Were the Atomic Bombings Necessary?

few single events have changed the course of human history as much as the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on the 6th of August 1945. by the setting of the Sun that day the Pandora's box of nuclear weaponry had been opened a city lay in Ruins and somewhere in the region of a hundred thousand Japanese civilians were killed or dying three days later on the 9th of August the United States struck again unleashing 22 kilotons of atomic energy against Nagasaki the next day the Japanese government communicated its intent to surrender to the allies on the 15th of August Emperor Hirohito addressed the Japanese people in an unprecedented radio broadcast announcing the unconditional surrender of the Empire of Japan citing a new and cruel bomb that could result in the ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese Nation President Harry S Truman an Advocates of the atomic bomb had hoped that the use of these new weapons would bring the second world war to a swift conclusion and prevent the need for an invasion of Japan in other words a necessary evil that would ultimately save lives this effort appeared to be successful this has been the traditional Narrative of the end of the second World War and the argument that the use of the atomic bombs was for the greater good as being the traditional justification for their use ever since since the 9th of August 1945 numerous nuclear scientists historians political scientists and other figures have debated this traditional narrative and according to question the justification and morality of using the atomic bomb against Hiroshima and Nagasaki the purpose of this video is not to take sides but to provide an insight into the academic debate around the use of the atom bombs and the surrender of Japan contact the immediate American reaction to the use of the first atomic bomb was largely positive and this was joined by the overwhelming sense of relief after the end of hostilities on the 15th of August at the Los Alamos research laboratory in New Mexico the home of the Manhattan Project the response to the Hiroshima bombing was one of Celebration their years of work had paid off and in the jubilant speech delivered to the mass scientists and staff Project Director J Robert Oppenheimer proclaimed that his only regret was that it hadn't been ready in time to use against the Germans a minority of scientists were shocked by the first bombing and had hoped the U.S would demonstrate the weapon to the Japanese as a warning the opinion of researchers and staff at Los Alamos changed after the bombing of Nagasaki shocked by its Second Use many including Oppenheimer himself didn't understand why a second strike was needed especially against a city of limited Military importance it is well known that had Japan not surrendered the Allies would have launched operation downfall the invasion of the Japanese home Islands this would have been the single largest amphibious Landing in history often forgotten are the secondary operations which also would have occurred such as British and Commonwealth forces commencing a full-scale liberation of Malaysia and Singapore under operation zipper the Soviet Union was considering a far smaller limited Landing in Hokkaido the Japanese military anticipated this and strived to mobilize every last effort of their war machine to inflict as many casualties as possible on any Invader readying thousands of Kamikaze aircraft and boats and arming civilians to bolster the Japanese Army in July 1945 reflecting the brutality of the fighting on Okinawa and Iwo Jima the U.S war department assessed that American forces could suffer between 400 000 to 800 000 killed with over a million more injured and estimated millions of Japanese soldiers and civilians killed in exchange one of the first official works that rejected the need for atomic bombs was the 1946 bombing survey the survey team of politicians and subject matter experts was formed by the war department in 1944 to study the effectiveness of strategic bombing in Europe and in the Pacific controversially it contended that Japan would have surrendered as a result of continued conventional bombing and a naval blockade by the 1st of November 1945 the launch date for operation downfall this has been questioned by many historians since and in the survey itself interviews with Japanese officials and Military Officers contradict this assessment with many believing that the war would have continued until the end of 1946. in December 1946 American physicist Carl T Compton penned an article for the Atlantic titled if the atomic bomb had not been used Compton has served as a military advisor to Truman on the atomic bomb and had met general Douglas MacArthur and his staff as they planned their part of operation downfall while Compton readily agreed that Japan was beaten he reiterated that Japan would not have surrendered even in the face of an Allied invasion he recalled the concern MacArthur's staff had preparing themselves for the long brutal fight ahead meeting with Japanese officers and soldiers during the Allied occupation he observed a widespread attitude against surrender that despite the overwhelming odds Japanese forces would continue to resist by all possible means for as long as possible Compton's peace is an example of the classic argument for the use of the atomic bomb but as inhumane as the weapon may have been It ultimately saved lives through its destructive power and psychological impact however he argues this psychological impact was the efficiency of one bomb from one aircraft wreaking such destruction plus the dread of many more rather than just the immediate damage which explains the rationale for the second use against Nagasaki another popular counter-narrative is that the Soviet invasion of Manchuria was the key factor in Japan's surrender on the 8th of August 1945 just two days after Hiroshima the Soviet Union declared war against the Empire of Japan the next day just a few hours before the bombing of Nagasaki the Soviet Union launched a massive three-pronged offensive into Japanese Health Manchuria intending to crush the Million Man Japanese Army that defended it from its four years of fighting Germany the Red Army had been sharpened from a stilted wasteful Mass into a hardened motivated and brutally effective beer moth the once voted Quantum Army fought hard but stood little chance against the overwhelming Firepower and aggression brought to bear by the highly mechanized forces of the Red Army while the impending defeat of the quantum Army only made a bad situation worse it was less the effectiveness of the Soviet attack and more the political shift that arguably changed the tide as highlighted by renowned historian of nuclear weapons and disarmament Advocate Ward Wilson the entry of the Soviet Union removed a key political option for the Japanese it was hoped that since the Soviet Union had been neutral in the Pacific War under the terms of their non-aggression pact they would be able to mediate for the Japanese and negotiate a conditional surrender with the Allied Powers which would let them keep their government many of their conquered territories and avoid prosecution for war crimes a faction in the higher ranks of the Japanese Army further supported the idea believing that if they inflicted heavy losses on an American invasion they could use the Soviet Union to negotiate from a position of strength the news of Soviet tanks streaming Across The Manchurian border on the morning of the 9th of August shattered such illusions news of the bombing of Nagasaki reached the Japanese government's Supreme Council as it was holding an emergency meeting about the Soviet intervention yet the bombing was only briefly discussed ald ascribes this to the fact that the bombings while devastatingly efficient caused destruction to life and property comparable to the regular B-29 firebombing raids against other Japanese cities thus the damage itself would not have been uniquely shocking in world's view the Soviet invasion meant there was now no good option available to Japan their options were now Invasion destruction or Surrender Ward concludes quite simply that if the atomic bombs were not necessary because of this development then it was wrong to use them following this it is worth asking that if president Harry Truman knew of the Soviet intervention why did he not postpone the strike against Nagasaki to assess the impact of the invasion of Manchuria on Japanese decision makers in his widely lauded book racing the enemy Stalin Truman and the surrender of Japan Japanese American historian tsuyoshi hasagawa asked this question and highlights that despite the time zone difference between Washington DC and the Mariana Islands and Technology available to send messages Truman could well have intervened to prevent the strike yet from all of the White House papers and historical evidence it appears no one considered the possibility Hasegawa goes on to argue that since the Japanese Supreme Council barely registered the bombing of Nagasaki and the intelligence reports that feared the U.S could have 100 atomic bombs cause very little concern it was unlikely that a third or even fourth atomic bomb would have caused Japan to surrender and that it was the Soviet intervention and the new political reality that it brought with it which brought about the end of the war in his own appraisal of the atomic bombings prompt and utter destruction American historian of nuclear weapons and power J Samuel Walker admirably attempts to find alternative perspectives he reframes the debate by arguing that Truman was looking for a way to end the war as quickly and as painlessly as possible he was not looking for a way to avoid using the nuclear bomb it also must be remembered that in the context of a massive strategic firebombing campaign against major Japanese cities there was already a moral question using a more effective weapon to achieve the same effect was not regarded as a particularly different or unique moral question by Truman or American decision makers it was simply a more effective means of bringing about the end of the war as quickly as possible he also answers hasegawa's question of why Truman never thought to postpone the bombing of Nagasaki after the Soviet invasion of Manchuria Walker points to the fact that through early 1945 U.S planners sought a Soviet intervention to tie down Japanese troops in Manchuria but assessed that their intervention alone would not be enough and would have to be coupled within American landing on Mainland Japan to be enough of a shock to prompt Japan's surrender in the closing chapters of his book Walker highlights an issue often overlooked the uncomfortable topic of racism writing an observer article for the Guardian newspaper in 2020 British academic Kenan Malik delves deeper into the issue Malik highlights the distinctively dehumanizing view many American servicemen undoubtedly held regarding the Japanese quoting examples of how Marines and Airmen often referred to their enemies He suggests that these widespread attitudes made the use of atomic weapons against Japan more palatable to American policy makers whether you take the position that it was justified or not the use of atomic weapons against Japan changed the military landscape forever the devastating power of the bomb has since served as a deterrent from costly armed conflicts between nuclear powers while this clearly didn't factor into the decision-making at the time it is an interesting question to ponder if the use of the bomb against Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified because it saved more lives than it took how many lives have been saved by the bombings in the years since 1945 through the power of deterrence we knew the world would not be the same two people laughed few people cried most people were silent I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture the bhagavad-gita Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says now I am become death the destroyer of worlds I suppose we all thought that one way or another

Channel: The Intel Report

Views: 390,534

Keywords: history, documentary, atom bomb, atomic bomb, usaaf, ww2, the pacific theatre, operation downfall, fat man, hiroshima, nagasaki, truman, oppenheimer

Id: xG4ks5f31Wg

Length: 13min 3sec (783 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 21 2023