ATOMIC BOMB DROPPED ON HIROSHIMA, JAPAN - August 6, 1945
TRUMAN SPEAKS ON DROPPING ATOMIC BOMB ON HIROSHIMA
Today marks the 64th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb by the United States on Japan, August 6, 1945. The decision by President Harry Truman to drop the bomb has been roundly criticized by revisionist historians and others on the Left. Some have even gone so far as to call Truman a "war criminal" for doing so. They could not be more wrong.
The United States had already suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties at the hands of Japan, in a war Japan started. The Japanese had shown in battle after battle their willingness to fight to the death to hold ground they occupied. How much more would they have done so to defend their sacred home islands. Their unwillingness to surrender, even after the devastation of the first atomic bomb proves that point.
President Truman's first responsibility was to America, and those putting their lives on the line to defend freedom. He had within his power to bring the war to a swift end by using the atomic bomb. He knew that by using it, he would save untold lives - both American and Japanese. American military leaders had already estimated there would be 1 million American casualties in an invasion of Japan. There would have been millions more Japanese deaths as they sought to defend their homeland to the death.
The truth is this: The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved lives. As horrific as the consequences were of the bombs, they actually saved the Japanese from even greater death and destruction. But above all, Truman saved perhaps a million Americans from death and injury.
Truman did the right thing. It's time Americans stop their hand-wringing and second-guessing about dropping the atomic bomb. It saved lives. Truman did what any American President would have had to do in the same circumstances.
Harry Truman Quotes on the Atomic Bomb
The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians.
I realize the tragic significance of the atomic bomb. Its production and its use were not lightly undertaken by this Government. But we knew that our enemies were on the search for it. We know now how close they were to finding it. And we knew the disaster, which would come to this Nation, and to all peace-loving nations, to all civilization, if they had found it first. That is why we felt compelled to undertake the long and uncertain and costly labor of discovery and production. We won the race of discovery against the Germans.
Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans. We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan's power to make war. Only a Japanese surrender will stop us.