Atomic Bomb

This is coolbert:

From the Chicago Tribune Perspective section, dated 10 August 2008:

"A-bomb didn't win the war"

Excerpts from an article by Ward Wilson:

"Last week was the 63rd anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. People argue a lot about Hiroshima, but often what they're really arguing about is whether America is good or bad."

"The 'America is bad' people say it was wrong to bomb Hiroshima [presumably Nagasaki too]. And they have a point."

"But the 'America is good' people are right too. Even though we're not perfect, the U.S. is fundamentally a good country - - like Harry S. Truman was a good guy who did the best he could when faced with a tough decision."

"What gets lost in the shouting is the really important question. Did the atomic bomb work [work not in the sense of detonating, obviously the bomb went off and worked as planned. Worked in this sense meaning forcing the Japanese to surrender unconditionally]? We assume it did, because the Japanese decided to surrender three days after Hiroshima."

"It turns out that Hiroshima did not win the war. As historians do more research, it becomes clear that what really shocked the Japanese government was the declaration of war by the Soviet Union early in the morning of the same day we bombed Nagasaki. That was the day":

* "The Japanese declared martial law."

* "That was the day they decided to meet to discuss surrender."

* "That was the day the military talked privately about overthrowing the emperor."

"Nagasaki occurred in the afternoon - - after they were already meeting to discuss surrender - - and they largely ignored it."

[NOW, Ward Wilson concludes]:

"The problem is that what nuclear weapons do best - - kill civilians - - isn't that useful militarily. It's horrific. It's brutal. But it's not very effective for winning wars."

"Without the victory associated with Hiroshima, nuclear weapons look a lot less impressive. More like chemical and biological weapons, dangerous, able to kill a lot of people, but not too useful."

First - - Ward Wilson is described as a "nuclear weapons scholar"!

Second - - The word surrender to the Japanese at that exact moment meant unconditional as demanded by the allied powers? Or did it mean conditionally, with terms in some way favorable to the Japanese? How does Ward Wilson understand this to mean?

Third - - That atomic weapons are not very effective for winning wars cannot be asserted. The "case law" is too small for rational and well-thought-out inferences to be drawn even for a "nuclear weapons scholar"? I think IT IS WITHOUT QUESTION - - HOWEVER - - THAT IF NOT FOR NUCLEAR WEAPONS BEING AVAILABLE, THE UNITED STATES AND THE SOVIET UNION [WHEN IT EXISTED] WOULD HAVE FOUGHT A MAJOR WAR A LONG TIME AGO!!

Fourth - - At this exact moment, a foreign power hostile to the U.S. is hoping and praying [literally so I fear!] to obtain nuclear weapons and use them American targets almost instantly upon obtaining them. I am of course speaking of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri. Persons that would be deliriously happy with joy to see some "big firecrackers" detonated in American cities, the result being the deaths of hundreds of thousands or millions of U.S. citizens. To such persons, atomic bombs are not only useful, but absolutely essential, even vital!!

And, from Suvorov, regarding the Soviet invasion, August 1945, of Manchuria:

"Stalin struck a crushing blow at the armed forces of the Japan in Manchuria and China, violating the treaty signed four years earlier. The operation took place over vast areas. In terms of the distances covered and the speed at which it moved, this operation has no equal in world history. Soviet troops operated over territories 5000 kilometers in width, and 600-800 kilometers in depth. More than a million and a half soldiers took part in the operation, with over 5000 tanks and nearly 4000 aircraft. It really was a lightning operation, in the course of which 84,000 Japanese officers and men were killed and 593,000 taken prisoner."

Japanese defeat and eventual UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER was due to: [??]

* Atomic bombings.
* Soviet entry into the war.
* American submarine warfare strangulation.

Too many kicks in the teeth all at once were too much - - EVEN FOR THE JAPANESE!!

coolbert.