Military Opposition to President Truman's War Crime

Eisenhower opposed it. LeMay opposed it. Bard opposed it. Leahy opposed it. King opposed it. Nimitz opposed it. MacArthur opposed it. Arnold opposed it. Strauss opposed it. None of them thought that it was necessary and they all thought that it an abomination. It was a political act, and that is all that it was; a) to keep the Russians out of the war (the thought was that they were going to secure even more booty and heaven help America if the Russians ever got credit for the victory) and b) to frighten them shitless. I mean, I know that this is difficult to hear when you've been ladled the traditional BS for your entire existence but a war crime is a war crime is a war crime and this was one hell of a violation.......................................................................................“The use of this barbarous weapon [the atomic bomb] at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.” Admiral William Leahy............."Careful scholarly treatment of the records and manuscripts opened over the past few years has greatly enhanced our understanding of why the Truman administration used atomic weapons against Japan. Experts continue to disagree on some issues, but critical questions have been answered. The consensus among scholars is that the bomb was not needed to avoid an invasion of Japan and to end the war within a relatively short time.” Samuel Walker, chief historian of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1990............."Japan was already defeated, dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, no longer mandatory to save American lives." General/President Dwight Eisenhower from his second memoir.............“There was no military justification for the dropping of the bomb. The war might have ended weeks earlier, if the United States had agreed, as it later did anyway, to the retention of the emperor.” General Douglas MacArthur.............."During recent weeks I have also had the feeling very definitely that the Japanese government may be searching for some opportunity which they could use as a medium of surrender. Following the three-power conference, emissaries from this country could contact representatives from Japan somewhere on the China Coast and make representations with regard to Russia's position and at the same time give them some information regarding the proposed use of atomic power, together with whatever assurances the President might care to make with regard to the Emperor of Japan and the treatment of the Japanese nation following unconditional surrender. It seems quite possible to me that this presents the opportunity which the Japanese are looking for." Ralph Bard 1945............"The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace before the atomic age was announced to the world with the destruction of Hiroshima and before the Russian entry into the war. The atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military standpoint, in the defeat of Japan." Admiral Chester Nimitz 1945............"Primarily, it was because it was to a number of people, myself among them, that the war was very nearly over. The Japanese were nearly ready to capitulate." Admiral Lewis Strauss............."...the dilemma (invasion versus the A-bomb) was an unnecessary one, for had we been willing to wait, the effective naval blockade would, in the course of time, have starved the Japanese into submission through a lack of oil, rice, medicine, and other essential materials." Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations............."We brought them down to an abject surrender, though the accelerated sinking of their merchant marine and hunger alone, and when we didn't need to do it....and they knew that we didn't need to do it, we used them for an experiment for two atomic bombs." General Carter W. Clarke............."The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war....The war would have been over in two weeks without the Russians and without the atomic bomb." General Curtis LeMay............."The Japanese position was hopeless even before the first atomic bomb fell, because the Japanese had lost control of their own air....it always appeared to us, atomic bomb or no atomic bomb, the Japanese were already on the verge of collapse." General Henry Arnold 1949.............................................................................................Two very critical points here; a) just like we had Saddam Hussein in a box back in 2003, so, too, with Japan in 1945 and b) the major stipulation that the Japanese had (the keeping of the Emperor - yes, there were others but that was the significant one) when it came to their surrendering, WE GAVE IT TO THEM ANYWAY, and so what was the fucking point if it wasn't to impress the Russians?