I was going to write about the Tokyo Olympics coming to an end, but then I noticed today’s date. August 9th. So I decided to write about a different Japanese event.

76 years ago at 11:02 in the morning the United States dropped the “Fat Man” A-bomb on the city of Nagasaki. 74,000 people died, most in an instant, no warning, not even an air raid siren because the Bockscar, the plane carrying the bomb, was thought to be only on a reconnaissance run.

It was Nagasaki’s bad luck that the primary target, Kokura, had poor visibility that morning and thus the plane diverted to their secondary target.  Bad luck. That is about the biggest understatement of all time.

Historians say it ended the Second World War. They say both it and the Hiroshima bomb actually saved millions of people’s lives by negating the need for an amphibious invasion of the home islands of Japan. There is no denying that since those millions were still alive a week later when Japan accepted the surrender terms included in the Potsdam Declaration.

But history is a funny thing. Yes, it’s true that’s it is written by the victors but usually because the victors have the luxury of time and contemplation while the losers are too busy rebuilding their society. In fact it might be said that history is actually a collection of facts whittled and shaped into a narrative that aligns with the views of the victors. Thus, did the US drop the bombs on Japan? Undeniable fact. Did the US drop the bombs on Japan to let the USSR know we had, as Truman had told Stalin in Potsdam, “a weapon of enormous power” and to get them to stay out of the Pacific war? Fact, with a bit of informed supposition, a bit of smoothing and shaping.

The history of the atom bombs makes for strange bedfellows. There are those who decry it’s use, saying a naval blockade of Japan would have brought about surrender before an invasion would have been necessary or that the US should have had a demonstration explosion so as to scare the Japanese into surrender. There are those who praise it’s use, retribution for Pearl Harbor with the added note that for the two weeks prior the US had dropped leaflets throughout Japan saying cities would be destroyed if they did not surrender and thus we were the more “civilized” nation. The former include many conservatives, the later many liberals. The most liberal, anti-nuke teacher I had in high school told the story of being on a troop transport heading for the Pacific when word got to them about the bombs and feeling like his life had been saved and so yes, he was glad the bombs were dropped.

Personally I take the pragmatic view of history. Decisions are made in the moment, especially those related to war. Actions are taken not in a vacuum but in the context of what is happening. The United States had built a weapon that they felt would end the war. If Oppenheimer and his crew had been a bit faster there would be a wide swarth of the Ruhr Valley that would have been vaporized. But Nazi Germany had been defeated by the time the night sky of Alamogordo was turned to day. Using them against Japan was not even a question.  It was only a matter of how many times they would need to use them before the Japanese called it quits. Fortunately it was only twice.

More after the jump.

Continue reading “Of Facts And History”