Tabassum Rahman

To What Extend is the US dropping of the atomic bomb

on Japan justified?

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American
people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.1, this was taken from
the final part of FDR`s speech to Congress December 8th 1941. In the space of four years the
United States of America the sleeping giant of the western world woke up. Pearl Harbour was
the rude awakening. After one hundred and twenty years of isolation the USA realised it
could no longer ignore its obligations to the free-world and democracy. To this end the
question was how far was the USA prepared to go in achieving a new World Order?
To all sense and purposes by the middle of 1945 The Empire of Japan was beaten. In fact it
goes without saying that she had been beaten from the Battle of Midway June 1942 onwards.
As demonstrated by Gar Alperovitz statement that Japan was already ruined and starving so
they could not have lasted for much longer, this statement holds a strong argument because
there is much evidence to show that Japan was indeed ruined and starving as shown by the
Japanese Soviet War of 1945. This defeat of her Empire was brought about by the complete
destruction of her war economy. Everything raw materials - had to be imported to Japan
thereby exposing a serious and eventually a costly weakness for Japans mercantile marine
was easy prey for the submarines of the US Navy. Other weaknesses were Japans military
equipment was vastly inferior to that of The Allies but, her army fought on with a fanatical
sense in the belief that she would eventually prevail. It was this belief in One more victory
that stopped The Imperial War Council from surrendering immediately in August 1945. They
were just hanging on vainly clutching at straws.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt had died on April 12th 1945 and he had been succeeded by Harry
S. Truman. Both mens styles in office were different; there was a feeling that in FDR`s last
days in office that Roosevelt had made too many concessions in Europe to the Russian leader
Joseph Stalin. Truman distrusted The Soviet leader and possibly suspected that the General
Secretary was out for all he could get. In this he was proved right by later events. Having
persuaded FDR and a reluctant Churchill to agree to a Soviet zone of influence in Europe the
belief was the Russians would focus their attentions on the east. The problem was that the
Red Army was already there and the same was true in the east. As far as Trumans strategic
planners were concerned something had to be done about the perceived Red Menace. As
commented by James Byrne, "we wanted to get through with the Japanese phase of the war
before the Russians came in."2, this source provides strong material to show that the US
concern over the Soviets were much greater than the deal of dropping an atomic bomb on
Japan.
Whilst the Japanese High Command was bent on fighting to the last man The Allies had
under conditions of absolute secrecy developed The Manhattan project. The purpose of which
had been to create a Super bomb; a weapon that could level an entire city. Such a weapon
1 http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrpearlharbor.htm
2 U.S. News and World Report, Aug. 15, 1960, We Were Anxious To Get the War
Over, pg. 66

would tip the scales entirely firmly in favour of The Allied cause and, possession of this
weapon of mass destruction would deter an aggressor from a premeditated strike like the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. The problem for the moment was research and
development on this weapon had been conducted under conditions of utmost secrecy and
nobody knew what would happen if and when such a weapon was detonated. Harry Truman
had learned of the existence of the Super Bomb in the summer of 1945 several months after
the capitulation of Germany. It is not altogether clear whether the original intention had been
to drop an atomic weapon on Germany. Suffice it to say that by the summer of 1945 the
Americans had manufactured four of these weapons and successfully detonated one in the
desert of New Mexico during The Trinity test.
From a strategic point of view if you have a weapon by virtue of the fact that you have
developed the intention must be to use it. If you do not it could be interpreted as a weakness
on your part by your opponents, in this case The Soviets, if you choose not to use it. A gesture
of defiance was needed here. But there is evidence post- World War Two, that carries a lot of
weight to show that the US government probably have indeed some regret for using the
atomic bomb, as shown by John F Kennedy who commented that every man, woman and
child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles The weapons of war must be abolished
before they abolish us.3 The fact that this was a statement from US president Kennedy
provides a strong argument against the use of the atomic bomb because it is expected that
such a man in the US government would have backed up Trumans decision to drop the bomb
rather than seeing it as something that needs to be abolished.
Moreover by July 1945 after the successful Trinity Test the USA selected targets in Japan.
The problem was since that since the Americans had bombed japan over eighty cities had
been destroyed there were not many targets left. Hiroshima, Kyoto and Nagasaki were still
intact and were therefore selected for possible attack. The United States, Britain and China
threatened Japan in the Potsdam Declaration with prompt and utter destruction if it did not
immediately surrender4. The fact that these countries used such a threat on Japan provides
strong evidence to show that Japan were given opportunities to surrender but were clearly not
obliging to such demands as a result of the Japanese philosophical belief of Bushido. This
was seriously considered by the Imperial War Council but dismissed. The Japanese failed to
respond and instead put out Feelers of their own through the neutral powers with the
intention of negotiating a separate peace with The Allies of their own. This was unacceptable
to The Allies. However there was a split emerging in the Japanese Cabinet amongst those that
wanted to fight on and those that wanted to sue for peace. It was pointed out to The Emperor
that Japan had never surrendered in her entire history so this was initially seen as the main
stumbling block to surrender. The Emperor directly intervened and the matter was settled.
This was unprecedented and even though the political situation was uncertain emperor
Hirohito was nearly deposed in Kenji Hatanaka`s failed coup dtat. As it was in the end the
Japanese managed to get one condition inserted into the surrender document The Emperor
was to be left alone but that came slightly later and was directly due to General Macarthur`s
3 John F. Kennedy - Address to the United Nations General Assembly, (25 Sep
1961)
4 https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/potsdam-conf

timely intervention; once again the fear of a Communist take-over in Japan was behind this
move
Truman could not wait while Japan dithered what was needed was a demonstration of intent.
On August 6th 1945 the USA detonated an atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima. Again
Harry Truman called for Japan to surrender but there was no reply. Three days later the
Americans detonated another device over Nagasaki. Seven days later the Empire of Japan
surrendered but the question was: why did it take the Japanese so long to surrender? At first
the Japanese government looked to the Russians for help. Russia was one of The Big Three
and it was felt that as Japan was not at war and had indeed signed a non-aggression pact with
them back in 1941, known as the SovietJapanese Neutrality Pact, which they thought, might
be able to help. These negotiations came to nothing as the Russians promptly served them
with a years notice that they had no intention of renewing the pact, with the excuse that
Japan is waging a war with the USA and England, which are allies of the Soviet Union.
This is not a very strong explanation for the denunciation of the non-aggression pact because
they were at the start of the Cold War where the Soviets were slowly exposing their dislike
towards the Capitalist states of USA and Britain. What the Japanese were not to know was
that Churchill and Truman had extracted a commitment out of Stalin that The Red Army was
going to attack the Japanese in Manchuria. So throughout July The Soviets had been quietly
transferring divisions of The Red Army from Europe to Asia. Maybe the dropping of the
Atomic Bombs was not so much aimed at an already destroyed Japan but was targeted at the
formidable might of The Red Army. There is no apparent evidence that this is the case but
many historians over the years have considered this point, for example Georgii
Konstantinovich Zhukov claimed that It was clear already then that the US Government
intended to use the atomic weapon for the purpose of achieving its Imperialist goals from a
position of strength in the cold war
From the American point of view especially when justification for the use of the A-bomb is
considered one factor has to be considered above all and this is the rising death toll during the
Pacific Theatre of war. The nearer the US forces got to Japan the higher the death toll
became. It was believed by Strategic Planners that the eventual casualties could mount as
high as a million and a half. Truman was aware of the facts and new that if it ever got out that
The United States had been in possession of a weapon that could have saved those lives then
the damage to his reputation would be beyond repair. So his decision was simply a utilitarian
one save lives and force the hands of the Japanese whilst making a gesture towards Soviet
Russia. It was a case of killing three birds with one stone and if all went well he would get reelected President in 1949, in the end all three objectives were achieved.
It is possible therefore to conclude that the US dropping of Little Boy and Fat Man was
entirely justified on three grounds. The first was it saved lives, the second it forced Japan to
surrender, and third it kept The Soviets in their place. Even though FDR was dead the USA
had achieved all three of its objectives as laid out in FDR`s speech made to Congress on
December 8th 1941. Righteous Might: the A-bomb had brought about the surrender of Japan
and, America`s interests had been protected and a clear message had been sent to The Soviets
and the USA had triumphed over all just as FDR had predicted.