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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (107785)	8/27/2005 10:08:19 AM
From: J. C. Dithers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

I didn't have an opinion on Nagasaki until I read the Japanese author's book review. I'm sorry Grainne, but I find that disengenuous and self-serving. After all the negative things you have said about this country and its history -- do you really expect people to believe that you had no prior opinion on the atomic bombings? That would be wholly inconsistent with the personna you have revealed here over considerable time. We should not jump on words that may be spoken in haste and without due thought. Yet this is what you said, and it does not appear to leave room for any ambiguity. On the subject of the Japanese professor's book, I have done some research on him and conclude that he is a respected scholar with no extremist connections. His academic specialty is Russian studies. I have read a ton of professional reviews and discussions of his book outside of Amazon. My overall impression is that his book is a well-researched and very readable account of the events surrounding the surrender of the Japanese, but that it does not contain any startling new facts or "smoking-gun" to support a new interpretation of the reason for the atomic bombings. That there were multiple motives for Truman's decision, including apprehensions about Russia's postwar intentions, has never been disputed. The unanswerable question is how were these various considerations prioritized and weighed? Which of them were the overriding motive(s)? The professor's conclusion portrays Truman in an unfavorable light. But we must remember that in the highly competitive environment of book-publishing, it is necessary to have a compelling "hook." Demonizing Truman fulfills this objective quite well. I may well read this book at some point as the subject matter is of great interest to me. But I won't expect it to penetrate the veil of what was deep in a person's mind.