The Atomic Question:
I used to firmly believe in the US use of nukes against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I have spent lots of time in Japan in the 1990's. But after reading the actual records (copies of them), I was shocked to learn the full nature of Truman's deceptions and coverups. It was Truman himself that "invented" the commonly cited "1,000,000" casualty for Operation Olympic....
after the war... in an attempt to justify his actions which he began to realize were indefensible in terms of the Soviets, Japanese, and in particular, the use of Atomic weapons.
Most sources put the estimate of US casualties in the invasion of the japenese homeland at around 78,000. One source went as high as 250,000. Marshall believed around 100,000. After the nuking, Truman began to realize that others would judge him harshly, and began to systematicall alter the records, and hide key documents. Most of these documents have now been recovered. They reveal many things, including the fact the Air Force did not want to nuke H & N... they were civilian targets of no direct military consequence.
Despite decades of misinformation in the wake of the altered and hidden records recording Truman's decision making in regard to teh Atomic Bomb deployment, the facts are that Truman unnecessarily nuked the Japs.... In fact, the only roadblock to a Japanese surrender was Truman
himself. And the surrender he
finally accepted was the
same surrender he had dissed in April of 1945. So other than killing lots more Americans (not to mention allies and Japanese), and double-nuking a defeated country, not much was accomplished by the 5 month delay in accepting the Japanese
conditional surrender.
That Truman willfully and methodically covered up and distorted (thru press leaks) his own culpability only makes things worse. As we now know from the original records that Truman misfiled, altered, and hid (particlularly the most damning records with hidden via his secretary), it played a direct role in how he handled the Korean War.
People should research the decisions leading to the use of the Bomb... the reality of recorded and written history is very different than what many latter-day Truman apologists would have the public believe. And Truman's decisions and actions are a shamful, but relatively unknown, part of American history.
While we're on the subject, of course, the rest of Truman's record is not much better... a Divided and occupied Europe... millions killed and executed after the war (mostly by Truman's ally, the evil USSR), a world split, A war fought with no intention of victory, cowardice in the face of a wartime enemy.... rarely has such a despicable Commander in Chief ever occupied the Presidency.... until Bill Clinton, who must still take 2nd place to Truman for sheer numbers of US servicemen needlessly killed.
People often fixate on the nuclear question and hypotheticals, and some Truman "supporters" can get hysterical when discussing the issues... but the historical and unbiased documented record of memos, telexes, cables, meeting minutes... and Truman's subsequent cover up of embarrassing documentation (e.g., removal of information concerning his nuclear decisions and placement of key information in small locked boxes given to other people, like his female secretary, who had them for decades until discovered)... it is worth reading, but quite boring to do so.
It might suprise some people to know that Truman pretty much stood alone in wanting to use the Atom bomb against the Japanese.... Mac Arthur was specifically apalled that it was used against civilian-only targets, and did not approve of such employment.... further, there was absolutely no military necessity for it. The japanese, as we now know, had been planning to surrender since the Fall of 1944. In the April of 1945, the new American President Truman secretly turned down Japanese offer of surrender (thru diplomatic back channels) becuase the Japanese had one condition... that the Emperor survive. Truman restated publically "un -conditional surrender", and tens of thousands of American soldiers continued to die unnecessarily from late April of 1945 to August of 1945. That blood is on Truman's hands, alone. Only he wanted war, and his personal "pride" and stupid public dogma prevented peace. Make no mistake.... Truman's was the most monsterous treachery an American President can commit.
The ultimate betrayal was sealed when Truman finally accepted teh Japanese Surrender..... do you recall the terms? Unconditional... EXCEPT that the Emperor survive. All the dead, and unimaginable suffering by MILLIONS from April of 1945 to late August of 1945, plus millions killed in firebombings and hundreds of thousands incinerated in nuclear fireballs... for what? No net change in the victory and surrender conditions. Appalling.
If a person were to read the actual records of the decision to use nukes on Japan, almost every military advisor was opposed.... almost every cabinet official was opposed. Japan was in no position to continue the was, but Truman was obsessed with getting Stalin into the war by July 1945.
This leads to the Chinese nuclear question. Mac Aurthur certainly wanted, and naturally expected, the full support of his Commander In Chief for American Soldiers engaged in a difficult war. Truman was obscessed with the possibility of Chinese intervention.... heck, with a coward like Truman in command, America should have just backed up and gone home from Europe and Asia, and burrowed into a cave, quaking with fear.
The choice of war was made by the Chinese. They should have paid the price with unrestricted conventional attacks by the US. But Truman would not support those underhis command... the average American soldier. He refused time and again to allow the military to do its job... bear in mind, up to 1951, no American President had refused a Supreme Commander the ability to fight, attack, and defend itself. This was a first in history (and set the stage for similar incompetant Presidential meddling a decade later).
Everyone, but
everyone, knew the Chinese could, by force of sheer number, overwhelm the Korean penninsula if they so chose. When the Chinese saw that Truman was a coward, quaking in his indecisive boots, they took the opportunity and attacked. They knew Truman better than Mac Arthur in the nuclear question... with no permission to counterattack the source of the evil Red Chinese army, and no permission for even tactical use of nukes on military units, Mac Arthur was pretty darned pissed that HIS men were being slaughtered by the evil Red Chinese.
Did Mac Arthur want to kill civilians? No. Would civilians get killed? Most definately. Whose fault would that be? Directly: the evil Red Chinese for attacking --
sneak attacking -- America. Indirectly,
Truman's... for sending the signal to the evil Red Chinese to attack and begin slaughtering American and South Korean people.
Conventional bombing was what Mac Arthur wanted... he wanted to lay waste to all the sources of resupply, communication, troops, etc. In short, he was fighting a war, and Truman was playing a sick and disgusting game. Mac Arthur was trying to end a war and save lives (yes, human life on both sides), and Truman was (as usual) betraying America and it's fighting men in the field.
It is absurd to think that a President would allow tens of thousands of Americans to get killed, and not even unleash the US Military on the source of the killers... yet Truman did just that. Even
if the Atomic Bomb decision rested with the President (it did), Truman had no business meddling in the actual conduct of the war... keep in mind that even Lincoln was not telling his generals what hills to attack, what bridges to take, etc. In
all of American history to that point, no American general had been denied the use of it's military in the field to win a war.
For students of military history, Truman's actions were and are shocking and unprecedented, and the Nation was almost univerally apalled. I'm sure Mac Arthur was quite incensed... and he had a
right to be. As an American, I'm still apalled that our President comitted nothing less treason and cowardice in the face of the enemy -- in wartime. Tens of thousands died. And the war was never won...
In the final analysis, the fact remains that if a nation attacks and kills Americans, esp. in an undeclared sneak attack like the Evil Red Chinese did, the C-in-C should pull all the stops and unleash the full and entire weight of the US Military upon such evil aggression and murder. Had Chairman Mao been Commander-in-Chief, most of his actions would scarcely have been distinguishable from those of Truman's.
Lest we forget, it was the Chinese,
not the US, that decided to pick a war. The US had no intention of fighting in the Far East, and indeed did not even have the proper forces in place for a defense. A "defense" based almost exclusively on airpower and the Bomb does no good if you will not use the Bomb to defend the lives of America's (and her Allies') soldiers and defend humanity and freedom in general...
A note for proponents of "containment" that Truman began in post-WWII Europe.... you don't "contain" evil. You stomp it out. Hunt it down and kill it. What a stupid idea to allow evil to survive, when the world fought a war to rid itself of dictatorships, murderers, and evil empires. A coward like Truman comes along and ensures the survival, nay the flourishing, of empires even more monsterous than that of the defeated 3rd Reich and Rising Sun.
So the ultimate conclusion, any way you slice it (history, opinion of advisors of the time, military necessity, saving of life, Truman's own records that have come to light since the late 1960's)... the Bomb should have not been used against the defeated Japanese, and should have been used against the evil Red Chinese in the Korean War of the early 1950s.
Some people will not fight even to save their family and countrymen. Fine. But get out of the way, and don't betray the nation, and don't stay in office as President. Others will eventually pay the price, one way or the other.
PS, I am aware that in this hyper-sensitive age of extreme political correctness some people might interpret my absolute abhorrance of the evil Red Chinese and the Red Menace (including the defunct USSR) as somehow being applied to the individual people of these dead and dying nations. That is not true. For example, you will note that long phrase, "evil Red Chinese" is used when referring to the monsters that enslave and kill the Chinese people. In fact, I have much respect for the Chinese civilization and Chinese people... it the the evil Red Chinese that should be rooted out and exterminated. The Evil Red Chinese even kill and oppress their own people, the Chinese people. The evil Red Chinese are even now developing nuclear platforms that can deliver thermonuclear devices to the United States mainland. A few years ago, they obtained the capability to strike Hawaii and parts of Alaska, when President Clinton and VP Gore broke US law and betrayed the nation by giving the evil Red Chinese the guidance technology and certain other technology to improve the delivery paltrofms for weapons of mass destruction. Judas' price for betrayal was 30 pieces of silver. Clinton and Gore's price was a few bucks and evil Red Chinese support for their '96 re-election campaign.
BTW, This post is 11,726 characters long because I have lots of stuff to do (apologies).
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