By Barry Ladendorf,
President, Board of Directors
Veterans For Peace
In a July 16 Associated Press article, “Atomic Bomb Test Marks 70th BirthdayAmid Renewed Interest,” Duane Hughes, retired physicist, is quoted as saying that the “history of the
Trinity test is important because it helped end World War II and set the stage
for a Cold War arms race."
No doubt the testing and use of atomic bombs set the stage for
the Cold War arms race, but that we needed to drop the bombs to end the war is
an ongoing American myth that needs to end now.
When the United States broke the Japanese code, the U.S. government was aware
that on July 13, 1945, Japan had contacted the Soviet Union to express its
desire to surrender and end the war.
President Truman was aware three months before he ordered the
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that, according to Swiss and Portuguese
sources, the Japanese government,
knowing they could not win, wanted to begin the process of surrendering.
The one thing the Japanese wanted was to retain the emperor. Presidential
advisor Jimmy Byrnes convinced
President Harry S. Truman that dropping the bombs would allow the United States to dictate the
terms to end the war and let the Soviets and the world know we had the “bomb.”
What was
the reaction of America’s top military leaders who led the allies to victory?
General Douglas MacArthur, commander of the allied forces in the
Far East during the war, stated he was never even consulted about using the
bomb against Japan. According to Norman Cousins, consultant to MacArthur during
the occupation of Japan, MacArthur stated that had he been
consulted, he would have said that he saw no military
justification for using the bomb and that if the United States would simply have agreed to
allow the emperor to stay the war might have been over weeks earlier.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, when briefed on the atomic bomb tests in New
Mexico and of their planned use against Japan, expressed his belief that there
was no need to use the bomb because Japan was already defeated, and that the United States
should not shock the world by the use of a weapon that was no longer necessary
to save American lives. General “Hap” Arnold, commander of the Army Air Corps,
and General Omar Bradley shared Eisenhower’s opinion.
Perhaps one of the strongest critics of using the bomb was
Admiral William Leahy, chief of staff to both President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Truman. Leahy said, “It is my
opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of
no material assistance in our war against Japan.” In Leahy’s opinion, by
dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “we had adopted an ethical standard
common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages.”
Even former President Herbert Hoover weighed in, telling Truman
in May 1945 that if he were President he would, “make a shortwave broadcast to
the people of Japan — tell them they can have their Emperor if they surrender — that it will not mean unconditional surrender except for the militarists — you’ll
get a peace with Japan — you’ll have both wars over.”
In spite of this considered and widespread opposition by senior military officials who prosecuted the war and from a
former president, Truman ordered that Hiroshima and Nagasaki be bombed. On August 9,
the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and when the Japanese government did
surrender, they were permitted to keep the Emperor. Hiding behind the myth may
make it easier to accept the fact that we used this diabolical weapon in a senseless
slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people. Let’s end the myth and accept
responsibility for what our nation did.
