R.I.P Paul Tibbits, pilot of the Enola Gay

[Numo]

I have often wondered if there could have been a way to demonstrate the terrible power of the atomic bombs to a representative of the Japanese government without having to drop them on a city.

[Jimmypoo]

Japan had no navy and no airforce to speak of. We had decimated both, and were destroying civilians by air with incendiaries, as Tokyo proved.

They WERE seeking a surrender - perhaps you could name some historians who dispute that vs. the ones I have read who cite communiques, etc.?

I don't argue that it was necessary to drop the bomb - but it certainly wasn't necessary to secure the surrender of Japan - EXCEPT to secure it immediately, with respect to the Russians and their DESIRE to enter that theater - and our desire to make sure they didn't interfere with our sphere of influence, post WWII.

As for demonstrations -- they were long discussed and proposed, in many shapes and forms -- including having a siren attached for a 10k ft explosion; getting leaders on board a ship to see a water explosion, etc.

And if THOSE were serious considerations near the time "the baby was born" - within the Joint Chiefs and the White House, that tells you how serious the "need" was to use it to destroy assets.

It was primarily a civilian tool, as was the incendiaries, and that's because there wasn't any industry REMAINING to use it on.

A bunch of people starving, with swords in their hands, is best wait until they are too hungry to carry their swords. And that wouldn't take too long as of August 1, 1945.

Whatever the coup would have accomplished, bamboo spears that are attacked from the air makes for serious demoralization of such "untrained" troops.

[michaelb]

I was at the peace park in Hiroshima last summer and it was very moving and powerful; possibly one of the most emotional museums on earth. The history provided, including lots of US documents and records, was all very interesting.

I am ok with the majority view that there was some military justification for dropping the bomb, and the morality of war in the context of that time, the holocaust, japanese atrocities in China, US wholesale killing of civilians, seems so wrong now but I think we have to understand how different the choices were back then.

From the information presented there, it sure seemed like Japan was trying to surrender conditionally for months, the condition being they want to preserve the emperor, and the US was insisting on unconditional surrender. I don't remember seeing anything that suggested that they tried to surrender unconditionally before the bomb.

[mjgkramer]

In years past I watched him fly Fifi, the Confederate Air Force B-29, at their annual air show that was at that time held in Harlingen, Texas. At those same air shows, Greg "Pappy" Boyington, sold autographed copies of his book "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and shook hands with anyone who came to his booth. At that time there was a TV series by the same name starring Robert Conrad. My son, now 39 but a little guy at the time, loved the program so I thought it would be a treat for him to meet Boyington. As soon as son saw him, he refused to shake Boyington's hand because he was expecting to meet Robert Conrad, not some wrinkled old man.