The Myth about Hiroshima

The Myth about Hiroshima

by John M Repp

Of all places to hear someone talking about Hiroshima and implying that the atom bomb caused the Japanese to surrender. But that’s what I heard in Seattle at the 2018 event “From Hiroshima to Hope”. http://fromhiroshimatohope.org/ I heard it not from the organizers, not from the speakers or musicians, but from a person standing around waiting for the lantern-lighting ceremony to begin. I also once heard the same myth from an old man who told me his life was saved by the bomb. He was about to be drafted when Japan announced their intent to surrender on August 15, 1945.

The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 did not force the Japanese to surrender. This myth was created in February 1947 by an article in Harpers written by McGeorge Bundy but attributed to the Secretary of War Stimson. The article said the a-bombs saved thousands of American lives by forcing Japan to surrender, abrogating an invasion where the Japanese military was expected to fight to the last man. These ideas were reported widely in the American press at the time. The White House was justifying its decision to use the bombs as that decision was starting to be criticized. The myth has had great staying power because it helped the foreign policy establishment convince the American people that their government was wise. It salved the American conscience.

It is simply not true. It is a big lie. The Japanese were ready to surrender before the bombs were dropped. In the summer of 1945 the Americans controlled the airspace over Japan and firebombed and destroyed over 60 cities. The Americans had cracked the Japanese code so they knew the Japanese were ready to surrender. The only condition the Japanese wanted was that their Emperor remain on the throne and not be charged with war crimes. The American military leaders accepted that condition because they knew that without the Emperor it would be difficult to maintain control during an occupation.

It was Truman’s White House political advisors who overruled the military advice. After the first atomic bomb test in the desert of New Mexico on July 16, 1945, the U.S. had two more bombs and indeed some scientists and a few of the military leaders in charge of developing the bomb wanted to use them in the war. And the Secretary of State Byrnes wanted to use them to increase diplomatic leverage in setting up the post-war world. It would allow Truman to go on a diplomatic offensive and strengthen the American position vis-a-vis the Soviet Union. And that is what happened. At the Yalta conference in February 1945 with FDR, Churchill and Stalin the U.S. pushed the Soviets to enter the war against Japan and Stalin agreed. At the Potsdam conference from July 17 to August 2, 1945 with Truman, Churchill and Stalin, Truman and the Secretary of State took out a clause about Japan being able to keep its Emperor despite Churchill and Stalin support for that clause. It is almost like Truman’s advisors wanted to prolong the war in order to be able to use the bombs and demonstrate to the Soviets what power the U.S. had.

We will never get from Hiroshima to hope if the myth of Hiroshima continues to have credence. Even today, the myth is taught in most history textbooks and classes all over the world, usually by just casually stating the dates of the atomic bombing and that Japan surrendered less than a week later. This assumption has real destructive power.

https://www.thenation.com/article/why-the-us-really-bombed-hiroshima/

https://harpers.org/blog/2016/05/unjust-cause/

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