QuillAndQuery

In 1955, Japan broke ground on the Hiroshima Peace Museum. The mood was tense, then. Just three years prior, Japan was occupied by the United States under General Douglas MacArthur, paying penance for its actions during the Second World War. Japanese reaction was mixed, with some grateful for the post-war aide granted by the United States, while many other resentful of the atomic armageddon of just ten years prior.

The West wing of the museum harbors that resentment, to an extent. Visitors today can see scale models of the devastation caused by the atomic bomb, juxtaposed with fried watches stopped at the exact moment the bomb impacted and human shadows burned into stone walls. Visitors continue to the East wing, where they are educated on Hiroshima’s history both before and during the war. Interactive displays detail the Manhattan Project that predestined the city’s destruction. It is the last exhibit that has a tendency to stay in a visitor’s mind long after they leave. It details the potential dangers of nuclear weapons as they continue to be developed, and ends with a hope that regardless, there will be lasting peace.

On August 6th, 1945, eighty-five years to the day at the time of writing, the Enola Gay delivered mass destruction to the sovereign nation of Japan. The bomb was dropped under the direct orders of President Harry S. Truman. His orders ended the war, but historians rightly ask if the ends justified the means. As a mere history enthusiast, I will decline to answer that question. Instead I will detail the events that led up to that fateful day, casting some light on what may have caused Truman to give his most infamous order. It is my hope that you will decide for yourself on which side of history the atomic bomb lies.

Redefining Japan

In 1858, feudal Japan cast out its ruling Shogunate in favor of its divine Emperor, Meiji. In what would become known as the Meiji Restoration, Japan rapidly westernized, opening up its borders to western powers and bringing its technology in line with the 19th century. Under the guise of progress, Japan and its Emperor held onto an ulterior motive: expand its imperial powers to match the likes of Britain and France.

A series of brutal conflicts followed. The first Sino-Japanese War decimated China and tilted the favor of Taiwan and Korea towards Imperial Japan. The Russo-Japanese war in 1904-1905 shocked the world as the island nation defeated the East Asian powerhouse to gain control of Manchuria (eastern China) and further expand its control of the Korean Peninsula. By 1910, Korea was officially a province of Japan, and the forced assimilation of its inhabitants would be remarkably brutal.

By the time of the Second World War, the global powers had taken notice of Japan’s imperial prowess. When Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 under false pretenses, the action was widely condemned by the rapidly deteriorating League of Nations. Japan controlled a puppet government in Manchuria, installing China’s last Emperor, Puyi, as its figurehead. In 1937, Japan inflamed tensions once again by launching a full scale invasion that would boil over into the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese atrocities during the invasion are almost too brutal to put on paper. In Nanjing, the Japanese, widespread rape, looting, and arson claimed an estimated 20,000 victims. Several of those left alive were subjected to cruel human experimentation under the notorious Unit 731.

The Japanese aggression, while undeniably brutal and in some cases unmistakably evil, was not without cause, at least in Japanese eyes. Japan saw Asia as encircled by Western powers, asserting their dominance over the East. What we call an invasion, Japan called liberation of the Asian population from western influences. A fair bit of racism also played into early 20th century Japanese decision making. Japan firmly believed itself superior to the “lesser” Asian races. Perhaps most importantly, samurai-inspired ideology glorified invasion and death in service to the Emperor. The fanatical devotion of the Japanese to their leader would be used to justify its harsh treatment of the “expendable” Asian races and its brutality towards prisoners of war.

Japan enters the war

World War II spread in full force across Europe in 1939. The Nazi march across the continent sounded like the drums of opportunity to a Japan eager to expand. The collapse of major European powers loosened the grip of influence the West had on eastern Asia. In 1940, via the Tripartite Pact, Japan formally joined Italy and Germany in the formation of the Axis Powers, promising Japan mutual defense should the West once again find itself on Japanese shores.

In the first six months of the war, Japan rapidly expanded across Indochina, conquering the Philippines. The American prisoners captured there were subjected to the notorious Bataan Death March as they were relocated to Japanese prison camps. On December 7th, 1941, in reaction to Western sanctions crippling Japan since its invasion on Manchuria, Japan launched its boldest move yet. On a calm morning, the United States naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii found itself under attack by 350 Japanese aircraft. The attack had awoken the “sleeping giant” and the United States entered the war in defense of the Allies.

The United States rapidly expanded their presence across the Pacific to counter Japanese aggression. The brutal conflict would carry on for four years, killing an estimated 1.5 million Japanese and United States military personnel. In time, the United States reached Japanese shores. By all accounts the war was lost for Japan, the only question would be the cost. Regardless of the dire situation, Japan would refuse to surrender – staying steadfast in a fanatical devotion to the Emperor Hirohito. The United States needed a solution to end the war. Enter Dr. Robert Oppenheimer.

The Manhattan Project

Ironically, it was the Germans who originally triggered the United States to consider an atomic weapon. In 1938, Germany discovered nuclear fission, fueling fears that Nazi Germany would soon have a usable atomic bomb. President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized funding for the United States to conduct atomic research in 1939. In 1942, the Manhattan Project was formally organized, aimed at creating a weapon the likes of which the world had never seen.

Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer was chosen to lead the project. A long-time contributor to the fields of nuclear fission and quantum mechanics, Oppenheimer was nearly the prime candidate for the job. If it wasn’t for his strong ties to communism, he would have been perfect in the eyes of the United States government. From his secret lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Oppenheimer worked relentlessly to develop a weapon that would bring an end to the war.

Considerable anxiety that the Germans were outpacing the United States hastened his work and on July 16th, 1945, the inevitable happened. Early in the morning, under the codename Trinity, Oppenheimer and his team of scientists detonated the world’s first atomic bomb. On seeing the detonation, Oppenheimer would later recount thinking of an excerpt from Hindu scripture: “Now I have become death, destroyer of worlds.” The words he said aloud were less profound: “I guess it worked.”

The Allies reach Japan

Germany surrendered to the allied powers on May 8th, 1945. Before then, the Allies were far into the planning of the mainland invasion of Japan, codenamed Operation Downfall. Casualty predictions on both sides of the conflict are disputed, but all accounts signal that it would have been a devastating conflict. The Japanese Admiral Takijiro Onishi predicted up to twenty million Japanese deaths alone, should the United States put boots on the Japanese mainland.

Testing Japanese resilience, General Curtis E. LeMay ordered the low-level firebombing of Japan with B-29 aircraft. The results were devastating. The attack on Tokyo took an estimated 100,000 lives alone. Still, Japan would not surrender. All signs indicated that a mainland invasion was imminent. It was at this point that Truman had to make the most consequential decision of his presidency.

Japan’s last chance

The 509th Composite Group under the command of Colonel Paul Tibbets began conducting training raids out of Wendover Air Base, Utah. Their original mission was purely a contingency, only to be used in the event that Truman ran out of options. As the practice runs increased in frequency and representatives from the Manhattan Project joined the pilots, we can only assume it had become obvious which way the President was leaning.

A selection committee nominated five potential targets in mainland Japan, selected for their size and the shock their destruction would provide to the Japanese Empire. Debates ensured about dropping leaflets warning the Japanese populace of the upcoming raid, a standard practice during the LeMay raids. This time, aiming to stun the unsuspecting Japanese government, no warning would be given.

After the Trinity test, the United States issued the Postdam Declaration, offering Japan one last chance at unconditional surrender. The declaration made it clear that the consequences for refusal would be severe, but notably it did not mention the atomic bomb. It did, however; demand that all Japanese military leaders be stripped of their status and removed from any and all positions of power. The declaration was an obvious non-starter for negotiations. Truman had run out of options.

Hiroshima

On August 6th, 1945, Colonel Paul Tibbets under the re-designated 393rd Bombardment Squadron departed the Mariana Islands in a B-29 retrofitted to carry the atomic bomb. The plane was christened the Enola Gay, after Tibbets’ mother. Tibbets would be joined by two other aircraft, one for instrumentation support, and another to photograph the devastation. The photography aircraft would later be renamed Necessary Evil. Their target: Hiroshima.

It was a six-hour flight to mainland Japan from the Marianas. Thirty minutes from their objective, the bomb, named Little Boy, was armed. At 8:09 A.M. Tibbets made his last turn towards Hiroshima and handed the controls to his bombardier. At 8:15 AM, Little Boy was released. From that moment, the world would only have 44.4 seconds before the words “nuclear bomb” became part of its vocabulary.

From eighteen kilometers away, the crew of the Enola Gay could feel the blast. The men were agape at the destruction they had caused. The only words anyone could muster: “My God.”

Nagasaki

As far as Truman was concerned, the cat was out of the bag. The United States had developed an atomic weapon and the time for secrecy was over. Truman issued a statement, saying the United States had: “spent two billion dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history—and won.”

Truman reissued the Postdam Declaration and urged a Japan that was coming to terms with their new reality to accept. Japan immediately refused to believe that such a weapon could have been developed, but immediate scientific analysis of Hiroshima confirmed their worst fears. Still, most in Japanese government considered the terms of the Postdam Declaration too severe. Some urged surrender, but most were holding out hope that Soviet mediation would yield better terms for Japan.

That hope died on August 8th, 1945 when the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria. The debate of surrender re-opened anew, but before a decision could be made, Japan was destined for one more round of devastation.

Major Charles W. Sweeney piloted a second B-29 from the Mariana Islands. The aircraft, this time named Bockscar, carried the second round of destruction in its belly. Named Fat Man, the bomb’s designated target was Kokura. When Bockscar arrived over its target, the crew was disappointed to see most of the area covered in clouds and smoke, making the bombing nearly impossible.

The crew orbited overhead, facing Japanese anti-aircraft fire before running out of time and diverting to their secondary target: Nagasaki. Nagasaki, looked no better upon arrival. Due to a failed fuel pump in Bockscar, the aircraft was short 2,400 pounds of fuel, leaving little time for conditions to improve. At 11:01 A.M. a break in the clouds provided what was likely the only opportunity for a successful strike. Sweeney released his bomb, which bizarrely detonated almost directly over the exact factory in which the Japanese had built the torpedoes that attacked Pearl Harbor.

Low on gas, Bockscar diverted to Okinawa after losing one of its four engines on approach. The plane nearly veered off the runway with the pilots just barely regaining control in time to avert disaster. Unlike the Enola Gay, Bockscar received no heroes welcome.

Surrender

The double gut punch of the Soviet invasion and a second bomb sent Japan into a panic. The issue; however, was still not settled in the eyes of many. Devotion to the Emperor meant there were several still prepared to fight until every last man, woman, and child in Japan was fighting with sticks.

The Emperor, thus far, had been strangely silent in the surrender negotiations. That changed on August 12th, 1945, when the Emperor Hirohito advised his government that he intended to accept the Postdam Declaration. There was one important caveat: the Emperor would retain his position and status in Japan, free from Western interference. He did not make any similar demands on behalf of his military leadership.

Three days later, Hirohito announced his intent to surrender. An immediate coup d’état was launched to preserve Japanese honor, but it was quietly and quickly squashed. August 15th would become known as Victory in Japan Day or V-J Day, although the surrender documents would not be signed until September 2nd.

The cost of victory

The United States had won, and the Second World War had officially concluded. While the West celebrated, Japan was still counting the bodies. The Japanese would have to sift through more than two miles of rubble to count the nearly 140,000 civilians and military personnel killed. Over seventy percent of the city was completely flattened. Of those who survived, tens of thousands would contend with severe burns, radiation sickness, and blindness for the remainder of their lives. The blast had been the equivalent of nearly fifteen kilotons of TNT. Those who searched the rubble during the aftermath would be welcomed by black acid rain, a morbidly fitting side effect of the devastation.

Nagasaki would fair no better. The final death toll reached 70,000. Those who died from injuries later would nearly double that number. Homes, schools, and factories were left completely flattened by the blast. Perhaps worst of all, the scarred survivors faced post-war discrimination in Japan due to the severity of their deformities.

The end result of the atomic bomb was both victory, peace, and horrific devastation the likes of which the world had never seen. After the bodies were tallied, Oppenheimer had to face the fact that he was right. He had become death.

The ends and the means

There is no one correct answer to the timeless question of whether the United States was right to drop the bomb. The destruction and suffering speaks for itself when those who were killed cannot. Additionally, the bombs opened up the world to a nuclear arms race that on several occasions would put entire nations, if not the world, on the edge of obliteration.

But could it have been worse? The extent of the devastation makes that hard to believe, but the estimated death toll from a ground invasion of mainland Japan is in the tens of millions. Before the bombs and before the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, Japan was prepared to fight to its last breath. It is true, that by the time the bombs wreaked havoc on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan was already likely a defeated nation. The only problem is that everyone seemed to know that but Japan. It took devastation on an atomic scale for Japan to admit that its imperial ambitions were over and the time had come for surrender.

Regardless of our feelings, we cannot undo the damage of August 1945. All we can say for sure is that the bombs devastated Japan, the Allies won the war, and the nuclear arms race had begun. Since 1945, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has published a report analyzing how close humanity has come to nuclear armageddon. If the bulletin is to be believed, once that clock strikes midnight, humanity has met its end. At the time of writing, we have eighty-nine seconds left.