Shinichi’s Trike & The Lessons of War
August 6th, 2007
By SHAUN MULLEN, TMV Columnist
Shinichi Tetsutani loved to ride his beloved tricycle outside his house in Higashi-Hakushima-Cho, a neighborhood in the Japanese port city of Hiroshima.
Shin-chan, as his family called the three-year-old, was doing just that on the morning of August 6, 1945, when there was a brilliant flash in the sky.
Shin was about a quarter mile from the hypocenter of the detonation of the first nuclear weapon to be used in anger, the consequence of a frightening new technology that its creators were all too aware would change warfare — and civilization — forever by wreaking unimaginable death and destruction.
Shin died that night, one of about 140,000 people to perish in the atomic bomb explosion and from associated effects, principally radiation poisoning. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, taking about 74,000 lives. Kyoto, the original target of the first bomb, was spared because the government officials and generals who were desperate to end the war were sensitive of its cultural significance.
A third atomic bomb was being readied, but by August 15 the conciliators in the Japanese government had won out over hard-line militarists who had had the tacit backing of Emperor Hirohito, who was not the pitifully manipulated figurehead the Japanese claim, and was the villain of this story. In any event, Japan capitulated and World War II finally was over after some 234,874 Americans had lost their lives in the Pacific theater alone.
* * * * *
There is no military-political action in modern history laden with as much baggage as President Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb.
Those who have argued in favor of his decision offer these arguments:
* The bombs ended the war months sooner and saved an estimated half million American lives that could have been lost in an invasion of the Japanese mainland
* Millions of people under Japanese occupation in The Philippines, New Guinea, Borneo and elsewhere who faced starvation, including hundreds of thousands of POWs from the U.S., Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, were freed.
* The hard-line militarists had adamantly refused to surrender although it was obvious that the war was lost.
Those who have argued against his decision offer these arguments:
* The bombings were immoral, a crime against humanity and constituted genocide.
* In a contemporary context, they were an act of terrorism.
* They were militarily unnecessary because Japan was essentially defeated and ready to surrender.
Please click here to read more at Kiko’s House.
This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 1:52 am and is filed under Japan, Military Affairs, World War II, Technology, History. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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