Blog #45 - Drop the atomic bomb? Yes or no?

Time: August 1, 1945

Your job: An advisor to President Truman.

The issues:
1. What is the best way to get Japan to surrender without invading?
2. Should we use the atomic bomb to force Japan to surrender?  If so, how should it be used?
3. Do we go ahead with the invasion of Japan (overall known as Operation Downfall)? see link for info on Downfall.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall

Scenario: 
America has fought defeated Germany already, getting them to surrender earlier this year in May and Japan is the lone target for all of the Allies. 

The Soviet Union has planned to attack Japanese troops in northern China soon, and you are worried about the Soviets' influence in both Asia and Europe after World War 2.  They have already begun installing Communist governments in Eastern Europe, in defiance of the Yalta Peace Conference agreement. 

Secretary of State James Byrnes feels that using the atomic bomb will send a signal to the Soviets to stop expanding, yet America needs their help to defeat the Japanese in China.  America has been given the sole task of invading the mainland islands of Japan. 

Another thing to consider is that Japan currently holds tens of thousands of Allied prisoners of war around Asia.  What would happen to them if an invasion of Japan occurred?  Would they all be massacred by the soldiers watching them? 

One more thing to consider is Admiral Leahy's recommendation: Don't use the bomb but stop all shipping to the island, essentially quarantine Japan, and wait them out until they surrender.  The Japanese may not surrender until they know that their emperor is safe because they see him as a god on Earth. 

Intelligence sources are picking up information that some Japanese officials have contacted the Soviet Union about possible surrender, but nothing official has been announced.  The Soviets may or may not cooperate with us in reaching a surrender agreement. 

As of now, Operation Olympic (phase 1 of Downfall) is planned for the invasion to take place on November 1 later this year.  Because of the heavy defenses on the mainland of Kyushu, the Army Chief of Staff is predicting 450,000 casualties, including 100,000 dead just within 90 days.  That total is significantly greater than any single battle we have ever seen in American history. 



In order for Operation Downfall to work, Olympic must be successful, so that we can launch Operation Coronet (phase 2 of Downfall) in March 1946 which would invade the main island of Honshu close to Tokyo. 

We have to consider the possibility that the Japanese may not surrender after dropping the two atomic bombs and that we will have to go through with Operation Downfall.  The big question is, the Japanese are weary of war as we are, especially since they've been fighting it since 1937, so would they surrender after being hit with the most destructive bomb in the history of mankind? 

In your response (answer #1 and #2 or #3), 
1. Consider the options listed above - which options seem most likely to get the Japanese to surrender? Why?
2. If you recommend that President Truman use the bomb(s), how do we use it?  What is your rationale? 
3. If you recommend that President Truman go ahead with the invasion, what would be the impact on America from such horrific casualties? 

300 words minimum.  Due Monday, December 17th by class.  

Blog #11B - Should the government tell us the truth?

Back in the 1950s, Americans practiced "Duck and Cover" drills when the threat of nuclear war became greater with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Films about Bert the Turtle would help America understand the necessity of hiding out the blasts.

These drills would save the children of America from the nuclear blast, apparently, and then we could come out afterwards as if it was a bad storm and rebuild. The government even downplayed the damage done during a nuclear war: in a 1955 film called "About Fallout", it says that "radiation is something that we live with everyday." While technically correct, high levels of toxic radiation left after a nuclear blast isn't what I think he's talking about. If you'd like, check out the film here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dobys9s9f2w

Without proper shelter, the film says, millions will die from the fallout. 2 feet of earth, 5.5 feet of wood will help protect us. Time is also our ally, the film says. Within 2 weeks, mostly all the radiation is decayed. One thing I found odd was when it said (and I'm paraphrasing here):

that if radiation falls on your food, the food isn't harmed or made radioactive
b/c radiation damages living tissue. Simply remove the fallout particles
with regular everyday food preparation methods... if you accidentally swallow
fall out particles, they will do you no immediate harm (!) [at this point, it
shows a 1950s in an apron -with no gloves - rinsing off tomatoes in a
kitchen].

It seems laughable today, given the immense power of the nuclear bombs that simple drills like these could keep Americans safe. Someone must have known how bad these bombs were and how devastating they would have been had they hit American cities. They would have made the 9/11/01 attacks look tame by comparison in both death toll and destruction. This isn't to minimize those horrific terror attacks, but those airplanes weren't nuclear bombs. And most of the damage in New York was done, in my opinion, by the falling WTC buildings, not the airplanes.

Today, I get the same feeling that we aren't being told the complete and utter truth about how to defend ourselves against possible bio and chem weapons attack. In 2002, when we were told about plastic sheeting and duct tape, I thougt it laughable too, but in the back of my mind, I thought, "what if...?" and I went out and bought some anyway. SUCKER!

What else should I do? Go to an army surplus store and buy gas masks? Stock up on food supplies and water? Get a gun just in case? And whose job is it to protect us? Ourselves? Homeland security?

So, the questions are:

1. Should the government have told Americans the cold hard facts about nuclear war in the 1950s instead of shielding them from the truth? Why would the gov't. have concealed this info from us? How do you think the American people would have reacted when told? Why?

2. Is the gov't. doing all it can to help us prepare for the next terrorist attack - whatever, wherever, whenever it may be? If not, what needs to be done? If so, what have they done to help us in the Detroit area?

Due Wednesday, January 30 (200 words minimum).

Blog #10B The Right Reasons?

Many people will look back at the use of the atomic bombs on Japan in 1945, and with perfect hindsight, question the wisdom of dropping the bombs. The critics will point to Cold War and the creation of over 40,000 nuclear bombs just by the Soviet Union and the United States alone between 1945-1991. The critics will point to the current spread of nuclear weapons to rogue countries like Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Furthermore, there's no clear location on dozens if not hundreds of nuclear warheads lost after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

But, many people, including respected historians, will assert that the bombs ended the war. Would Japan have surrendered w/o the destruction of two whole cities? Possibly. But, when faced with the prospect of dozens of Okinawa battlefields, President Truman agreed to their use. He had hoped to avoid the death of countless hundreds of thousands of Allied and Japanese soldiers.

So, in 150 words, looking over your notes for Okinawa and how that influenced the decision to drop the bomb, do you think the U.S. dropped them for the right reasons? Or did the eventual consequences listed in the first paragraph outweigh the end of the war? Explain why.

Nagging questions about World War 2

We've finished our unit on World War 2 but that doesn't mean that we've answered all of the questions out there. After the test this week, you guys came up with some very interesting thoughts and questions that showed some deeper thinking. Here are some of the best questions (you're responsible for answering at least one by Pie Day 3/14 Wednesday at 11:30 a.m.):

1. What happened in Detroit in 1943 that created all the tension for the race riot? - Shayna

2. To what degree did Hitler's service in World War I influence his later politics? - Martin

3. Holocaust deniers claim that the Holocaust never occurred, yet how can they deny it with so much visual, actual proof? - Martin

4. I know that the U.S. had a great military back during the war, but it's hard for me to understand how in some of the battles there was such a huge difference in the number of casualties. For instance, at Iwo Jima, 6,000 Americans vs. 20,500 Japanese. Okinawa was much worse: 12,600 (7,600 soldiers + 5,000 sailors) Americans vs. 110,000 Japanese. What do you think accounts for the difference in the numbers? - Colleen

5. According to the textbooks, we saw Stalin as an ally during the war but he was responsible for killing more of his own people than Hitler. Everyone knows about Hitler and the Holocaust but we hear little about Stalin and these deaths. Why is that? - Allison and Colleen

6. Since there were so many more Jews in the concentration camps than Nazis, why didn't they try to band together and fight back? - Shayla, Andy R.

7. In every war there are P.O.W.s. Did the United States have any enemy P.O.W.s during WW2 like we do now with the Iraq War at Guantanamo Bay? Do you think we treated them as badly?
- Alex S.

8. What if the U.S. didn't enter the war, how would the U.S./the world be different today? - Ashley, Jill, Lori, Kaitlyn,

9. Do you think that Oppenheimer and those other scientists really thought that they were "saving lives" when they built the atomic bomb? - Alex L.

10. Why would anyone be a kamikaze pilot? What must it be like? Did his family receive anything in return? - Ryan, Crystal, Ciara, Andrew W., Larry, Brittany, Adam

11. Have we really learned from the Holocaust when we look at Rwanda and Darfur? - Crystal

12. How would you have survived the concentration camps? Would you have struggled on and lived through the horror or would you have rather died and been spared the agony? - Megan

13. What made Hitler the way he was? How did he become so popular and influential? - Hannah, Larry, Erin, Samantha, Adam, Ryan, Jasmine, Imani, Shayna, Martin, Claire, Trevor, Leah, Shayla,

14. How are relations between the U.S. and Japan today? Do the atomic bombs play any role in these relations? - Alice

15. Where was Superman during all this time? - Thomas



Editor's Note: I think I found the answer, Thomas. Unfortunately, the action in the comics never matched reality.



Detroit News account of 1943 race riot: http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=185&category=events



Also, I've checked Ebay and ration books are selling for between $1 and $10 if you're interested in having your own set.



When looking for info on Hitler, take care to make sure your source is very credible. Like with most historical figures, legends have been repeated so often that they have become fact. That makes it difficult to find accurate info.

Please post just your first name and last initial.

Journal #3 - Will the past ever leave us alone?

William Faulkner, a great American writer of the first half of the 20th Century wrote:
"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

I got to thinking about this quote as we're coming up to our unit on World War II and all of the awful things that happened during that war. The death toll is staggering. An estimated 62 million people were killed, 37 million civilians and 25 millions soldiers. There were crimes against humanity - the Holocaust visited upon Europe's Jews and other outsiders; 7 million Chinese civilians killed not only by the Japanese but also in a bloody civil war; and Allied soldiers brutally kept in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps in Asia.

It has been over 60 years since this war ended, yet we still see reminders of this war in many places that we go.

1. The United Nations Security Council is based upon the winners of the war and hasn't changed to reflect the world as it is today;

2. Japan has little to no armed forces;

3. Germany still pays reparations to the survivors of the Holocaust;

4. A distrust between the Soviet Union and America during the war carried over into a 46 year Cold War which we will continue to pay for until many of us are old and gray;

5. The cloud of Japanese internment camps hangs over America as a gross violation of Japanese-Americans civil liberties;

6. And we all live under the specter of a nuclear blast because of the race for the atom bomb in the 1940s that America won in July 1945 when we detonated one successfully in Trinity, New Mexico. One of the biggest threats to world peace, if not the biggest threats, is the spread of nuclear weapons.

So, my questions for you, as we approach World War 2, are:

1. What should our approach to the war be? Do we look at it just as another American war which expanded our military, economic and political power across the globe? Or was there a greater purpose involved in fighting the war?

2. When do we let go of the legacy of the past? When is enough enough? Or are there some things that should never ever be forgotten? Specifics would be great for this answer
(150 word minimum, please).

Article on Japan's apology for its WW2 legacy - http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-08/2005-08-15-voa6.cfm

Casualties stats - http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/World_War_II_casualties