Here we are, sixty years later — the only nation to have ever used nuclear weapons. We still have them to this day, and expend a lot of energy trying to keep others from having them, using them as an excuse to invade these days.
I am not qualified to debate the decision in 1945 to use these weapons against Japan; as a human being I am qualified to be horrified by them.
Blogger Susan Kitchens is creating a detailed historical record of the events of this day sixty years ago. So far, it’s all from the viewpoint of the US.
One of the things often over looked is that even after the second bomb was dropped the Emperor of Japan was still not convinced that surrender was the best option. Truman took one more step and that was to fly a formation of 8,000 B29’s directly over the Imperial Palace. The intent was clear, One plane/one bomb and we have enough planes and bombs to wipe Japan off the map. (Even though we had no more atomic bombs.) The Emperor stood there and watched the planes fly over (the planes flew in a large circle to make it look like there was more planes than there really was) And it was at that time that the Emperor knew it was over and told the people of Japan to surrender.