Agreed, Graham. In 1945 I was still a Canadian. I remember well the horror of August 6th. I was 12 years old. My Father's thinking (and thus mine) was that if it ended the war, it was probably necessary. However, even then, the second bombing of Nagasaki a mere three days later, was unforgivable. Years later, I took a summer class in nuclear physics, led by one of the physicists who had worked with the Oppenheimer's in New Mexico, and observed the test of the first Little Boy, in July. I learned of the rivalry between the Oppenheimer Brothers and Enrico Fermi was the real excuse for dropping both Little Boy and Fat Man. I was disgusted as well as horrified. That the rivalry between physicists could result in the needless, painful, and long term death of thousands of people at the hands of a government I, as an American had come to respect sickened me. While I admit, Harry S Truman did some fine things as President, I have lost respect for him for his racist action in approving Nagasaki. Had the atomic bomb been available in April 1945, I seriously doubt it would have been dropped on the Caucasian Germans.
That with the rivalry comes as news to me. The timing between the drops was shortened. It was to be a week (11 August), but Nagasaki was advanced to the 9th due to the weather. But those two days were not just any two days. They were two days of a scheduled ultimatum. Tibbets decided the Japanese were not going to surrender. He decided what the reaction of the entire Japanese Empire was going to be. Gunboat diplomacy at it very worst. Exactly what we just saw in Iran. In fact, the devastation at Hiroshima was so complete, the Japanese government learned of the wipe-out not from their own people, but from the announcement by the US president. The "shadow on the wall" that Albury noticed died in a fraction of a second. Not so those crushed under debris, who would be fried alive in the firestorm that ensued. Does it serve a man's soul to ally with the devil on the pretext that he does good by it?
Is it consolation to know that an evil deed was done with wholesome intention? Yes, it ended the war, a dreadful war. But it started many wars, which came after. It established the United States as the overseer of the world, a position of supreme responsibility, but one it exercises with questionable, or even fatuous, underpinning. For, if carefully worded declarations, and the careful conference with allied partners under Quebec, and carefully worded leaflets and warnings can render these acts of horror acceptable (along with code names like Little Boy and Fat Man, to reduce reaction to the horror to the smirk on our faces as we watch the distortion of some hapless cartoon character), then is that the test of horror? "Horror is when you kill with a grimace on your face, and not when you kill having dropped leaflets."
The lesson from these horrors should have been that of the airmen wearing their welder's goggles. They couldn't believe what they were seeing, or, afterwards, what they had done. At least one of their generals should have been up there with them. Not to share the task, but to share their horror. To take that back with him into the conference halls of power.
Agreed, Graham. In 1945 I was still a Canadian. I remember well the horror of August 6th. I was 12 years old. My Father's thinking (and thus mine) was that if it ended the war, it was probably necessary. However, even then, the second bombing of Nagasaki a mere three days later, was unforgivable. Years later, I took a summer class in nuclear physics, led by one of the physicists who had worked with the Oppenheimer's in New Mexico, and observed the test of the first Little Boy, in July. I learned of the rivalry between the Oppenheimer Brothers and Enrico Fermi was the real excuse for dropping both Little Boy and Fat Man. I was disgusted as well as horrified. That the rivalry between physicists could result in the needless, painful, and long term death of thousands of people at the hands of a government I, as an American had come to respect sickened me. While I admit, Harry S Truman did some fine things as President, I have lost respect for him for his racist action in approving Nagasaki. Had the atomic bomb been available in April 1945, I seriously doubt it would have been dropped on the Caucasian Germans.
That with the rivalry comes as news to me. The timing between the drops was shortened. It was to be a week (11 August), but Nagasaki was advanced to the 9th due to the weather. But those two days were not just any two days. They were two days of a scheduled ultimatum. Tibbets decided the Japanese were not going to surrender. He decided what the reaction of the entire Japanese Empire was going to be. Gunboat diplomacy at it very worst. Exactly what we just saw in Iran. In fact, the devastation at Hiroshima was so complete, the Japanese government learned of the wipe-out not from their own people, but from the announcement by the US president. The "shadow on the wall" that Albury noticed died in a fraction of a second. Not so those crushed under debris, who would be fried alive in the firestorm that ensued. Does it serve a man's soul to ally with the devil on the pretext that he does good by it?
Is it consolation to know that an evil deed was done with wholesome intention? Yes, it ended the war, a dreadful war. But it started many wars, which came after. It established the United States as the overseer of the world, a position of supreme responsibility, but one it exercises with questionable, or even fatuous, underpinning. For, if carefully worded declarations, and the careful conference with allied partners under Quebec, and carefully worded leaflets and warnings can render these acts of horror acceptable (along with code names like Little Boy and Fat Man, to reduce reaction to the horror to the smirk on our faces as we watch the distortion of some hapless cartoon character), then is that the test of horror? "Horror is when you kill with a grimace on your face, and not when you kill having dropped leaflets."
The lesson from these horrors should have been that of the airmen wearing their welder's goggles. They couldn't believe what they were seeing, or, afterwards, what they had done. At least one of their generals should have been up there with them. Not to share the task, but to share their horror. To take that back with him into the conference halls of power.