Any article postulating that "Truman's ulterior motive in dropping those two bombs was American superpowerdom in the postwar arena" is only good for wrapping fish. Harry Truman was one of the most humble and plain-thinking men ever to unexpectedly find himself president. Attributing Machiavellian, grandiose motives to him is not credible in the least.
You seem to have the odd notion that the U.S. is responsible not only for its own actions in conflict situations, but for the actions of it's adversaries as well.
The war-government of Japan, having marginalized the Emperor and other moderates, was perfectly ready to sacrifice the population down to the last man, woman, and child. The glorious banner was, "100,000,000 Die With Honor!" Our own 200,000 POW's were just incidental dead men walking (crawling is more like it).
Do you ever give any thought as to how, as a rational person, you deal with such crazed fanaticism? (It will not be lost on you that this question has contemporary as well as historical significance).
The threat of national suicide was not an empty slogan. Virtually the entire Japanese population had been conscripted by the time of Hiroshima--old men, old women, and children, and everyone in between. They were being armed and trained (crudely) to defend the country to the death.
How does a population of 100,000,000 stack up to you in comparison to 250,000 killed by two A-bombs?
Incidentally, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not sneak attacks. The Japanese government had been warned of a powerful new weapon and those very cities were blanketed by leaflets (in Japanese) warning the residents to evacuate. Moreover, Hiroshima was headquarters for the army division responsible for homeland defense, and both cities were the site of extensive munitions industry. They were by no stretch purely civilian targets.
It should give you some pause to think that even after Hiroshima, this insane government would not bend or break in its determination to destroy its own entire population and cease to exist as a nation, rather than surrender. |
