Why the US Dropped Atomic Bombs in 1945

The truth is that the burgeoning MIC had a technology it was eager to display as a measure of the U.S.'s military superiority, and Japanese civilians paid the price.

There is truth in the above statement. Certainly, the second bomb was going to be dropped because we had constructed two distinctly different approaches to the bomb, and in regard to the second bomb....this makes your statement certainly more true in regard to the second bomb, because anybody who was concerned about Japanese civilians as noted in Truman's diary, had time to stop the second bomb, or adjust the targeting. Nobody in the civilian Defense department or White House intervened after the knowledge of the horror of the first bomb dropped mostly on Civilians.

However, to suggest the first bomb was about displaying US military superiority, I simply disagree........they wanted to end the war and not have American kids dying in the invasion of Japan. I certainly agree with that statement in regard to the second bomb because of the differing technologies, and the need for our military to test both of them, but the first bomb was intended to shorten the war, and you have to go to the motivation of those working in New Mexico initially there was a legitimate fear that the Germans were on course to have a nuclear program......our scientist later realized in the rush to beat the Germans, we had let the genie out of the bottle and had regrets.......much of what fueled the 1970s revisiting this subject was the scientific community and their disdain as to what they created.

I can agree with that assertion. One of the most fascinating books I have ever read was Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb.

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Atomic-Bomb-text-Rhodes/dp/B0043493DO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1464656296&sr=8-2&keywords=The+Making+of+the+Atomic+Bomb

Rhodes, a historian, understood the science and explained the history of nuclear physics in layman's terms. It made me want to study nuclear physics.

The scientists who developed the Bomb were largely Jewish expats who had fled Europe because of their fear of Hitler. They approached FDR through his connections with Albert Einstein, and recommended that the U.S. start its nuclear program, because if we did not, the Germans might develop the Bomb first. The main motivator of these Jewish physicists was to get there before the Germans did. It turns out that Germany was only interested in the nuclear reactor (they called it the "nuclear burner") and never had a program to make a bomb. But, if Germany had not surrendered for an additional 4-5 months in 1945, Berlin would have been the Bomb's first target.

After the German surrender, the Jewish scientists suddenly turned pacifist, and did not recommend that the Bomb be used against Japan. They wanted it demonstrated to the Japanese in an unpopulated area to show Japan's leadership what was in store for them if they did not capitulate immediately.

But, the U.S. had made a major investment in this program, had just a few bombs to show for it, so they went for Hiroshima on the first-go instead.

My father was in Navy boot camp in San Diego when the bombs were dropped and when VJ-Day occurred a few weeks later. The bomb kept my father from seeing any combat in the war. I am sure several others in my generation had fathers who were also spared from participating in the war because of the atomic attacks as well.

Postscript: Had Hitler treated the Jews differently, the scientists who made the Bomb for us might have made it for him instead......

agree