Prologue
The Nazis were defeated but the Empire of Japan fought on. The Code of Bushido did not allow a Japanese soldier to surrender, not with honor anyway. The Japanese were fighting to the death on bits of rock in the Pacific. For example, of the 22,000 (in round figures) Japanese troops on Iwo Jima (the site of the famous flag raising and the model for the US Marine Corps Memorial just outside Arlington Cemetery in Virginia) approximately 19,000 were killed in battle. Only 216 Japanese were taken prisoner and the vast majority of them were wounded so badly as to be incapable of voluntary surrender anyway. The remainder went to ground vowing to resist and to never surrender. The last of these diehards were finally caught and repatriated in 1949. Hiroo Onoda was the longest holdout from World War Two, but he wasn’t on Iwo Jima. He hid in the Philippines still fighting WW2 until 1974. When he finally was contacted, he said he would refuse to surrender until his unit commander ordered him to. His former commander, Major Taniguchi – by then a bookshop owner – flew to the Philippines with an order from Emperor Hirohito (the man who had been Emperor of Japan when WWII broke out) to surrender. Lieutenant Onoda then surrendered, the last Japanese soldier to do so from World War Two.
The race for an atomic weapon began for two main reasons. First, Albert Einstein sent a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt outlining the possibility of a “doomsday bomb”. Second, Underground figures and spies within Nazi Germany reported on German attempts to manufacture “knockout weapons.” The Nazis had already developed the V2 rockets which were devastating cities in Britain. It was an existential, life and death crisis. It was not a question IF a shatteringly destructive new weapon would be developed, but simply a question of WHEN and which side would develop it first. The fate of the world, literally, hung in the balance.
The recent movie Oppenheimer is an excellent rendition of the efforts of the United States and the process of the assembled scientists to achieve a successful nuclear device. Two things hindered Hitler’s attempt to beat the Allies to an atomic bomb; his anti-Semitism, which sidelined and sometimes killed the very scientists he needed to achieve success and the subtle sabotage by some of those involved in the Nazi effort to deny this brutal, sadistic madman a weapon of mass destruction.
So, the war in Europe ended on May 7, 1945. The Nazis were defeated. At that time, neither the Nazis nor the Allies had the nuclear bomb, although the Americans were closer. The question then was twofold; 1) Should the research and development continue, after all $2 billion had been spent ($34 billion in today’s dollars) and the taxpayer should have return on their investment and 2) There was still Japan, and they weren’t showing signs of giving up anytime soon.
The scientists working on the project were divided. First, there were practical concerns. Would the bomb work? If it worked would it ignite the atmosphere, burning off all the oxygen on the planet not only ending the war but annihilating the human race? That was a real concern. Then there were the ethical considerations, the scientists were racing the Nazis out of necessity, but wouldn’t “conventional” weapons be enough to defeat the Empire of Japan?
The Agony
Kamikazes were raining out of the sky in the Pacific. More than 4,000 kamikaze attacks damaged 300 ships, sunk 34 and caused 10,000 American casualties. The Japanese were defending little hunks of islands to the bitter end with American Marines having to dig them out of tunnels and caves with flamethrowers and hand to hand combat. When Japanese troops “surrendered” – it was a ruse to get Americans out in the open for booby traps and suicide attacks. The War Department (as it was known then – renamed the Defense Department in 1947) estimated that an American invasion of the Japanese home islands would cost a million American casualties. The Department of the Army commissioned 495,000 Purple Hearts for the invasion in anticipation of heavy losses in the opening weeks of what might be a years long battle to subdue the Japanese. Japanese civilians were being trained to resist American troops and to fight house to house in aid of the Japanese Imperial Forces.
President Truman decided. The Manhattan Project (code name for the atomic bomb effort) would go forward and, barring a Japanese surrender in the meantime, a weapon or weapons would be used on Japan.
The Trinity Test in the wilds of New Mexico was a success. Two bombs were in development, an uranium bomb nicknamed Fat Man and a plutonium based bomb, called Little Boy, awaited delivery via “airmail” on Japan. Colonel Paul Tibbets commanded and flew the Enola Gay (named for his mother) delivering the Fat Man on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. It killed 126,000 civilians, 20,000 soldiers and 12 Allied Prisoners of War. Japan was asked to surrender. They did not.
Three days later, Major Charles Sweeney piloted Little Boy to the primary target of Kokura, now known as Kitakyushu. Heavy anti-aircraft fire and deliberately set coal fires – to obscure visibility – convinced Major Sweeney to abandon the primary and move to the secondary target – Nagasaki. Running out of fuel, the Major dropped the bomb a bit off target and nearby hills also helped to mitigate damage. In Nagasaki, 80,000 civilians along with 150 soldiers and 13 Allied Prisoners of War died. The date was August 9, 1945. After some negotiations over the fate of the Emperor, Japan gave up on August 14, 1945 with the formal signing of a declaration of surrender on September 2, 1945.
The Ecstasy
Americans went wild! There were celebrations in the streets! The War was Over! The forces of tyranny, racism (Nazi Anti-Semitism and anti-Black racism and Japanese racism – no other Asian people were equal to them, and whites were even a lower example of vermin) dictatorship and evil were defeated. Our troubles were over. What else could there be to worry about?
The Legacy
The atomic bomb was the gift that kept on giving. Tens of thousands of additional people died from radiation sickness, eventual cancers and birth defects in later years. There are still effects resonating today. General Leslie Groves advocated for use of both types of bombs, to be sure they both worked – obviously they did. Because of difficulties with uranium and plutonium development no more bombs were ready after the one in the Trinity Test and the two dropped on Japan had been used. More plutonium bombs, another Little Boy, would have been ready for use on August 14, 1945 with three more available in September and another three in October with a Fat Man, uranium bomb, available in December. After dropping two, President Truman said, “I don’t ever want to do that again.”
Dropping the bomb needed the approval of our ally, the British. They readily gave it. There has been criticism of the United States’ action. Some, including several scientists involved in the Manhattan Project, argued there should have been a demonstration of the nuclear bomb for the Japanese before it was used. The Trinity Test was a fixed test, the bomb wasn’t dropped from a plane. What would happen if the demonstration failed from the air? Japanese resolve would have been strengthened, their contempt for America intensified and their war effort redoubled. Besides, what would you demonstrate a nuclear weapon on that would effectively showcase its devastation? So, a test was out.
The ultimate test was Hiroshima and Nagasaki and as terrible as that was, it was wonderful for the world. It was great for veterans like Sergeant Bill Timmins of Mitchell who was training for an invasion of the Japanese Islands when the bomb was dropped. I taught with Bill, and he always maintained that President Truman saved his life and those of countless other Americans. Many Japanese died in the atomic bombing but less died that way than would have died in an American invasion of the Japanese islands.
The main legacy was saving the world. Not just ending World War II but without the object lesson of Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear weapons probably would have been used at a later date with more devastation. The Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved peacefully, in part, over fear of a nuclear holocaust. I remember doing “Duck and Cover” drills in elementary school, our defense against an anticipated nuclear attack by the Soviet Union should it occur during school hours. Today, without the example of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would Russia be using nuclear weapons in Ukraine to save their flagging war effort?
The United States remains the only nation on the face of the Earth to have used nuclear weapons. Their use ended a terrible, vicious war and served as a sobering warning to the rest of the world of the power of nuclear weapons and the responsibility that goes with possessing them. Let’s remember the sacrifice of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and hope the world remembers their pain and devastation, never to use nuclear weapons again.