Propaganda was released and statements were issued by government and military officials, in attempts to convince American citizens that the bombing was necessary. Statements given by Truman on August 9, 1945 presented his reasoning given to the public for the bombing Hiroshima:
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. But that attack is only a warning of things to come. If Japan does not surrender, bombs will have to be dropped on her war industries and, unfortunately, thousands of civilian lives will be lost…
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 (Long, Hiroshima: Harry Truman's Diary and Papers)."
Truman also published an article claiming that he dropped the bomb to prevent an invasion of Japan that would have cost one million American lives. This was the biggest turning point for any doubt Americans had on the use of the bombs, since many Americans believed this reasoning to be true. They felt comforted by the statements that we had actually saved lives by taking lives. This can be best presented with the results of a survey taken by the American public shortly after the war. The results showed that 53-55% of Americans agreed with the dropping of both bombs, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In fact, many individuals felt we should have been more aggressive, and 22.7% of those surveyed believed that we should have used more than two bombs. A very small percentage, only 4.5% of survey takers felt that we should not have dropped either of the bombs (Harris 36).
In an interview, Elaine Tyler May discussed the concept of nuclear numbing: “After the shock and horror of what these bombs had wrought in Japan, Americans gradually just came-became numb to what atomic power could actually do… These are weapons that are out there, but, uh, presumably they're only going to be there for deterrence.” For protection and comfort for the people, fallout shelters were created where people could retreat in case of attack, and school children were trained how to react in case of a bomb. Schools began conducting “drop drills” in addition to fire drills, where the children were taught to drop under their desks, covering their heads, ears and eyes and remain in a fetal position (May). These protections were nothing more than “feel good” procedures, and would be ineffective in the instance of an actual nuclear attack. Somehow, however, they helped calm the people and made them believe that taking these specific actions might protect them from an atomic bomb.
Were the bombs were necessary to end the war? It is possible, but there were many who did not believe the government’s excuses. Among these people was Dwight Eisenhower, who felt that "...the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing” (Long). Albert Einstein, the creator of the Special Theory of Relativity, also disagreed, saying he felt confident that President Roosevelt would have forbidden the bombings of Japan had he been alive. “ I made one great mistake in my life, when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justification - the danger that the Germans would make them” (Long) Also, General Douglas MacArthur joined the ranks of those who disapproved. Norman Cousins, a consultant to MacArthur during occupation of Japan wrote about discussions with MacArthur, stating "MacArthur's views about the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were starkly different from what the general public supposed… When I asked General MacArthur about the decision to drop the bomb, I was surprised to learn he had not even been consulted. What, I asked, would his advice have been? He replied that he saw no military justification for the dropping of the bomb. The war might have ended weeks earlier, he said, if the United States had agreed, as it later did anyway, to the retention of the institution of the emperor."
The bombs were a very sad time for the world and evoked many different emotions amongst Americans. Despite the opinions of some that the bombs were not needed, the US government was able to convince most of the people of their necessity. At this point, the world had not yet seen anything so capable of destruction as the atomic bomb. Nobody knew where this technology would head, and caused a great mix of emotions for all Americans.
Bibliography
Harris, Jonathan. "Hiroshima: A Study in Science, Politics, and the Ethics of War." 1965. Education Resources Information Center. <http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/32/32/83.pdf>.
Long, Doug. Hiroshima: Harry Truman's Diary and Papers. 25 July 2005. <http://www.doug-long.com/hst.htm>.
—. HIROSHIMA: WHO DISAGREED WITH THE ATOMIC BOMBING? 25 July 2005. <http://www.doug-long.com/quotes.htm>.
May, Elaine Tyler. Elaine Tyler May on: American Reaction to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 1998. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/interview/tylermay1.html>.
—. Elaine Tyler May on: Oppenheimer and Hiroshima. 1998. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/interview/tylermay2.html>.
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Race for the Superbomb Timeline 1941-1963. 1998. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/timeline/index.html>.
Weiler, Abdullah. Between the bombs: From Hiroshima to Nagasaki. 18 September 2008. The Tehran Times Daily Newspaper. <http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=178136>.
