5 square miles. But Emperor Hirohito did not surrender. In response, Truman ordered the dropping of a second bomb. It was called “Fat Man.” This bomb hit the city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. At least 40,000 more Japanese were killed. Thousands more died around Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the years ahead. They were poisoned by radiation from the blasts. Japan finally surrendered to the Allies on August 15, 1945. World War II had officially ended.

World War Two brought some of the most horrific tragedies ever. This war was unlike any before. Millions of people died in concentration camps. These prisons were fueled by racism and prejudice against Jewish people. Hundreds of thousands were killed by the atomic bomb. Some said the atomic bomb wasn’t needed to win the war in the Pacific. But Truman’s government claimed it was.

The political-historical debate

Dr. Peter Zimmerman is an American nuclear physicist. He studies war. Zimmerman recently wrote an article titled, “Truman Was Right to Drop the Atomic Bomb.” This passage from the article explains his argument:

“Truman’s choice is often framed as ‘the Bomb or the Invasion,’… Not so; the choice was between the bombs, which might force an end to the war in days, and all other scenarios. The other means to an end of the war were cruel.
A blockade would starve the country. The Soviet invasion of Manchuria and Korea would result in Stalin’s planned occupation of Hokkaido.” U.S. bombing of Japanese cities, using non-nuclear bombs, “would continue until the Army Air Forces literally ran out of targets. The rail network used to distribute food would be further wrecked.”

Every other option outside the atom bomb would have taken a very long time, Zimmerman said.

The blockade by sea was already happening. It had cut off the supply of food. Farms could not deliver food to Japanese people.

Food shortages were in effect, Zimmerman notes. When the U.S. occupation began, “the Tokyo food ration was down to 900 calories a day.” In comparison, Nazi concentration camps rationed just 600 calories a day for their prisoners. The Japanese ration was bad enough. The weak and elderly were already dying. “Some in the Imperial government had predicted food riots and civil war by December. But not in August, or September,” Zimmerman continues.

“B-29 bombing raids were destroying one Japanese city every week. Had the war gone on for another month, four or more cities would have been burned to the ground. Roughly one Hiroshima a week.” But by August, he said, the Japanese had gotten used to this slow destruction. They were bouncing back after each raid. Zimmerman believes this lessened the shock of the continued violence.

By August, Japan’s luck had been slowly running out. Destruction got worse. Zimmerman thinks they needed a “sudden and catastrophic event.” Only this could end the war, claims Zimmerman. The perception in Tokyo, he says, was one of total loyalty to the emperor. They did not care for peace. That view needed to be changed, he said.

“The Allies desperately wanted to avoid invading Japan. Our anticipated death toll was north of 100,000 Allied soldiers and sailors… The battle for Okinawa showed the Allies that Japan would struggle until the last civilian was killed” (Zimmerman).

Many disagreed with Truman’s decision. They also don’t accept Zimmerman’s explanation. They do not believe that the atomic bomb was less harmful to both Japanese and Allied forces than an invasion. Gar Alperovitz is an American historian. He wrote that Truman had a goal in dropping the bombs. Truman wanted to scare the Soviet Union. In 1945, the ambassador to the Soviet Union was Joseph E. Davies. He met with President Truman in May 1945. The first atomic bomb test was two months later. In that meeting, Truman revealed that he would hold off discussions with Stalin about the post-war world. He wanted to wait for tests to be completed. Davies wrote, “I was startled, shocked and amazed” about Truman’s decision. He wrote, “Uranium—for reason of security I will have to fill this in later” (Alperovitz, 1985).

On July 16, the first atomic bomb was tested successfully. It took place at Alamogordo, New Mexico, Alperovitz notes. “On July 17, Truman sat down to talk with Stalin. And on Aug. 6, a bomb would fall on Hiroshima, ultimately killing an estimated 130,000 Japanese and changing the world…”

Most Americans were wrong about why Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed, Alperovitz said. “They thought it was simply to prevent a costly invasion of Japan.”

However, some believe that other ideas were considered. The new weapon’s effect on diplomacy toward the Soviet Union was one possible reason. Released documents have strengthened this theory.

The invasion of Japan was scheduled to begin on November 1, Alperovitz said. President Truman claimed it might cost up to a million casualties.

“But by the mid-summer of 1945 Japan was in a very bad way,” he said. An Allied intelligence report noted that a blockade and bombing had caused great damage. Millions were homeless. Up to half of Japan’s most important cities were destroyed. The report said Japan might surrender at any point.

Admiral William D. Leahy served as chief of staff to the President. Alperovitz notes Leahy’s diary writings from mid-June. “At the present time… a surrender of Japan can be arranged with terms that can be accepted by Japan.”
Leahy believed the deal would block any further attacks from overseas. Afterward, Leahy reflected that the horrible use of atomic bombs did not help the U.S. war effort.

“Likewise, Eisenhower would later state that ‘it wasn’t necessary’ to hit the Japanese ‘with that awful thing’” (Alperovitz, 1985).

There is a third theory why the Americans used the atomic bombs on Japan. It also supports the idea that the bombing was used to pressure the Soviet Union. Professor Tsuyoshi Hasegawa is a Japanese American historian. He works at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Hasegawa wrote the book Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan (2005). He shows how the Soviet Union played both sides. The goal was to gain land in Asia during World War II. He argues that Japan did not surrender because of the American atomic bombs. Hasegawa believes they surrendered because the Soviet Union had entered the war against Japan.

“…Stalin was an active participant, not a secondary player,” says Hasegawa. Historians, however, have often not noted this when writing about “the drama of Japan’s surrender,” says Hasegawa. Stalin “was engaged in skillful Machiavellian diplomacy.1” The goal was to play “Japanese desires for negotiated peace.” Stalin wanted to help himself. He intensely negotiated with the U.S. He reacted decisively to American war moves, says Hasegawa. “He bullied the Chinese into accepting the Soviet terms.” In doing so, he hoped to secure territories he thought he deserved.

Before, Truman faced an unsolvable situation, says Hasegawa. He needed Japan to surrender totally before Soviet Russia entered the war. Hasegawa argues that Truman did not issue the Potsdam Proclamation as a warning to Japan. Rather, it was to justify the use of the atomic bomb. The historian challenges the view that the atomic bomb was the decisive knockout blow that crushed “Japan’s will to fight.” Hasegawa believes that Soviet Russia entering the war was a bigger reason the bombs fell (Hasegawa, 5).

In fact, Prince Konoe admitted that defeat was near as early as February 1945. At the time, Prince Konoe was the Prime Minister of Japan. He made the admission to Emperor Hirohito.

On February 14, Hasegawa says, Konoe wrote to Hirohito. The prince claimed that Japan’s defeat was inevitable. “Defeat will damage the kokutai,” said Konoe, per Hasegawa.2 “But public opinion in America and England has not gone far enough to destroy the kokutai… Therefore, we should not be worried about defeat itself. What we must worry about is a Communist revolution that might accompany defeat.’” Konoe noted that the Soviet Union hoped to expand its influence in Asia, Hasegawa says. “Sooner or later the Soviets would interfere in Japan’s domestic situation… the only way to save the kokutai would be to negotiate with the United States and Britain as soon as possible.” Such an action would require the emperor had to act. He needed to directly make orders against the military (37), Hasegawa claims.

The atomic bombs certainly sent a clear message to Japan. Americans had new horrifying weapons of war. But the Japanese had also gotten used to the constant bombings of their cities. For many, the atomic bombs felt like a continuation of these bombings. The atomic bombs were not acts that led to the unconditional surrender of the emperor. On August 8, the Soviets invaded Manchuria. The Soviets declared war on Japan. This came just two days after the bombing of Hiroshima. That combined with the bombings hurt Japan. The Japanese knew that they must surrender.

The aftermath

Did the bombs need to be dropped? Many people debate this question. But, the post- 1945 world was forever changed. The use of the bombs led to devastation and deaths. But it also led to a race between states. Each wanted to access and improve nuclear technology. The U.S. and Soviet Union, in particular, began building stockpiles of nuclear weapons. This kicked off the Cold War. Other nations soon obtained their own nuclear weapons. The U.K., China, France, and India were examples.

Nuclear warfare also led to the creation of many anti-nuclear groups. These social movements grew in the 1960s and 1970s. More people demanded a world with fewer threats to both humans and the environment. One of the largest protests in American history occurred in 1982. About one million people marched in New York City. They protested nuclear weapons. Marches, protests, activism, and treaties have continued today. However, governments have not always been willing to part with their nuclear weapons.

1 Machiavellian is a word used to describe politicians. Ones that use ruthless practices to achieve their goals are called Machiavellian. The term comes from the name of Niccolò Machiavelli. He was an Italian Renaissance author. Machiavelli wrote The Prince as a political guidebook during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. It was dedicated to Lorenzo de Medici, the ruler of Florence, Italy.

2 Kokutai refers to the idea of sovereignty or national unity in Japan. In this system, the emperor became the top authority. He ruled the state, national identity, and the military. Kokutai was a symbol that expressed the emperor’s spiritual and political power (Hasegawa, 4). It was why the Japanese had great problems with the Potsdam Declaration. It called for the unconditional surrender of the emperor. However, he stood for the whole of Japanese culture and the state.