There is no question that the scale of human suffering the Atomic Bombs inflicted was unequalled by any other single weapon. Would the proposed Allied invasion of Japan have been any better, or worse? It is hard to say. President Truman did warn the Japanese of what was to come, and believed he had no other choice than to end the war as expeditiously as possible.
Instead of using the benefit of hindsight to judge his decision, we must look at what information the President possessed at the time.
- By August 1945, Imperial Japan still occupied Korea, Taiwan, much of China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaya, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and parts of Burma and the Pacific Islands.
- The Japanese were understood to be fanatically hostile, as the Kamikaze program demonstrated, its pilots deliberately crashing fatally into Allied ships. The island hopping campaign had also showed how many Japanese soldiers, knowing they had no chance of escape, chose to charge suicidally into American positions rather than surrender.
- Following the Marianas campaign, estimates indicated that 500,000 Americans would die (with many times that number wounded) if all 3.5 million Japanese Soldiers had to be subdued. Civilian losses were projected to be even higher, with U.S. planners warning that 5 to 10 million Japanese noncombatants might perish in an invasion.
A Kamikaze suicide aircraft explodes aboard the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid (CV 11) on November 25, 1944 whilst the ship is operating off the Philippines coast. (image via wikimedia)
A Mitsubishi A6M Zero about to strike the carrier USS White Plains (CVE66) in a Kamikaze attack on October 25, 1944. (image via wikimedia)
The Fletcher-class destroyer USS Abner Read (DD526) ablaze following a Kamikaze attack off Leyte on November 1, 1944. The sky is peppered with antiaircraft fire bursting in defence of the stricken ship, which sinks a short while later. 24 US sailors perished in this incident, one of a number of successful Kamikaze attacks to strike Allied ships in the Pacific Theatre. (image via Wikimedia)
A Kamikaze plane crashes into the sea beside the carrier USS Ticonderoga (CV14) on November 5, 1944. While the ship was not damaged during this engagement, other US capital ships in the region were. (image via Wikimedia)
Figures closer to a million dead were routinely used in manpower estimates, despite the 500,000 number being shared regularly in briefings. (To understand the scale this number represents, the Entire US Army today has just 445,000 Active Duty Soldiers).
- Truman understood that the ‘bomb’ would kill and maim many thousand Japanese citizens. Indeed, he recorded in private correspondence that he ‘did not wish to become a beast, simply because the Japanese had comported themselves as beasts.’
- While he had “humane feelings” for the Japanese women and children, he wrestled with how to face the mothers of American service personnel who might have died had he failed to use the bomb.
- One also has to remember that—as horrific as it sounds today—the Allies had already conducted conventional bombing campaigns in both Japan and Germany which caused greater casualties and damage in a single raid than unfolded in Hiroshima or Nagasaki… Few questioned such actions at the time, since the Axis Powers had meted out similar brutality against civilians earlier in the war.
Prior to the incendiary raids on Tokyo, leaflets like this one were released over the city warning citizens of what was to come, but they apparently had little effect in prompting many to evacuate. (image via wikipedia)
A view of the Ningyōchō district in Tokyo following Operation Meetinghouse, a massed B-29 firebombing of the city over the night of March 9th/10th, 1945. While more than a million civilians were left homeless as a result of the inferno unleashed by this raid, over a 100,000 people died, with many more receiving horrific injuries. In terms of human lives lost, this was the single most deadly event in the entirety of WWII. (image via wikipedia)
An aerial view of Tokyo just after the end of WWII. This image gives a small idea of the annihilation which conventional B-29 firebombing raids unleashed upon this and other cities in Japan. Despite the obvious devastation on view, the scenes on the ground were far more horrific. Reportedly, even those who tried to shelter from the inferno in ponds and pools stood no chance, being first boiled alive, then incinerated. (image via Wikipedia)
Truman’s warnings:
- The Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945 warned Japan that their prompt and utter destruction would follow if surrender proceedings did not begin immediately.
- The Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki responded simply, saying "mokusatsu" - translated variously as 'no comment, ignore, or kill with silence' – either way, a refusal and rejection.
- The US Army Air Forces carried out a leaflet campaign over the targeted cities before the bombs were dropped. It explained to local inhabitants that a single bomb now carried the explosive force of 2,000 fully loaded B-29s. The leaflet urged them to leave their cities and ask their emperor to end the war.
An example of the wartime leaflet dropped over Japan to warn its citizens of further nuclear attacks should their government fail to surrender. The image shows the results of the Little Boy bomb detonating over Hiroshima. (image via the Atomic Heritage Foundation)
A translation of the leaflet warning the Japanese people of further nuclear strikes following Hiroshima should their government fail to surrender. (image via Truman Library)