HIS103Y1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 14: Kokura, Edmund Barton, Firebombing
Bomb would have undoubtedly been used against Germany had it
been ready sooner
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Bombing constituted a transformation of morality
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The Question America should ask
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FDR initiated atomic bomb project / "Manhattan project"
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Assumed that it would be used first against Nazi Germany
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Decided it should be kept secret from the USSR, even after they
became allies
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By mid-1944 FDR and others realized that the bomb would now
be used against Japan considering the war with Germany would
be over before the bomb was ready
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Always knew it would be used, a matter of when
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Shifting from Germany to Japan
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Cost nearly $2 billion
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Had been kept secret from most cabinet members and nearly all
Congress
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Disclosed to only a few congressional leaders
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Truman attempted to investigate the project, but was persuaded
otherwise
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Assumed it should and would be used
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Truman knew only that it involved a new weapon when he was
thrust into presidency on April 12, 1945
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The Assumption of Use
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Target Committee met on April 27 to discuss how and where in
Japan to drop the bomb
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Did not want to risk wasting the weapon
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Decided that it must be dropped visually and not by radar
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Air force was already bombing many cities
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WW2 had become virtually total war
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Firebombing of Dresden - intentionally killing mass numbers of
Japanese citizens
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Napalm on heavily populated areas to produce uncocntrollable
firestorms
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Hiroshina - largest untouched target not on the bombing list
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Yawata - due to steel industry
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Yokohama
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Tokyo - although mostly bombed already
Committee decided to choose "large urban areas of not less than
three miles in diameter existing in the larger populated areas" as
targets
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Picking Targets
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Bernstein, Bernstein, Barton J. "The Atomic Bombings Reconsidered."
Foreign Affairs
74, no. 1 (1995):
135-52.http://www.jstor.org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/stable/20047025
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Tutorial 2.7: End or beginning?
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Tokyo - although mostly bombed already
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Choice of targets would depend on how the bomb would do its
deadly work - balance of blast, heat, and radiation
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It was unclear what would happen to the radioactive material;
could stay for hours as a cloud above or if there was high
humidity or rain, could be brought down in the vicinity of the
target area
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Physicist stressed that the bomb material itself was lethal enough
for perhaps a billion deadly doses and that the weapon would
give off lethal radioactivity
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Most believed the bomb would kill so many the radiation would
hardly make a difference
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Kyoto - ancient former capital and shrine city was the most
attractive target, seen as intellectual centre, more
psychological damage to morale
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Hiroshima
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Yokohama
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Kokura Arsenal
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Niigata might be held in reserve as a fifth
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Then selected other four - Tokyo not a great target
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Not only target to destroy land, but morale of both Japanese and
USSR, as well as any other enemies
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Aiming for industrial areas would be a mistake because those
targets were smaller, on the fringes of the city, and dispersed
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Bombing is imprecise - could easily miss such a small target
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Third meeting: decided on Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Niigata, and
decided to aim for the center of each city
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Took the three cities off of bombing lists
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Compton raises moral and political questions about how the
bomb would be used
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"question of mass slaughter" - more serious implications than the
use of poison gas
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General Marshall - should not be used against civilians but military
installations or at least give civilians opportunity to flee
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Decided they could not give any warning
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Not about killing but about sending a psychological message
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Focus on neither military (older morality) nor civilians
(emerging morality)
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Committee essentially endorsing terror bombing
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Focus also on implications against USSR - wanted to threaten
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The Ratification of Terror Bombing
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Stimson had to face the fact that the air-force was killing hundreds
of thousands of Japanese civilians
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Also did not want Japanese to turn to Soviets and align
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Stimson became committed to removing Kyoto from the target
list - wanted to save its relics
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Instead focused on more military targets - Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
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After Nagasaki and conditional surrender, Truman refused to drop
any more bombs despite demands, said he didn't want to kill any
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The Agonies of Killing Civilians
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