The Atomic Bombs

Introduction

This year, 2005, is the sixtieth anniversary of the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan during World War II, on August 6 and August 9, 1945. This action by the United States remains one of the most controversial episodes of that war. Many consider the use of the bombs an act of unspeakable inhumanity—a totally unnecessary move that set an unforgivable precedent. Others feel that the use of the bombs not only spared hundreds of thousands of American lives but also saved the Japanese from the horrors of invasion of their home islands by the United States and the U.S.S.R. They believe that the conflict and widespread starvation inflicted by an invasion would have caused a large death toll—and that these casualties, along with a greater destruction of infrastructure, would have made the reconstruction of postwar Japan far more difficult than it turned out to be.

These judgments are based primarily on intuitive, emotional reactions, a lack of information, and—in the case of the veterans of the war and their families—self-interest. In the summer of 1945, tensions within the Japanese hierarchy were intense and precariously balanced. On both sides, issues concerning how best to consummate the war were many and complex.

This article has been written to provide information and insight so that you, the reader, can make as informed and objective a judgment as possible about the merits of using the bombs.

The author served with a United States Army Corps of Engineers battalion in India and Burma during World War II. This battalion built a B-29 bomber base in Eastern India. The battalion then moved to Northern Burma, where it helped build sections of the Ledo-Stilwell Road. The engineers were not involved in combat, but were within earshot of combat, and witnessed the devastation that modern warfare can inflict on civilian society. I have recently published a book about these wartime experiences, Building for Victory: World War II in China, Burma, and India, and the 1875th Engineer Aviation Battalion.

While researching my book, I found a wealth of information about the rise of Japan as a leading world military power, the development of Japan’s military psyche, the growing strength of the forces closing in on Japan in 1945, and the conditions within Japan and its upper leadership echelons at that time. An understanding of this information is essential if objective judgments are to be made about the use of the bombs.

This article is based primarily on published material and the author’s personal experience. Special credit must be given to books by Edwin P. Hoyt (Japan’s War: The Great Pacific Conflict), E. Bartlett Kerr (Flames Over Tokyo), and James L. McClain (Japan: A Modern History).

This is included to provide insight into the arrogance and imperialism of pre-World War II Japan.

The origins of the Japanese people are shrouded in myth, archaeological findings, and ancient legends. But it appears that sometime before 300 or 400 A. D. there was a large influx of people from the mainland. These came together with the existing Jomon and Yaoi cultures in Japan to evolve into a modern population. The Japanese were never defeated by invaders in battle on those islands—until 1945.

1853:

Beginning in the sixteenth century, the Japanese prohibit entry by essentially all foreigners, until the arrival of Commodore Matthew C. Perry in 1853 with his U.S. naval fleet.

1867:

Emperor Meiji establishes his reign, and in less than two generations Japan transforms into a leading industrial and military power.

1894 to 1895:

In the Sino-Japanese War, Japan acquires Taiwan and the Liaotung Peninsula in Manchuria from China. China relinquishes its claims on Korea. Then Russia, together with other European powers, forces Japan to relinquish its control of the Liaotung Peninsula.

1898:

Russia persuades China to grant it a lease on the port of Port Arthur, located at the southern tip of the Liaotung Peninsula, effectively giving Russia control of the peninsula. Soon Russian forces advance into Manchuria, ostensibly to secure the Trans-Siberian Railroad traversing Manchuria and terminating at the Russian Pacific port of Vladivostok.

1904:

The Japanese fleet defeats the Russian fleet at Port Arthur in a surprise attack in February, and then Japan invades and overruns Korea. In May, a second Japanese army lands on the Liaotung Peninsula. It besieges Port Arthur and marches on the heavily fortified city of Mukden, then held by the Russians.

1905:

In January a Japanese newspaper publishes the Communist Manifesto. Its editor is sent to prison and the paper is shut down.

Also in January the Russians surrender at Port Arthur. In February the siege of Mukden develops into a brutal battle involving 330,000 Russian troops and 270,000 Japanese troops—the largest number of combatants in history until this time. With the Japanese mounting attack after attack, losses presage those to be experienced later, in World War I. Japanese casualties reach 70,000 and Russian casualties 90,000. The Russians withdraw to the north of Mukden, which is occupied by the Japanese. In May the technically superior Japanese fleet destroys the great Russian fleet, which had sailed halfway around the globe from the Baltic Sea. The Russian fleet loses 205,000 tons of shipping, sunk or captured; the Japanese lose 300 tons. The Russians lose 11,000 sailors, either killed or captured; the Japanese lose 117 killed. Japan emerges as one of the world’s great military powers. The Japanese people glory in the accomplishments of their military and in their nation’s new and hard-won prominence.

Both armies are exhausted, and Japan is close to bankruptcy. In June the warring nations agree to negotiate a peace treaty in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the United States, under the sponsorship of President Theodore Roosevelt. In September the Treaty of Portsmouth is signed, ending the Russo-Japanese War. Japan receives control of Korea, Port Arthur, the entire Liaotung Peninsula, Southern Sakhalin Island, and the southern Manchurian rail system. The Japanese press and nationalist groups react with unrestrained outrage; they feel the treaty terms fall far short of what the nation has earned through its stunning military victories. There are widespread riots, and some newspapers urge that the entire Japanese Cabinet be assassinated.

1910:

Japan officially annexes Korea. This meets with little resentment throughout the world.

1912:

Emperor Meiji dies.

1914:

Japan declares war on Germany. Japanese forces occupy the Mariana, Caroline, and Marshall Islands, all German colonies. Germany surrenders its colonial leasehold in China’s Shandong Province to Japan.

1920:

The League of Nations is established. It is an association of countries formed to maintain world peace after World War I. Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States draw up its constitution. The United States never formally joins the organization. The League ceases to function when World War II starts.

1922:

The League of Nations grants trusteeship of the former German colonies in China to Japan, and of their Pacific islands, including Iwo Jima and the Marianas. The Japanese government establishes a policy of settling large numbers of Japanese in these islands.

A Communist party is established in Japan. The party dissolves itself in 1924, owing to official opposition, but is reconstituted in 1926.

1928:

Police arrest large numbers of Communists and other political activists.

1931:

Japan occupies all of Manchuria and sets up a puppet government there.

1932:

Imperialist factions assassinate Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai, a moderate.

1936:

On February 26, Several Japanese military units initiate a coup in an attempt to form a more nationalistic government. They assassinate the Emperor’s Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, Saito Makoto, Finance Minister Takahashi Korekiyo, and army Inspector General Watanabe Jotaro, all moderates. Hirohito’s grand chamberlain, Suzuki Kantaro is wounded. Prime Minister Okada Keisuke barely escapes. The coup is unsuccessful. A token few of the officers who led the attack are executed, but the army gains increased power in the government’s political affairs.

1937:

Japan invades China. In an attempt to break the will of the Chinese, the Japanese army slaughters 250,000 people in the “rape of Nanking.”

Japan announces its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Under this concept, Japan intends to make fiefdoms out of all Asian countries from India through the Pacific Islands and from Manchuria to New Guinea. The invasion of China is a pivotal move in implementing this concept.

1938:

The Japanese seal off the entire Pacific coast of China.

Summer 1941:

The Japanese are eager to take over all of Southeast Asia. The Germans are advancing rapidly through Europe, and the Japanese do not want to be left behind.

Japan invades French Indochina (later named South Vietnam).

October 1941:

General Hideki Tojo is appointed head of the Japanese government. He converts it to a military dictatorship.

December 1941:

On December 7 Japan launches a surprise attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and destroys most of the U.S. Navy’s ships anchored there. The next day President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an address to the nation, declares December 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy.” The United States declares war on Japan, and, in the same week, on Germany; both nations reciprocate.

1942:

In the four months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japan overruns all of Asia east of India, except Australia, New Zealand, and the northern tip of Burma. Its supply line from Tokyo to Northern Burma extends for 4,400 miles. In addition, it has 2 million soldiers in China and 1 million at the Soviet-Manchuria border.

April 1942:

U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle leads his 16 B-25 bombers on a raid over Tokyo. Fourteen of the planes reach China, one ditches in the Sea of Japan, and one lands in Vladivostok, U.S.S.R. Many of the crews are rescued by the Chinese. In retribution for aiding the American pilots, the Japanese army in China kills another 250,000 Chinese civilians. Of 80 crewmembers, 3 die while ditching or bailing out, 4 die in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, 11 die in later combat in the war, and 62 survive the war.

The code of the Japanese soldier was called Bushido—the Way of the Warrior.

In 1937, Bushido was institutionalized in Japan. Schoolboys were inculcated with it and had to participate in military drills. Bushido included the following principles:

"The soldier must win victory or die."
Rarely would a Japanese soldier surrender.

"To be taken prisoner is to dishonor the soldier, his family, the Army, and the Emperor."
This made fighting to the death mandatory.

"Anyone who allows himself to be conquered is an inferior, has no rights, and thus is subject to any treatment the conquerors wish to impose."
This made brutes of the Japanese soldiers, permitting them to inflict this philosophy on the prisoners they captured.

"Fear not to die for the cause of everlasting justice."
This glorified their banzai, or relentless, but frequently suicidal charges, charges made for love of the Emperor and the glory of Japan.

Bushido became a way of life with the Japanese soldier. Because of it, he would often fight to the death, even when it was clear that the Japanese had no hope of winning the battle. On occasion, the Japanese forces would retreat, but they rarely surrendered. As a result, Japanese battle casualties were frequently far greater than those of the Americans, British, Australians, and Indians.

June 1944:

The Allies invade the Mariana Islands, and the Japanese are routed by the end of August. B-29 bomber bases are established there. The B-29s move from India to the Marianas and are joined by large numbers of B-29s flown in from the United States.

When the B-29s arrive in the Marianas, Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni, commander of the Home Defense Command, realizes that their arrival there puts an end to Japan’s hope for victory. He says, “We have nothing in Japan that we can use against such a weapon. From the point of view of the Home Defense Command, we feel the war is lost and we say so.”

November 1944:

B-29s start high-level bombing of Japan from the Mariana Islands. Their one-way trip is only 1,500 miles to Japan, compared with the 3,600 miles from Western Bengal in India.

February 4, 1945:

The first Allied convoy from Ledo, Assam, India traverses the Stilwell road through Northern Burma and Western China and arrives in Kunming. The Japanese have been driven out of Northern Burma; the land bridge to China is open.

February 19, 1945:

United States Marines invade Iwo Jima, a Pacific Island 670 miles southeast of Tokyo and halfway between the Japanese capital and the B-29 bases in the Marianas. The Japanese commander, Major General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, had arrived on the island in June 1944. He had spent the following months constructing massive concrete blockhouses, pillboxes, and bunkers commanding the entire island, which encompasses only eight square miles. These were connected by a 17-mile catacomb of tunnels, living quarters, and supply caches carved deep in the island’s rock formations, providing an almost impregnable fortress. In February 1945, 70,000 U.S. Marines and 22,000 Japanese begin a bitter battle over this tiny island. The battle lasts for 36 days. On March 26 the Marines take control of the island. Japanese losses are 21,000 dead—95 percent of their personnel. The Marines suffer 6,800 dead and 19,000 wounded—37 percent of their forces.

In ensuing weeks, airbases are built on Iwo Jima for P-51 long-range, high-speed fighter planes, which provide fighter support for the B-29 raids over Japan. These bases also provide emergency-landing facilities for returning, damaged U.S. planes. By the end of the war, less than five months later, 2,400 B-29s carrying 26,400 crewmen make emergency landings here.

March 10, 1945:

Three hundred B-29s stage the first low-level (5,000 to 8,000-foot altitude) night incendiary bombing raid over Tokyo. The results are devastating. Sixteen square miles of the city go up in a tornado of flames. Fatality estimates range from 83,000 (the U.S. military’s estimate) to 200,000 people. Following the raid nearly 2 million people leave Tokyo.

March 11 through August 5, 1945:

Eighty-nine B-29 bombing raids are conducted against the 67 largest Japanese cities. Destruction of these cities ranges from 12 percent to 99 percent; the average is 49 percent. One estimate places the resulting fatalities at 500,000 people. In June the bombers start dropping millions of pamphlets urging the Japanese to surrender before they starve to death. In July the bombers start dropping leaflets telling the Japanese which cities will be bombed in the next few days so they can evacuate. On August 1 a record 793 B-29s bomb Japan. This is a massive and deliberate show of force by the United States to make clear what the Japanese will face if their country is invaded.

In addition, during this period 33 air raids are made in which mines are dropped on Japan’s harbors and key shipping routes. This cuts the nation off from imports, including food and fuel.

April 1, 1945:

The first of 183,000 American soldiers assault the beaches of Okinawa in what is to be a deadly battle serving as the prelude for the invasion of Japan. Okinawa is about 350 miles southwest of Kyushu, the Japanese home island that is to be the site of the initial Allied invasion of those islands. Okinawa is about 60 miles long, comprising 480 square miles of rugged, often mountainous terrain with numerous ravines, hills, rock outcroppings, and caves. It is ideally suited for strong defensive positions. It is scheduled to be the main staging area for the planned invasion of Kyushu.

The battle rages until June 21, when the United States occupies all of Okinawa. During the battle, Japan responds with an unprecedented number of kamikaze attacks. These attacks are made by pilots who deliver their bomb load by ramming the plane into its target, killing themselves in the process. Largely because of these attacks, the United States Navy loses 36 ships and has 368 damaged—more ships damaged or lost than in any other battle of the war. United States combat losses are 12,520 killed and 36,361 wounded, a 27 percent casualty rate. Japanese losses are 107,000 soldiers killed and 10,000 captured, a 91 percent casualty rate. An estimated 100,000 to 150,000 civilians are killed. This number is uncertain, since many take refuge in caves, which are then blown up. Okinawa has less than 1 percent of the landmass and population of Japan.

June 28, 1945:

Japan ends its resistance in the Philippine Islands.

February 1945:

Prince Konoe presents a confidential memorandum to the emperor. In it, he points out the dramatic success of the Soviet Union’s forces against Germany and observes that there is “considerable danger that the Soviet Union will eventually intervene in Japan’s domestic affairs.” He further observes that on the “domestic scene I see all the conditions necessary to bring about the Communist revolution.” (The anticipated result: The emperor and his family would share the fate of Russia’s Tsar Nicholas and his family—capture and assassination.) The prince advises the emperor that the only way to avoid this is by ending the war “as soon as possible.”

April 12, 1945:

President Roosevelt dies. Vice President Harry S. Truman succeeds him.

April 13, 1945:

Japan establishes the National Volunteer Force, headed by the prime minister. Every man, woman, and child is to be trained to use weapons, including bamboo spears and explosives.

After the invasion of Okinawa, Army General Kujniaki Koiso resigns as prime minister and General Hajime Sugiyama resigns as war minister. Both ardently favor fighting the American invaders to the bitter end. The emperor appoints as prime minister Admiral Kantaro Suzuki; the admiral is a moderate who knows that the emperor is impatient for peace. Admiral Suzuki appoints a civilian, Shigenori Togo, as foreign minister. He too favors peace. General Anami, a hard-liner, becomes war minister. General Sugiyama and General Shunroku Hata, both irredeemable hard-liners, are assigned the responsibility of preparing the 2.5 million soldiers on the Japanese home islands to resist the coming invasion as effectively as possible.

May 8, 1945:

After the surrender of Germany, the Japanese military knows that it now faces the world alone. The Supreme Council of Japan meets and agrees that the Soviet Union should be offered concessions to stay neutral and to intercede with the Allies to obtain a more favorable peace settlement for Japan. The Soviets do not respond.

During this effort, the Japanese ambassador in Moscow repeatedly informs his government in Tokyo that the only way to achieve peace is to accept the Allies’ unconditional surrender demands. Tokyo steadfastly refuses to do so. These messages are intercepted by the Allies, who have broken Japan’s secret codes. The refusal of the government in Tokyo to accept unconditional surrender reinforces the Allies’ concern that the Japanese would resist invasion by any and every means available.

May 12, 1945:

Churchill issues the statement, “An iron curtain is drawn down upon their (the Russian) front.” The Cold War has commenced.

May 25, 1945:

The United States’ Joint Chiefs of Staff approve Operation Olympic, the invasion of the home island of Kyushu, Japan, scheduled for November 1, 1945. This is to be followed on March 1, 1946, by Operation Coronet, the invasion of the main island of Honshu. The assault force for the invasion of Kyushu is scheduled to involve 335,000 troops, more than double the manpower and supplies used in the assault against Normandy and more than triple the number of ships. The initial force for invading the main island of Honshu is to be even greater. American intelligence indicates that there are three Japanese divisions (66,000 soldiers) on Kyushu.

United States leaders recognize that a prolonged effort to overcome Japanese resistance after the invasion will give Stalin an opportunity to deploy Soviet troops in the Japanese home islands. This will certainly lead to reconstruction problems in Japan like those currently facing the Allies in a similarly divided Germany. There the potentially explosive tension between totalitarian communism and free democracy puts severe limitations on what can be accomplished in rebuilding Europe. To achieve an early victory against Japan, the high command of the United States has planned the largest assault force in history for the invasion, and possesses complete air and naval superiority. The aim is to crush Japanese resistance with such massive force that capitulation will come quickly.

May 31, 1945:

During the month, in Washington, DC the Interim Committee on S-1 meets several times. This committee was formed to provide recommendations to President Truman concerning the use of the atomic bomb, should it be successfully developed. The committee is chaired by Secretary of War Henry Stimson, and includes top government officials and some of the nations leading scientists. At the last session, on May 31, it is joined by a panel of the top scientists involved in developing the atomic bomb. The committee and panel unanimously reach three conclusions:

1. The bomb should be used against Japan as soon as possible.
2. It should be used against war plants surrounded by workers homes and other buildings to maximize the impact of the bomb.
3. It should be used without warning.

Concurrently others who are aware of the atomic bomb project write compelling letters to the President urging that the bomb not be used, fearing that to do so would open a Pandora’s Box of future misuse of this fearful weapon. These concerns are overridden by the urgency perceived for ending the war quickly and with minimal casualties on both sides.

Secretary Stimson would later write: The ultimate responsibility for the recommendation to the President rested on me, and I have no desire to veil it. ...I felt that to extract a genuine surrender from the Emperor and his military advisers, there must be administered a tremendous shock which would carry convincing proof of our power to destroy the Empire. Such an effective shock would save many times the number of lives, both American and Japanese, that it would cost.

June 1945:

Some American soldiers obtain the bones of dead Japanese soldiers, carve them into artifacts, and mail them home, where pictures of them are displayed in hometown newspapers. Copies of these articles are obtained by Japanese sympathizers and forwarded through diplomatic channels in South America to Tokyo. The Japanese military command, recognizing their propaganda value, has the articles translated and disseminated throughout the country under blaring headlines.

The Japanese revere the memories and remains of their dead. Desecration of these remains is considered the ultimate in moral depravity. The Japanese high command uses the American atrocities to convince the Japanese that their foes are brutal barbarians who will destroy their hallowed 3,000-year-old culture, and that any invasion must be repelled by all means and at any cost. The high command hopes that casualties inflicted on the Americans can be made so severe that they will settle for less than unconditional surrender. In the minds of the high command, this means no or only token occupation by the Americans, and continuing control of the postwar government by the Japanese military.

June 1945:

Prior estimates of American casualties by U.S. military leaders were that during the first 30 days of the Kyushu invasion, our casualties would equal or exceed the 42,000 casualties during the Normandy invasion for the same period. Estimates of causalities expected for the invasion of Kyushu and the main island of Honshu reached 220,000. On June 4, General Thomas Hardy of Marshall’s staff said our losses would be 500,000 to 1 million by the time we had completely subjugated all of the Japanese home islands, should the Japanese fight as tenaciously as they had at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

June 5, 1945:

Japan’s Supreme Council reviews a document titled “The Fundamental Policy to Be Followed Henceforth in the Conduct of the War.” It is a battle-to-the-death plan adamantly supported by the Army. Council members who favor peace say nothing. When the plan is presented to the emperor, he does not comment. There is grave concern that opposing the plan at this point will precipitate a military coup and possibly house arrest of the emperor. Later the full cabinet approves the plan.

June 9, 1945:

Prime Minister Suzuki announces that Japan will fight to the end rather than accept unconditional surrender. He feels it would be unwise to openly disagree with the military at this point.

The Japanese have been trained to believe that in an invasion their men would be reduced to slavery, their women would suffer unspeakable tortures, and their children would be brought up in foreign ways. They are prepared to die rather than surrender. Their wish, intensely encouraged by the military government, is that they may hurt the enemy so much that it will stop slaughtering their people and give Japan a peace with honor. Antiwar protestors are thrown into jail.

June 22, 1945:

The emperor summons the Japanese Supreme Council. It includes Prime Minister Admiral Suzuki, Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo, Privy Council President Kiichiro Hiranuma, Navy Minister Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai, War Minister General Korechika Anami, Army Chief of Staff General Yoshijiro Umezu, and Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Soemu Toyoda. The first four council members privately want to end the war; the remaining three adamantly support fighting until the Allies are forced to accord them an honorable peace.

The emperor tells them, “We have heard enough of this determination of yours to fight to the last soldiers. We wish that you, the leaders of Japan, will strive now to study the ways and means to conclude the war. In doing so, try not to be bound by the decisions you have made in the past.” The council members are silent. Not since the days of Emperor Meiji has an emperor implied criticism of the military and overridden its policies.

July 16, 1945:

The atomic bomb is first tested in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Its performance exceeds all expectations.

July 26, 1945:

The Allies issue the Potsdam Declaration, which offers Japan “an opportunity to end the war … and to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces… . The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.”

The U.S. high command learns there now may be as many as 286,000 Japanese troops defending Kyushu, and recognizes that this number is likely to increase. Because of the relentless resistance of the Japanese on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the U.S. high command expresses growing concern about the potential for extensive Allied casualties during the coming invasion. An additional complicating factor is that the Allied supply line from its staging area of Okinawa to Kyushu is some 350 miles long, compared with only 100 miles for the 1944 D-day invasion of France from England. This supply line will be exposed to kamikaze attacks. The Japanese have as many as 5,000 kamikaze planes available.

Should the invasion of Kyushu succeed, the main island of Honshu would be invaded on March 1, 1946, with the prime objective of capturing Tokyo. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, a young American soldier, Clarke Thomas, walked along the Honshu shores where this invasion was scheduled to be made. Thomas had an illustrious career in journalism after leaving the military and retired recently as senior editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. While standing on the intended invasion beaches, with his back to the sea, he looked along the shoreline, and he vividly recalls the narrow beach strand leading to cliffs. From stories circulating among the occupation forces with which he was serving, he could imagine the beach or cliffs lined with the women and children the Japanese army was said to be planning to use as a shield for the defending forces. Furthermore, he learned that behind the cliffs were rice paddies that could have neutralized the use of tanks even more than the hedgerows of Normandy had after the 1944 landings.

Prior to Truman’s meeting with Stalin at Potsdam, General Eisenhower advised the President not to urge the Soviets to enter the war against Japan. However, he felt no power on earth could keep the Red Army out of that war, unless victory came before they could get in. Despite Eisenhower’s recommendation, Truman was so concerned about the potential for massive Allied casualties in the invasion that he sought and obtained Stalin’s promise to enter the war against Japan. Truman later acknowledged that he would not have done so if he had known at the time that the atomic bombs would be so successful.

August 6, 1945:

The first atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, from a B-29 flown by Colonel Paul Tibbets. Eighty thousand civilians are killed outright; a comparable number later die from radiation. The city center is obliterated. Japan’s military is not dismayed. It has some insight into the potential of the atomic bomb. During the preceding winter, Japan’s atomic scientists had held a secret meeting and concluded that they had made little progress in developing such a bomb. The military is certain that the United States has only a limited number of atomic bombs. (The United States in fact has one left.)

Japan’s military is far more concerned about the B-29s’ unlimited supply of incendiary bombs. The military maintains its position that the Allies plan to destroy Japan and enslave its people, and its determination to defend its hallowed country to the last Japanese. The Japanese war minister, General Anami, announces on a national radio broadcast that “there is no other way than to fight out this sacred war determinedly for the defense of Japan.”

August 9, 1945:

The second atomic bomb is dropped—on Nagasaki from a plane flown by Major Charles Sweeney. Forty thousand die outright, another 40,000 later from radiation. The Soviet Union declares war on Japan. The Japanese public is told about the atomic bomb for the first time. The government-run media tells the nation that the use of the atomic bomb proves that the Americans intend to wipe out the Japanese race.

The next morning the Supreme Council meets to vote for war or for peace. The vote is three for peace, three for war. The prime minister abstains, fearing that his tiebreaking vote for peace would trigger a coup by the hard-line officers in the military. In the afternoon the cabinet meets. It overwhelmingly favors peace, but General Anami’s insistence on continued resistance rules out a unanimous decision. No action is taken.

The Imperial (Military) Headquarters issues a statement through the national press that concludes, “The day is near when 100 million people as one man will be in active resistance to the enemy, who does not allow any consideration of humanity and of cultural values to stand in the way of establishing hegemony over the world.”

At the request of Prime Minister Suzuki, the Supreme Council meets with the emperor. After a long discussion, the prime minister says, “I respectfully submit that his Imperial Majesty give the final judgment.” The emperor replies, “My opinion is the same as that of the foreign minister (for peace).” The war is over. Japan will accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, including unconditional surrender. The emperor briefly gives his reasons for the decision, and ends with “this is the time when we must bear the unbearable to restore peace to the nation and to the world.” The debate has ended. The Supreme Council can only accede to the emperor’s decision. The military leaders are stunned, but they do not object. The emperor’s decision is relayed to the Allies, with the provision that no change be made “in the national polity,” which means that the emperor’s position and function will continue. General Anami takes the position that if the Allies do not accept this provision, the nation will fight to the last man. Prime Minister Suzuki agrees. He feels that to do otherwise will increase the likelihood of a military coup attempt.

August 14:

B-29s drop 5 million leaflets on the cities of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe, and Kyoto. The message in the leaflets is,

“To the Japanese people:

“These American planes are not dropping bombs on you today. American planes are dropping these leaflets instead because the Japanese government has offered to surrender and every Japanese has the right to know the terms of the offer and of the reply to it by the U.S. Government on behalf of itself, the British, Chinese, and Soviet governments. Your government now has the chance to end the war immediately. You will see how the war can be ended by reading the two following statements. [The two statements are the full text of the Japanese government’s message to the Allies, and the Allies’ reply.] “

Seven-hundred seventy B-29s bomb other Japanese cities.

Over the objections of the military leaders, the emperor orders the cabinet to draft the nation’s acceptance of the Allies’ surrender demands. The emperor’s message to his people, accepting the surrender terms, is drafted and recorded for delivery the next day by radio. The emperor’s court chamberlain, Yoshihiro Tokugawa, hides the recording in the women’s quarters in the Imperial Palace, fearing that army officers will try to seize it.

That evening, a group of Japanese staff and line officers, under the direction of Major Kenji Hatanaka, attempts to prevent the emperor from announcing acceptance of the Allies’ Potsdam Declaration demanding unconditional surrender. They ask General Anami and General Shizuichi Tanaka, commander of the Eastern Region of the army, for their support, but are rebuffed by both. Major Hatanaka rushes to the office of Lieutenant General Takeshi Mori, commander of the Guards Division defending the Imperial Palace, and asks the general to join him. He refuses and is shot dead by the major.

Major Hatanaka enters the Imperial Palace and orders the palace guard to seal off the palace from anyone entering or leaving. His men enter the emperor’s quarters, an action punishable by death, but are unable to find the emperor’s recorded message. They accost the court chamberlain in his bed, threatening to kill him if he does not tell where the recording is hidden. The court chamberlain refuses.

At the same time, other participants in the coup attempt go to Prime Minister Suzuki’s official residence and to his private quarters, intent on killing him. He is not in either house. Both houses are burned to the ground.

Major Hatanaka goes to the central radio station and demands to speak to the nation. His request is refused, and he lacks the technical ability to operate the facility even if he does take it over. While there he learns that the guards at the Imperial Palace have been ordered to return to their barracks. He returns to the Imperial Palace. En route he hears that General Anami has committed hara-kiri—seppuku, ritual selfdisembowelment. At the palace he finds that the guards have left and realizes that the coup attempt has failed. He pulls out his pistol and shoots himself.

August 15, noon:

The imperial broadcast is made to the nation. In his address the emperor states,

“After pondering deeply the general trends of the world and the actual condition obtaining in our empire today, We have decided to effect a settlement of the present situation by resorting to an extraordinary measure.

“We have ordered our government to communicate to the governments of the United States, Great Britain, China, and the Soviet Union that our empire accepts the provisions of their Joint [Potsdam] Declaration.

“The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage, while the general trends of the world have all turned against her interest. Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is indeed incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, it would result not only in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization. Such being the case, how are We to save the millions of our subjects, or to atone ourselves before the hallowed spirits of our imperial ancestors? This is the reason why We have ordered the acceptance of the provisions of the Joint Declaration of the Powers.

“We have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable, and suffering what is insufferable.”

The war is over.

Some 500 Japanese military officers commit hara-kiri. These are the hard-liners who not only feel bound by their Bushido code but revere it. To them, surrendering to a foreign enemy is the ultimate dishonor.

The Emperor’s only reference in his speech to the Japanese military setbacks during the war is his statement, “The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage,” This appears to be a ridiculously naive recognition of the fact that since August 1942 Japan had been defeated in every battle waged against the Allies. His statement was anything but naive. He feared that anything he said about the defeats of Japans’ military during the war would insult the honor of his top military leaders, and would result in a coup, his house arrest, and the hard-line military taking control of the government. He clearly remembers the bloody 1936 unsuccessful coup.

During the summer of 1945 two massive and endless naval conveyor belts of ships move troops, arms, and supplies westward across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. These are to be used in the invasion of the Japanese island of Kyushu, scheduled for November 1. After the ships unload their cargoes at the staging areas for the invasion, they return to Europe and the west coast of the United States to pick up and return again and again, with more troops, arms, and supplies. The troops from Europe are those who have had limited experience there in the war against Germany. The troops embarking in ports on the West Coast have had little or no prior combat experience.

Shortly after the Japanese surrender on August 15, instructions are wired to all troop ships en route across the Atlantic, or waiting to pass through the Panama Canal. These ships are ordered to change course and to proceed to designated ports on the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts of the United States. Upon arrival, these troops are to be separated from service and return to civilian life. The troops sailing west across the Pacific are to serve in the forces occupying Japan and its satellite islands.

1. The B-29 bombing campaign over Japan has destroyed 3.1 million homes, leaving 15 million people homeless, and has killed an estimated 1 million Japanese. The prime motivating factors in Japan’s surrender are the awful toll resulting from the ruthless firebombing and Emperor Hirohito’s conviction that if necessary the Allies, to achieve their demand for unconditional surrender, could and would destroy Japan and kill every Japanese who resists.

2. In Japan the winter of 1944–45 is the most severe in decades. The 1945 rice harvest is 40 percent below normal. Hunger and malnutrition are rampant. Clothing of all kinds is scarce. Consumer goods production has fallen from 45 percent of the gross national product in 1941 to only 17 percent in 1945. The nation is completely cut off from imports of food, fuel, and everything else.

3. On the island of Saipan, in the Mariana Islands, which the Allies invaded in August 1944, over 90 percent of the population of 50,000 Japanese committed suicide, including 20,000 who die by leaping from high cliffs at one end of the island. They believe without reservation their government’s warning about what savage beasts the American invaders will be.

Yet when the U.S. occupying forces move into Japan after the surrender, the Japanese men are amazed that not only are they not enslaved but the Americans work with them to rebuild Japan. The women are not brutalized, and find that the American soldiers generally treat them as well as or better than their fathers and husbands do.

4. By May 1945 the Japanese have been driven out of Burma. The old Burma Road and the Stilwell Road are both bringing supplies into China. Japan is withdrawing its China forces from central China to the Pacific coastal areas. Japan has lost most of its Pacific island strongholds, including its inner defense ring of Okinawa, Iwo Jima, and the Mariana Islands. Japan has been soundly defeated in every battle with the Allies since the summer of 1942. The Allies have effective control of the air and complete control of the sea; the Japanese navy is out of diesel fuel. Japan has no defense against the B-29s.

5. General Kuribayashi, the Japanese commander on Iwo Jima, has a close family, with a wife and three children. They correspond frequently. On January 21, 1945, a month before the American invasion of the island, the general writes to his wife, “No one here expects to return alive, but we are determined to do our best. Do not plan for my return.” On March 23, three days before the Americans take full control of Iwo Jima, the general commits hara-kiri. Many of his officers do the same, and the wounded Japanese are given hand grenades should they wish to use them. They choose an “honorable” death, giving up their only chance of returning home alive after the war.

The American military command is painfully aware of the large numbers of dead and wounded the Americans sustained in the battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The military seeks to minimize such dreadful losses in the coming invasion of Japan’s home islands. Wherever the Japanese resist, the Americans may pull back their ground forces. When a Japanese strongpoint is encountered, the Americans will subject the defenders to overwhelming aerial and artillery bombardment with explosives, incendiaries, and napalm—a highly combustible petroleum jelly.

Because of the concerns about potentially high casualty rates, the U.S. Naval Command favors a strategy of blockade and bombardment to force Japan to surrender, with minimal use of ground forces. This strategy would share the disadvantages of failing to deal with the several million Japanese troops in Manchuria and throughout Southeast Asia, and of the possibility that popular support for the war in America could dwindle during a prolonged conflict.

6. In the summer of 1945, Japan’s Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi orders all Japanese prison camp commanders to kill all prisoners of war the moment Japan’s home islands are invaded. The order reads, “… annihilate them all and not leave a single trace.” Every prison camp receives that order and prepares communal graves. There are an estimated 220,000 prisoners of war in these camps. The order also requires the Japanese military to fight to the death.

Should these prisoners of war, who have survived the Japanese camps, be massacred following the invasion, a domino effect may be triggered. The invasion may become more ruthless, the defending Japanese are then likely to fight to the death in larger numbers, the devastation of Japan will thus be greater, and the country’s ultimate postwar acceptance into the postwar community of nations will most likely be delayed.

Prior to August 6, Laurens van der Post, a prisoner in the Bandung, Java, POW camp, learns of Field Marshal Terauchi’s order. He concludes that only some unknown and cataclysmic event can prevent the massacre of the POWs. After the war he writes that unless the Japanese “could be defeated in such a way that they were not deprived of their honor by defeat, there was nothing but disaster for them and us in the end.”

Arthur E.R.E. Vis Dieperink is a retired Dutch executive who spent his teen years during the war in a Japanese camp housing 10,000 POWs near Bandung, Java. He remembers that “the death rate due to starvation, malaria, and dysentery was alarmingly high, and sadistic tortures were a daily routine. Our ‘blocks’ of barracks consisted of H-shaped buildings, each block containing 600 prisoners. In front of every exit we were ordered to build a machine-gun dugout which could quickly be manned to kill any fleeing prisoner. In our minds, a quick, forceful way to stop the war was absolutely needed to prevent the overall onslaught that otherwise would occur.”

7. A prolonged contest following the invasion will no doubt provide ample time for the Soviets to invade Japan from the west. This will likely bring together the Communist sympathizers in the Japanese population and result in a Japan as tragically divided as Germany.

8. After the surrender announcement, the emperor learns that Field Marshal Terauchi plans to fight on. He sends his brother, Prince Chi-Chi-Bu, to Saigon to persuade the field marshal to adhere to his wishes and surrender. Other members of the emperor’s family are dispatched to additional Japanese commands whose leaders are suspected of similar disobedience.

9. In his surrender speech on August 15, the emperor says that further use of atomic bombs “would lead to the total extinction of human civilization.” Clearly the emperor is using the terrible destructive power of the atomic bombs not only as the justification for surrendering but also to enhance Japan’s moral standing among nations by placing the world’s collective good above Japan’s self-interest in defending its hallowed ground.

10. Should the Japanese fight to the last man, as they have on Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and in many other battles, the resulting carnage of Japanese soldiers and civilians will be unprecedented. Starvation and death from exposure in Japan’s harsh winter may further decimate the civilian population. The destruction of homes, farms, and infrastructure would take decades and billions of dollars to replace. The postwar relations between the conquerors and the conquered may be irreparable for generations. There is no way to know whether the Japanese will or will not resist so resolutely. But the loss of life on both sides and the desolation of the countryside resulting from a prolonged struggle is likely to be so fearful that all practical means should be taken to avoid such an outcome. This consideration is paramount in forming the decision as to whether or not the atomic bombs should be used.

A. After the war, in the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Vol. 1, it is concluded that “Certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to November 1, 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.”

This report is based on thousands of pages of information and interviews.

B. Conversely, Dr. Taro Takemi, who is Japanese, writes in the August 5, 1983, issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, “When one considers the possibility that the Japanese military would have sacrificed the entire nation if it were not for the atomic bomb attack, then this bomb might be described as having saved Japan.”

Dr. Takemi was president of the Japanese Medical Association for 25 years, from 1957 to 1982. Later he was president of the World Medical Association, and then professor of international health at the Harvard School of Public Health. He believed that a majority of the Japanese people agreed with him.

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In early August 1945, U.S. President Harry S. Truman is faced with four basic alternate scenarios. These are listed in ascending order of expected increasing casualties on both sides and increasing difficulty in reconstructing Japan. (This is after the successful test of the atom bomb in Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16.)

1. The atomic bomb(s) is or are dropped; this precipitates Japan’s surrender.

2. The invasion of Kyushu Island takes place on November 1, and the Japanese capitulate without further resistance. The bombs are not used.

3. The bombs are used in early August and Japan remains intransigent. Kyushu Island is invaded and the Japanese then capitulate without further resistance.

4. The bombs are not used prior to the invasion. After the invasion the Japanese desperately resist the invaders in every valley and on every hill. The bombs may be used to destroy strong, mountainous defensive positions of the Japanese. The use of the bombs at this late point could be seen by the Japanese as an act of desperation on the part of the invaders, causing the Japanese to resist even more determinedly. Continued use of the bombs may result in dramatic opposition both in the United States and abroad. One of the main attributes of the atomic bomb, its psychological impact, could only be used effectively if the bombs are dropped before or at the very beginning of the invasion.

The second and third scenarios are more deadly than the first, largely because the Allies will have to soften up Japan prior to the invasion by conducting massive air raids and naval shelling. During this three-month period, Japanese deaths could reach epidemic proportions due to exposure, disease, and starvation.

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Although the Allies’ high command is deeply concerned about its potential casualties resulting from the coming invasion, there is no way to quantify these losses beforehand. They would be largely depend on the extent and tenacity of the Japanese resistance, and on how many of the 2.5 million Japanese soldiers on the home islands and tens of millions of citizens would fight to the death. Despite the dire precedent set by the Japanese on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the magnitude of the coming Japanese resistance is unknowable.

In making the decision about using the atomic bombs, President Truman had to choose between two imponderables:

1. Would the atomic bombs, if they worked, tip the scale within the Japanese hierarchy, causing it to surrender promptly, or would they not?

2. How long and how fiercely would Japan resist the invasion if the bombs were not used, or if they only strengthened Japan’s will to resist?

In the first case, there was no way to know whether or not the bombs would make a difference.

In the second case, if the bombs are used, the unjustified death toll from the explosions and radiation could be in the hundreds of thousands. To be meaningful, this figure would have to be reduced by the number of casualties that would occur in a drawn-out invasion.

What is known is that on the islands that had been Japanese territory for decades—the Marianas, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa—the defending Japanese soldiers fought to essentially the last man, and the civilian casualties were 20 percent to 30 percent of the population in Okinawa and as high as 90 percent in the Marianas.

The atomic bomb is a new, unexpected, and devastating weapon. As such, it might—or might not—tip the internal balance of power at the highest levels in the Japanese government. If the bombs should precipitate a prompt surrender, the rewards would be a significant saving of lives on both sides, a much less difficult reconstruction of Japan, and the ability of the United States to carry out that reconstruction without interference from the Soviets. If the bombs did not precipitate surrender, they would result in an increase in fatalities if Japanese resistance to the invasion was eliminated relatively quickly. As resistance was prolonged, the relative effect of the bombs on the death toll would diminish.

Now put yourself in the place of President Truman in early August 1945. You have broad insight into the issues and what is at stake. What should be your decision about dropping the atomic bombs?