Seventy-five years ago, the first atomic bomb was being prepared to be dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima

 Seventy-five years ago, the first atomic bomb was being prepared to be dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Many have asked whether it was necessary to drop the bomb and from studying this time period for 25 years, I would say without this bomb, an invasion of Japan in November 1945 would have gone forward and cost the lives of millions of people. To explore the reasons for this historical assessment, let’s explore some interesting facts surrounding the history of the atomic bomb and how it has been dealt with in the post-1945 world. 

The Empire of Japan exacted a higher cost in human lives during just two operations out  of hundreds while raping and destroying China (approximately 300,000 dead in Nanking in 1937-1938, and 250,000 in greater Chekiang region in 1942) than the number of Japanese who died from the atomic bombs (Hiroshima claimed 140,000 and Nagasaki 70,000). Also unacknowledged are the 22 million Asians slaughtered by the Empire of Japan, the millions of rape victims (including women, girls and young boys) and the desolation that has come to be known as the Rape of Nanking, the Rape of Hong Kong, the Rape of Manila, the Rape of Canton and the Rape of Beijing just to name a few. In spite of Imperial Japan having started the Pacific War, targeted civilians in the bombing of Chinese cities, and forged a path of death, rape and destruction across Asia, some Japanese maintain the illusion of victimhood and demand apologies from America. 

As recently as May 2016, when U.S. President Obama visited Hiroshima, Terumi Tanaka, secretary general of Japan’s Confederation of A-Bomb and H-Bomb Sufferers, urged Obama to apologize to the victims, claiming the weapon “inhumane and against international law.” Tanaka attempted to convince the world to view the Japanese as victims of WWII, instead of as the assailants whose inhumane actions necessitated the use of the bombs in the first place. Historian John W. Dower writes that today in Japan “a collective sense of Japanese victimization in that terrible war generally prevails over recollection of how grievously Imperial Japan victimized others.” 

On the other side of the equation, some veterans’ groups advised Obama not to visit Hiroshima at all because it would be an “implicit apology” insulting U.S. veterans. Retired US Navy Rear Admiral Lloyd “Joe” Vasey, a WWII submarine officer, wrote: 

“Any presidential action or policy that even appears as an implicit apology for the use of the atomic bomb would be a gross insult to us and our valiant comrades who fought and sacrificed…to win the war and bring us a peace that liberated Asia.”

Obama made clear there would be no apology but rather a reflection on the bombs’ destructiveness and renewed commitment to avoid nuclear war. Although WWII events “seem far behind us, in many ways they continue to structure mentalities in the contemporary world,” he said. 

Let’s analyze why the bomb was dropped, using the Battle of Iwo Jima as a reference. If America had to send more than 800 ships and 230,000 men to invade and conquer eight square miles of an island defended by almost 22,000 fanatical troops, how much more would it have had to expend conquering Japan’s 146,000 square miles with 71 million citizens (including 4 million servicemen, and 18 million citizen soldiers between the ages of 15-60 and women between ages 17-40)? Children were trained “to carry backpacks of explosives and to throw themselves under the treads of tanks [as] ‘Sherman carpets.’” The government renamed schools “National Schools” and assigned teachers “the crucial task” of educating the “children of the Emperor” to sacrifice themselves for Japan. Children 12 and older were trained to fight the invasion. Even married women exercised with bamboo spears to combat invaders. Over 10,000 airplanes were held in reserve for Kamikazes to fly into our forces and ships on the mainland. Naval warfare around Japan's main islands and land war on Japan’s main island would have seen not only some of the bloodiest battles of WWII, but also some of the bloodiest in history. Remember, the Allies had to conduct land warfare in Germany and only after the country was divided in two and Hitler killed himself, did the Germans surrender. The Japanese were ten times more fanatic than the Nazis and they were fighting for their God, literally, in the person of Hirohito (a Shinto God worshiped by all Japanese). One has to imagine what it would take in order to conquer Japan if that invasion planned for November 1945 took place. 

Secretary of War Henry Stimson’s staff estimated conquering Japan would cost 1.7 to 4 million casualties, including up to 800,000 dead (double what the U.S. had already experienced). It would have cost the Japanese between 5 to 10 million dead. To understand the Japanese willingness to die for the emperor, consider that half of the 381,550 Japanese in the Philippines, and, more than a third of the 300,000 Japanese civilians on Okinawa and Saipan/Tinian, died or killed themselves during these battles. American leaders were so convinced of the toll an invasion of Japan would cost, the country produced 500,000 Purple Hearts. After all the bloody wars since WWII, there are still 120,000 of them left in stock after thousands were awarded to personnel from campaigns in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria just to name some of our conflicts post-WWII.

Thankfully, these medals were not needed because the bombing campaign launched from the Marianas culminated in the detonation of two atomic bombs that ended the war. These massive attacks convinced Emperor Hirohito to command his subjects to lay down arms. Before the bomb drops, Hirohito was not anywhere close to accepting the Potsdam Declaration, which was required to bring the war to an end. However, the atomic weapon’s destructiveness had the necessary psychological impact to make Hirohito alter his thinking. He said on 7 August, “we should lose no time in ending the war so as not to have another tragedy like this.” 

After the first bomb’s deployment, the might of the Soviet Union bore down on Japanese forces in Manchuria with 1.5 million troops killing thousands of Japanese after Stalin officially declared war on Japan on 8 August.  He had actually planned the invasion of mid-August, but the bomb made him launch the attack prematurely in order to seize as much Japanese territory as possible.  This forced Hirohito to move more quickly on the surrender agreement. Then, with the explosion of the second bomb on 9 August, Hirohito knew he needed to act. While he had waited to address his nation, thousands of his 800,000 citizens in Manchuria started to kill themselves out of fear of the enemy, as those on Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa had done. Once again, the method of their destruction was grenades and cyanide handed out by IJA soldiers. Some 665,000 IJA servicemen in Manchuria disappeared by the thousands under the red wave of Soviet superior armor, planes and infantry. The IJA offered mad, useless resistance while still in loyal service to their nation and Emperor, just as they would have done on the mainland against overwhelming Allied firepower and numbers.   

These events prompted Hirohito to sue for peace immediately, saying “I have given serious thought to the situation prevailing at home and abroad and have concluded that continuing the war can only mean destruction for the nation and prolongation of bloodshed and cruelty in the world...the time has come when we must bear the unbearable.” Even with an imminent invasion of Japan by two major powers and with no chance of a “negotiated peace” through Russian diplomats, Hirohito waited days to address his nation due to fear of retribution from military diehards who wanted to continue fighting. Even after the U.S. Navy’s submarines had tightened their coil around Japan, sinking most supply ships coming and going from Asia, and B-29 bombers ran destructive bombing raids after atomic bombs devastated two cities, IJA reactionaries attempted to capture Hirohito, destroy his recorded surrender message and kill his advisors to prevent capitulation. They stormed the Imperial Palace, shooting and beheading those opposing them. They searched fruitlessly for the unreleased phonograph recording of Hirohito’s surrender announcement. The coup failed on the day of the broadcast, but had it succeeded, war would have continued. The conspirators, seeing they had failed, committed suicide in front of the palace. After this threat was eliminated, on 15 August, Hirohito announced over the radio with his high-pitched voice to a weeping nation Japan’s surrender. It was the first time his people had ever heard him speak.

Hirohito’s risky and bold move worked. The bombs turned his thinking around, and he was the only one who could persuade his people to lay down arms. Weeks later, on 2 September 1945, a Japanese delegation signed the surrender on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Since his subjects believed he was a god, only such authority could end the 2,600-year span from Japan’s origins of never surrendering to a foreign power. They accepted the decision because “His Majesty’s orders come before anything else” according to Japanese fighter ace Saburō Sakai. 

Knowing that the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima changed the mind of a Japanese god to surrender and prevent a staggering death toll, millions of weary GIs, Marines and their families thanked their God for the atomic bombs. Had Japan not surrendered, the U.S. had more atomic bombs prepared in case the first two failed. As President Truman said after Hiroshima, “If [the Japanese] do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.” This was not presidential bravado. Two more bombs were being readied on Tinian to be dropped on Japan on 13 and 16 August. America wanted to avoid facing massive Japanese armies of soldiers and civilians who would fight to the very last death. Luckily for the Japanese citizenry, and America, it took only two atomic bombs and not four or eight to do the trick. “Political objects can greatly alter during the course of the war and may finally change entirely since they are influenced by events and their probable consequences,” according to military philosopher Carl von Clausewitz, which the atomic bombs accomplished. These bombs exhausted Japan’s “physical and moral resistance” and allowed the world to establish peace. 

To learn more about why the atomic bombs were a necessary evil to end World War II, see “Flamethrower”: