The U.S. ended World War II by dropping two atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945. Using weapons that “harness the basic power of the universe,” as President Harry Truman put it in his address to the nation, had disturbing implications. The decision to drop the Bomb has been critiqued from all sides in the 75 years since.
Military historian David Dean Barrett analyzes the facts and projections available to American strategists as well as the record of high-level Japanese discussions and concludes that the Bomb was the best of several bad options—the others being a starvation blockade of Japan accompanied by daily bombing with napalm (killing or maiming millions); or a U.S. invasion, which given Japanese aversion to surrender would also have been costly.
Barrett dispatches the theory that the Bomb was dropped to forestall a Soviet invasion of Japan (the Soviets lacked amphibious capacity). Although critical of Japan’s delusional leadership, he points out that the last-hour peacemakers took the initiative to end the war against the threat of assassination or a military coup by fanatics.
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