The Moral Legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
By Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay
(Author of the book about morals "The Code for Global Ethics" and his book about geopolitics "The New American Empire"
(N.B. First published on August 8, 2010)
When U.S. President Harry S. Truman decided on his own to use the atom bomb, a barbarous weapon of mass destruction, against the Japanese civilian populations of the cities of Hiroshima and of Nagasaki, on August 6 and on August 9, 1945, the United States sided officially on the wrong side of history.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe and 34th President from 1952 to 1960, said it in so many words: "... the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing." (Newsweek, November 11, 1963). Between 90,000 and 120,000 people died in Hiroshima, and between 90,000 and 120,000 people died in Nagasaki, for a grand total of between 150,000 and 200,000. most cruel deaths.
It seems that military man Eisenhower was more ethical than Freemason small-town politician Harry S. Truman regarding the fateful decision.
In being the first country to use nuclear weapons against civilian populations, the United States was then in direct violation of internationally accepted principles of war with respect to the wholesale and indiscriminate destruction of populations. Thus, August 1945 is a most dangerous and ominous precedent that marked a new dismal beginning in the history of humanity, a big moral step backward.
In future generations, it most certainly will be considered that the use of the atom bomb against the Japanese civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a historic crime against humanity that will stain the reputation of the United States for centuries to come. It can also be said that President Harry S. Truman, besides lying to the American people about the whole sordid affair (see official quotes in the link below), has left behind him a terrible moral legacy of incalculable consequences to future generations of Americans.
Many serf-serving reasons have been advanced for justifying Truman's decision, such as the objective of saving the lives of American soldiers by shortening the war in the Pacific, and avoiding a military invasion of Japan with a quick Japanese surrender. That surrender came on August 15, 1945, and it was made official on September 2, with the signing of the Japanese instrument of Surrender, nearly one month after the bombing of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Nazi Germany had capitulated on May 8, 1945, and World War II was already over in Europe. There was also the diplomatic fear that the Soviet Red Army could have invaded Japan, as they had done in Berlin, thus depriving the Unites States of a hard fought clear-cut victory against Japan.
But by the end of July 1945, according to military experts, the Japanese military apparatus had de facto been defeated. It is also true that the militarist Japanese Supreme Council for the Direction of the War was stalling with the aim of getting better capitulation terms, hoping for a negotiated settlement, especially regarding the future role of their emperor Hirohito as formal head of state.
In Europe, the allies had caused a recalcitrant Nazi Germany to accept an unconditional surrender and there were other military means to force the Japanese government to surrender. The convenient pretext of rushing a surrender carries no weight compared to the enormity of using the nuclear weapon on two civilian targets.
And even if President Truman was anxious to demonstrate the power of the atom bomb and impress his Soviet friends—and possibly also assert himself as a political figure vis-à-vis previous President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died a few months earlier, on April 12, 1945—this could have been done while targeting remote Japanese military targets, not on targeting entire cities. It seems that there were no moral considerations in this most inhuman decision.
Conclusion
Since that fateful month of August 1945, humanity has embarked upon a disastrous nuclear arms race and is rushing toward oblivion with its eyes open and its mind closed.
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International economist Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay is the author of the book about morals "The code for Global Ethics, Ten Humanist Principles" of the book about geopolitics "The New American Empire", and the recent book, in French, "La régression tranquille du Québec, 1980-2018". He holds a Ph.D. in international finance from Stanford University.