Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 beta 3/9/83; site sdcrdcf.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!sdcrdcf!alan From: alan@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Alan Algustyniak) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Hiroshima: The Decision - (nf) Message-ID: <939@sdcrdcf.UUCP> Date: Fri, 23-Mar-84 16:12:50 EST Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.939 Posted: Fri Mar 23 16:12:50 1984 Date-Received: Mon, 26-Mar-84 08:29:07 EST References: <6311@uiucdcs.UUCP> Reply-To: alan@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Alan Algustyniak) Organization: System Development Corporation, Santa Monica Lines: 71 On the 25th anniv. of the surrender of the Japanese, i saw a tv program on the local PBS station in Chicago, and distinctly remember a few things it said. It said that after the dropping of the first bomb, the war cabinet got together to review what info they had about it, and to decide what to do. The subject of surrender in the face of the bomb was brought up by one military man, but was overwhelmingly squashed. After the 2nd bomb fell, they convened again, and discussed surrender again. This time, everyone was against surrender except the same man who was for it earlier and the Emperor. And since the Emperor overruled everyone else, Japan surrendered. Everyone on the cabinet was, until the first bomb, solidly in favor of fighting to the last man, even if victory or conditional surrender were clearly not possible. Even the Emperor felt strongly in this way until the first bomb was dropped, and probably until the 2nd was dropped. The vast majority of those making the decisions were in favor of fighting to the last man, even after the 2nd bomb was dropped. Note that this precludes the stmt: the Emperor convinced the miliatry that the war was lost. One, everyone in the cabinet already understood that the war was lost. Two, the Emperor convinced no one to change his mind about continuing to fight anyway; he simply overruled them [Excuse me for possible slight inaccuracies in this story, as it's been a long time; but i know i have the core ideas correct, as i have repeated this story several times in the intervening years] ------- Also, i never read the the Japanese were ever aware of how many bombs the USA actually had; I have read (somewhere, a long time ago) that the answer to that question has never been made public, and is still classified info. ------- My uncle Rich, who fought the Japanese on some of the islands, and was part of the occupation forces, said that he remembers that a couple of months after the surrender, The Stars and Stripes had an article revealing the planned invasion of Japan, giving the groups assigned to each wave, and the estimated casualties. He says that he remembers that the first three waves were expected to incur enormous casualties, but i don't remember the percentage that he gave me. -------- The dropping of the bombs not only saved over a million American lives, and American resources, it saved far more Japanese lives and Japanese resources. I suspect that most of the Japanese born in Japan under 35 years of age, would never have been born had America not dropped the bombs. I am reminded of a story James Michner(?) told in his book about returning to the battlefields in the Pacific. He was talking to 2 Japanese officers (I seem to remember that they were very high ranking, but i'm not sure), and they told him that they, along with others, were glad that America dropped those bombs. It saved their lives and the lives of their loved ones. The war was lost in any case, but the Emperor wanted them to die; the bombs saved them. --------- Alan Algustyniak (sdccsu3!sdcrdcf!alan) (ucbvax!ucla-vax!sdcrdcf!alan) (allegra!sdcrdcf!alan) (decvax!trw-unix!sdcrdcf!alan) (cbosgd!sdcrdcf!alan)