Last Time in America

Here's a blast from the past: an article from the June 6th issue of Look magazine, written by Rear Admiral Ellis M. Zacharias, who was deputy director of the Office of Naval Intelligence during the war.

The first sentence of this article is, "The way was open to get Japan to surrender at least six months before VJ-Day."

The idea that we had no choice but to drop A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is preached as, if not gospel truth, than at least something from the old testament; it's an ingrained reflex for anyone who's been through high-school history courses. But Admiral Zacharias doesn't seem to think so.

In 1944, elements of the Japanese government were putting out peace feelers via the Vatican and the Russians. (Copies of Japans cables to the Soviets are in the Library of Congress.) Zacharais writes, "In May 1944, [Naval Intelligence] received word that the Supreme War Guidance Council, Japan's highest authority, had accepted a resolution to seek ways and means to end the war." ONI had four separate plans to pursue peace, from the well-thought-out (using Japan's ambassador to Nazi Germany) to the to the not-so-much (sending an envoy to Japan via a secret submarine mission). These plans were all shot down at the highest levels.

Of course we had reasons for using nukes: it was a way to intimidate the Russians. Plus, Truman was publicly committed to Roosevelt's unconditional surrender ultimatums. ONI struggled to get Truman to authorize a statement reading "unconditional surrender does not mean the extermination or enslavement of the Japanese people." In fact, Truman wrote in his diary that "Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic."

In the same diary entry, Truman pledges "to use [the atom bomb] so that military objectives and soldiers and sailors are the target and not women and children." He also displays ignorance of the long-term consequences of nuclear weapons: "Anyway we 'think' we have found the way to cause a disintegration of the atom. An experiment in the New Mexico desert was startling. Thirteen pounds of the explosive ... created a crater 6 feet deep and 1,200 feet in diameter, knocked over a steel tower 1/2 mile away and knocked men down 10,000 yards away. The explosion was visible for more than 200 miles and audible for 40 miles and more." He gives no indication that he is aware what radiation poisoning does.

But, in the end, did we have a choice? In 1950 Zacharias concluded, "it was the wrong decision. It was wrong on strategic grounds. And it was wrong on humanitarian grounds.

"I contend that the A-bombing of Japan is now known to have been a mistake and that we should admit it if we are to regain our traditional position as a leader among humanitarian nations. "

Just something that you don't usually get in high school.

Post a Comment