Gremrien's Reviews > Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath

Due to the very realistic looming danger of dying horrible death under nuclear bombings in the nearest future, I (like probably many other Ukrainians) started learning more about Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. This book was the first one and probably the most useful.

It’s a classical high-quality non-fiction immersion in the problem, as comprehensive as possible. It describes almost all the aspects you can imagine, from the lives and personalities of people concerned to the biggest geopolitical and historical implications, from the scientific basis of the bomb development and preparation to purely military considerations, from personal stories of regular people affected by the bombs to strictly medical and biological effects of the bombings, etc., etc. Depending on your baseline level of knowledge, this book may be overwhelming or illuminating, and you may appreciate some chapters more and dislike/find boring others. Anyway, this is the kind of book where you can find answers to most of your questions and learn both the very fundamental information and lots of important and unimportant details, plus many things you never even thought about. I am sure that even people who already know a lot about the subject would love to explore all those minute clarifications and expand their understanding of the subject.

(Paul Ham is a quite famous non-fiction author, a very diligent researcher, who already created several very impressive volumes about various aspects of the 20th-century history of war, politics, and diplomacy. I have at least two other books written by him in my plans.)

For me, “Hiroshima Nagasaki” was a little “too heavy” in the scientific/technical part and regarding all the details of politics (all those names, who said what, how who reacted, and so on). Nevertheless, I was very glad that I read the book and can now recommend it as the only book you can read if you want something saturated with information in a relatively concise form.

Although, as I said, the author describes all the aspects of the disaster, his main focus was politics. And here, we can learn a very interesting thing. I would say: the most remarkable and very well-justified conclusion about the greatest myth of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

The thing is: we were always taught that these bombings were a cruel and horrible but necessary thing, because eventually they forced the Japanese government to surrender, and thus World War Two finally ended. Everything we read in history books always confirmed that this was the most effective way to end this war as Japan was not going to surrender otherwise and would continue to kill and torture and destroy everything they could. The nuclear bombings horrified Japan, and the government promptly declared surrender to spare the lives of their people.

Right?

Well, no.

Paul Ham shows here (very, very conclusively) that all this was a great mystification. The key problem was the term “unconditional surrender.” Americans demanded “unconditional surrender” from Japan, and near the very end of the war, when everything was already obviously lost, especially in view of the unconditional surrender of Germany, Japan was quite ready to surrender. However, they had one — ONLY ONE! — but adamant condition: not touching the Emperor. At the time, they considered the Emperor a god-like figure and were ready to die for him and lose everything but to defend their Emperor. This was their only condition. Otherwise, the negotiations about surrender were already underway for some time, but Americans were similarly adamant in their demand of “unconditional surrender.” It was probably just a political clinch; Americans needed some triumphant ending to “their” part of the war, especially considering the recent unconditional surrender of Germany. So they continued to demand “unconditional surrender” from Japan, and Japan continued to desperately ask to spare their Emperor (and not even trying to ask for something else).

The nuclear bombings were the last resort of the USA in order to force Japan into “unconditional surrender.” AND IT FAILED. It failed completely. Japan did not care. They still had the same and only “condition” for their surrender: save our Emperor.

We were always taught that the first bombing was the demonstration of a new type of bomb and what it can do to people and their cities, and as Japan did not surrender after it, there was the second bomb, in order to show that Japan would be obliterated like this city by city until they surrender. And Japan promptly surrendered after the second bomb.

The truth is: they did not care. Neither after the first bomb, nor after the second one. If the USA had 10 or 100 nuclear bombs and continued to demand “unconditional surrender,” the bombings would continue, and Japan would still cling to their only condition: spare the Emperor.

So what happened after the second bomb?

First of all, it was the last bomb the USA really had ready, so they could not continue these bombings in the nearest future, until new bombs are prepared. This was the highest secret, of course, but the USA already faced a very unpleasant situation: they demonstrated the most powerful weapon in the world, and Japan did not flinch. Even if they had more bombs at the time, it was already obvious that Japan would still not agree to “unconditional surrender.” After all, Japan was notoriously cruel towards people overall, including its own people, and the horrible death of hundreds of thousands of Japanese women and children in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was just “collateral damage” for the Japanese government.

Therefore, the USA hastily organized a “diplomatic special operation”: they silently accepted the only Japan’s condition about sparing the Emperor but presented the situation as if Japan finally agreed to “unconditional surrender.” Which could have happened any time even before/instead of the nuclear bombings if Americans wanted it, because, as I said, the Japanese government was not stupid and they already accepted that they lost the war. The negotiations about their surrender were going on all this time. The nuclear bombings just showed the Americans that Japan would not surrender “unconditionally,” so they decided to accept the condition about the Emperor and declare their victory at last.

(There was another powerful factor in this complex equation: the entrance of the USSR into the Eastern theater of the war. Otherwise, maybe the USA had some time to think and rearrange things. However, the USSR started to invade Japan-occupied territories, and it was obvious that they would do here the same things as in Europe: rapes, lootings, and occupation of vast territories for many years ahead. It meant a great concern regarding the uncontrolled expansion of the “Soviet bloc.” The USA and all the other Allies were desperate to save this part of the world free from the barbarian Stalinists, and so they did not think twice about finally offering Japan surrender without the word “unconditional.”)

And afterward, it was always the reiteration of the same myth: the nuclear bombings helped to end the war because they forced the Japanese to surrender. Nope, they did not. They would not do it. The nuclear bombings just showed the USA that Japan would not surrender unless they respect their only condition about the Emperor, and it was the Americans who were forced to yield, not vice versa.

Well, Paul Ham describes all the aspects of this problem in great detail, so you can learn all the argumentation and decide for yourself. For me, it was a very interesting and important lesson about geopolitics and “history as we know it.”

Among other things, I was also surprised to learn that Americans did not know much about the “radiation” aspect of their bombings. They knew that the nuclear bombs would kill and mutilate people in thousands, but they were scared and ashamed when they started to see more distant effects of the radiation (as if it was something much worse than horrible deaths immediately or shortly due to the direct effect of the destructive force). Well, it’s just another very interesting topic for discussion, so I’ll stop here. If you are interested, I do recommend this book a lot. There are many other thought-provoking and illuminating things there.