This group unanimously declared that there was no guarantee that demonstrating the bombs to the Japanese in a deserted area would convince Japanese leaders to surrender. In the spring of 1945, the American government convened a committee of scientists and military officers to determine how best to use the bombs. Consequently, neither Truman nor any of his advisors ever debated if the atomic bombs should be used, only how and where they should be used. In light of intelligence reports about Japan’s commitment to continue fighting, Truman and his military advisors were determined to use every weapon at their disposal in order to bring the war to an immediate end. Truman in the summer of 1945 when he authorized the use of the world’s first atomic bomb. This was the situation that confronted American President Harry S.
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Japan’s leaders hoped to prevail, not by defeating American forces, but by inflicting massive casualties and thereby breaking the resolve of the American public. American casualties on Okinawa weighed heavily on the minds of American planners who looked ahead to the invasion of Japan. At least 110,000 Japanese soldiers and more than 100,000 Okinawan civilians, a third of the island’s prewar population, also perished in the campaign. By comparison, US forces suffered 49,000 casualties, including 12,000 men killed in action, when facing less than 120,000 Japanese soldiers during the battle for the island of Okinawa from April to June of 1945. These frightening figures portended a costlier battle for the United States than any previously fought during the war.
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Additional reports correctly surmised that the Japanese military intended to execute all American prisoners in Japan in the event of an Allied landing. Instead, American intelligence intercepts revealed that by August 2, Japan had already deployed more than 560,000 soldiers and thousands of suicide planes and boats on the island of Kyushu to meet the expected American invasion of Japan. Although an estimated 300,000 Japanese civilians had already died from starvation and bombing raids, Japan’s government showed no sign of capitulation. It appeared to American leaders that the only way to compel Japan’s unconditional surrender was to invade and conquer the Japanese home islands. Japan, however, refused to submit to the terms outlined in the Allies’ Potsdam Declaration. The book offers the final word on the debate over Truman’s decision to drop the bomb.Top Image: The devastated downtown of Hiroshima with the dome of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall visible in the distance. National Archives photo.īy July 1945, Germany had surrendered, and the war in Europe was over. Enola Gay and the Court of History is compulsory reading for all those interested in the history of the Pacific war, the morality of war, and the failed NASM exhibition. His full-scale investigation of the historical dispute results in a compelling story of how and why our views about the bombing of Japan have evolved since its occurrence. Newman explores the tremendous challenges that NASM faced when trying to construct a narrative that would satisfy American veterans and the Japanese, as well as accurately reflect the current historical research on both the period and the bomb. Newman’s argument centers on the controversy that erupted around the National Air and Space Museum’s (NASM) exhibit of Enola Gay in 1995. Newman offers a fresh perspective on the dispute over President Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan in World War II. In this hard-hitting, thoroughly researched, and crisply argued book, award-winning historian Robert P.