Ewok85 said:
I saw a documentary on TV about this last night. Was very interesting and I'd agree with some of the points brought up. The first being the reason for dropping the bomb; compared to what the alternative would have been - a mass land invasion by allied troops - I think the death toll was far far lower.
Among most people (particularly in the west) this has always been accepted as fact and used as an unchallenged, incontrovertable argument for using the bomb. But how do we know there would have been a land invasion? On whose assurance is this based? It's extremely convenient to use the argument in retrospect, because it never *needed* to happen and so noone can prove otherwise.
The fact remains (although it's unlikely that this has ever been taught in high school) that Japan was making increasingly urgent attempts to negotiate a surrender (through the Russians, who passed this information on to the other allies) in the period running up to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This has been briefly mentioned before in this forum, but consider the following communications between Japanese Foreign Minister Togo and Japan's Ambassador to Moscow, Sato (with credit to Doug Long -
Hiroshima: Was It Necessary? The Atomic Bombing of Japan):
July 1945 - Japan's peace messages
* July 11: "make clear to Russia... We have no intention of annexing or taking possession of the areas which we have been occupying as a result of the war; we hope to terminate the war".
* July 12: "it is His Majesty's heart's desire to see the swift termination of the war".
And a few others:
* July 13: "I sent Ando, Director of the Bureau of Political Affairs to communicate to the [Soviet] Ambassador that His Majesty desired to dispatch Prince Konoye as special envoy, carrying with him the personal letter of His Majesty stating the Imperial wish to end the war" (for above items, see: U.S. Dept. of State, Potsdam 1, pg. 873-879).
* July 18: "Negotiations... necessary... for soliciting Russia's good offices in concluding the war and also in improving the basis for negotiations with England and America." (Magic-Diplomatic Summary, 7/18/45, Records of the National Security Agency, Magic Files, RG 457, Box 18, National Archives).
* July 22: "Special Envoy Konoye's mission will be in obedience to the Imperial Will. He will request assistance in bringing about an end to the war through the good offices of the Soviet Government." The July 21st communication from Togo also noted that a conference between the Emperor's emissary, Prince Konoye, and the Soviet Union, was sought, in preparation for contacting the U.S. and Great Britain (Magic-Diplomatic Summary, 7/22/45, Records of the National Security Agency, Magic Files, RG 457, Box 18, National Archives).
* July 25: "it is impossible to accept unconditional surrender under any circumstances, but we should like to communicate to the other party through appropriate channels that we have no objection to a peace based on the Atlantic Charter." (U.S. Dept. of State, Potsdam 2, pg. 1260 - 1261).
* July 26: Japan's Ambassador to Moscow, Sato, to the Soviet Acting Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Lozovsky: "The aim of the Japanese Government with regard to Prince Konoye's mission is to enlist the good offices of the Soviet Government in order to end the war." (Magic-Diplomatic Summary, 7/26/45, Records of the National Security Agency, Magic Files, RG 457, Box 18, National Archives).
President Truman knew of the messages' content, noting, for instance, in his diary on July 18, "Stalin had told P.M. [Prime Minister Churchill] of telegram from Jap [sic] Emperor asking for peace"
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Of course, we can't tell for sure that the war would have ended. What we can say though with certainty is that Hiroshima was bombed at 8.15am on August 6, 1945. After all of the above communications had been sent.