“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (Santayana)
Hiroshima and Nagasaki – 75 Years Later
By: George Noga – August 9, 2020
Today is the 75th anniversary of the US attack on Nagasaki while August 6th marked 75 years since Hiroshima. This post reexamines the justification and morality of using atomic weapons on Japan and includes top secret US war plans for the invasion of Japan declassified only a few years ago. Watch for our related post, scheduled for August 30th, commemorating the 75th anniversary of Japan’s surrender.
We begin with some context and perspective. The casualties for Hiroshima were 65,000 and for Nagasaki 45,000. The US bombing of Tokyo had 100,000 casualties, the allied bombing of Hamburg 50,000 and the Battle of Stalingrad 1,500,000. The battle of Dukla Pass, which few Americans know about, had 200,000 casualties. During Japan’s Rape of Nanking (China) they brutally slaughtered 300,000 civilians, triple the atomic casualties in Japan. During all of WWII, 80,000,000 people perished.
As time passes, American attitudes are changing. In 1945 Americans overwhelmingly supported use of atomic bombs; recent surveys show such support vastly diminished. Today’s progressives assert the use of atomic bombs on Japan was racist and genocidal. A few years ago US plans for the invasion of Japan (Operation Downfall) were declassified and they provide compelling evidence that, without using atomic bombs, there would have been 4 million additional casualties – 2 million Japanese, 1 million American and 1 million Chinese, as Japan’s war in China was still raging. Following are two excerpts from the Operation Downfall war plans.
- General MacArthur estimated 1 million US casualties; his staff believed they would be much higher. In the initial stages, 1,000 Americans per hour would die.
- Japan had over 20 million men remaining in its combat forces; for the first time in the war, Americans would be vastly outnumbered.
Were the atomic attacks on Japan justified; were they moral; were they racist; were they genocidal? The A-bombs saved at least 4 million lives, 2 million of which (by their own estimate) were Japanese. Atomic casualties represented 14 one hundredths of one percent of all WWII casualties, 7% of those at Stalingrad and were about equal to those from the conventional bombing of Tokyo. The unarmed Chinese civilians (considered subhuman by the Japanese) gruesomely and sadistically slaughtered by the Japanese during the Rape of Nanking were triple Japan’s atomic casualties.
Wouldn’t it have been immoral not to use atomic bombs to save 4 million lives and to avert the biggest bloodbath in the annals of warfare on this planet? The real genocidal racists were Japanese. Those who America (regrettably) interned during the war were treated humanely, while the Japanese committed unspeakable atrocities against the Chinese, Koreans and even American POWs. Many Americans, especially the young, ignorant of the past, are influenced by revisionist progressive claptrap.
Hopefully, this posting puts America’s use of atomic weapons in the proper context. Pass this post on to your children and grandchildren should they have any doubts about the morality of dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Don’t miss our post in two weeks (August 30th) commemorating the 75th anniversary of the surrender of Japan on the USS Missouri. It analyzes the question of whether or not Japan – 75 years after the war – is deserving of redemption for its WWII atrocities?
