atom bombs were they justified?
TRANSCRIPT
Atomic Bombs – Were they
Morally & Militarily Justified
to end WW2 ?
By Dr. Peter Hammond
On 6 August 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.
In a split second, 100,000 people lost their lives...
A man looks over the expanse of ruins left by the explosion of the atomic bomb on in Hiroshima,
Survivors of the first atomic bomb. Awaiting emergency medical
treatment, on August 6, 1945. Hiroshima, Japan
Atomic_cloud_over_Nagasaki _from_Koyagi-jima
A View of ground zero in Hiroshima in the autumn of 1945, showing total destruction resulting from dropping of the first atomic bomb.
Shiroyama National School in Nagasaki
Twisted iron girders are all that remain of this theatre building located about 800 meters from ground zero
Ruins of an Orthodox Cathedral in Nagasaki
Nagarekawa Methodist Church of Christ lies completely shattered on Hiroshima plain after atomic attack
The largest church on Kyushu Island, Urakami Cathedral, completed in 1925 after 30 years of work
Urakami Cathedral before bombing.
Remains of the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, Japan, late 1945,
Remains of the Urakami Catholic cathedral in Nagasaki, Japan, late 1945,
Remains of the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, Japan, late 1945,
Urakami Cathedral in ruins.
Urakami Cathedral, 7 January 1946
View of the surrender ceremonies, looking forward from USS Missouri's superstructure
Did the Atom Bombs Actually
Save Lives?
I was taught that the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima And Nagasaki in order to end WWII
and save both American and Japanese lives.
But most of the top American military officials at the time said otherwise.
Atomic Weapons
Were Not Needed
to End the War or
to Save Lives
The U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey Group,
assigned by President Truman to study the air attacks on Japan, produced a report in July of 1946 that concluded (52-56):
Paul Nitze - Vice Chairman US Stategic Bombing Survey reported:
“Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved,
it is the Survey’s opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945 and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945,
Japan would have surrendered - even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war,
and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.”
Atomic Weapons
Were Not Needed
to End the War or to Save Lives
General (and later president) Dwight Eisenhower
– then Supreme Commander of all Allied Forces,
and the officer who created most of America’s
WWII military plans
for Europe and Japan
– said:
“The Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn’t necessary
to hit them with that awful thing.”
“In [July] 1945… Secretary of War Stimson, visiting my
headquarters in Germany, informed me that
our government was
preparing to drop
an atomic bomb
on Japan.
Newsweek, 11/11/63, on Ike
Eisenhower also noted
(pg. 380):
I was one of those who felt that there were a number of cogent reasons to
question the wisdom of such an act. …
the Secretary, upon giving me the news of the successful bomb test in New Mexico, and of the plan for using it, asked for my reaction,
apparently expecting a vigorous assent.
During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had been conscious of a
feeling of depression and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings,
first on the basis of my belief that
Japan was already defeated
and
that dropping
the bomb
was
completely unnecessary,
and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was,
I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives.
It was my belief that
Japan was, at that very moment,
seeking some way to
surrender with a minimum
loss of ‘face’.
The Secretary was deeply perturbed by
my attitude….”
Unnecessary and Unethical
Admiral William Leahy
– the highest ranking member of the U.S. military
from 1942 until retiring in 1949,
was the first de facto Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
and who was at the center
of all major American military decisions in World War II
– wrote:
“It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan.
The Japanese were already defeated
and ready
to surrender because of the
effective
sea blockade
and the
successful bombing
with conventional weapons.
The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future are frightening. My own feeling was that, in being the first to use
it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages.
I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by
destroying women and children”.
No Military Justification
General Douglas MacArthur
maintained
that there was
No Military Justification for the Atom
Bombs:
MacArthur’s views about the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were starkly different from what the general
public supposed ….
When asked about the decision to drop the bomb, General MacArthur
reported that he had not even been consulted.
MacArthur confirmed that
he saw no military justification for the dropping of the bomb.
The war might have ended weeks earlier, he said,
if the United States had agreed, as it later did anyway,
to the retention of the institution of the emperor.
The Potsdam Threat
Opening of the Potsdam Conference.
When the Potsdam Declaration in July, demanded that Japan surrender unconditionally or face ‘prompt and utter destruction,’
MacArthur was appalled.
He knew that the Japanese would never
renounce their emperor,
and that without him
an orderly transition
to peace would be impossible anyhow, because his people
would never submit to Allied occupation
unless the emperor ordered it.
Ironically, when the surrender did come, it was conditional,
and the condition was a continuation of the imperial reign.
1945_Japanese_Listen_to_Hirohito_Radio_Message
Japanese Prisoners of War at Guam, stand with bowed heads after hearing the announcement of Emperor Hirohito,
that Japan would unconditionally surrender.
Had the General’s advice been followed, the resort to atomic weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have been unnecessary.
Missed Opportunity
Assistant Secretary of War John McLoy noted:
“I have always felt
that if,
in our ultimatum
to the Japanese government
issued from Potsdam
[in July 1945],
we had referred to the retention of the emperor
as a constitutional monarch and
had made some reference to the reasonable accessibility
of raw materials to the
future Japanese government,
it would have been accepted.
Indeed, I believe that even in the form it was delivered, there was some disposition on the part of the Japanese to give it favourable
consideration.
When the war was over
I arrived at this conclusion after talking with a number
of Japanese officials
who had been closely associated with
the decision of the then Japanese government,
to reject the ultimatum,
as it was presented.
I believe we missed the
opportunity of effecting a Japanese surrender, completely satisfactory
to us,
without the necessity of dropping the
bombs.”
The War was Already Won
“I think that the Japanese were ready for peace, and they already had approached the Swiss.
Under Secretary of the Navy Ralph Bird said:
In my opinion, the Japanese war was really won
before we ever used the atom bomb.
Thus, it wouldn’t have been necessary for us to disclose our nuclear capability and stimulate the Russians to develop the same thing much more rapidly than they would have if we had not dropped the bomb”.
War Was Really Won Before We Used A-Bomb,
U.S. News and World Report, 8/15/60, pg. 73-75.
He also noted
It definitely seemed to me that the Japanese were becoming weaker and weaker. They were surrounded by the Navy.
They couldn’t get any imports and they couldn’t export anything.
Naturally, as time went on and the war developed in our favour it was quite logical to hope and expect that with the proper kind of a warning the Japanese would then be in a
position to make peace,
which would have made it unnecessary for us to drop the bomb and have had to bring Russia in”.
It Had Nothing to do
with Ending the War
General Curtis LeMay,
the tough cigar-smoking Army Air Force
“Hawk,”
stated publicly shortly before the nuclear bombs
were dropped
on Japan:
“The war would have been over in
two weeks. . . .
The atomic bomb had nothing to do
with the end of the war at all.”
Downtown Tokyo after the US incendiary raids
No Invasion Was Necessary
The Vice Chairman of the U.S. Bombing Survey Paul Nitze wrote (pg. 36-37, 44-45):
[I] concluded that even without the atomic bomb, Japan was likely to surrender in a matter of months. My own view was that Japan would
capitulate by November 1945.
Even without the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it seemed highly unlikely, given what we found to have been the mood of the Japanese
government, that a U.S. invasion of the islands [scheduled for November 1, 1945] would have been necessary.”
Opening Up Asia For Communism
Deputy Director of the Office of Naval Intelligence Ellis Zacharias wrote:
“Just when the Japanese were
ready to capitulate, we went ahead and introduced to the
world the most devastating weapon
it had ever seen and, in effect, gave
the go-ahead to Russia to swarm
over Eastern Asia.
On 6 August 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.
In a split second, 100,000 people ceased to exist ...
“I submit that it was the
wrong decision.
It was wrong on strategic
grounds.
And it was wrong on
humanitarian grounds”.
Ellis Zacharias,
How We Bungled
the Japanese Surrender,
Look, 6/6/50, pg. 19-21.
Immoral and Unnecessary
Brigadier General Carter Clarke – the military intelligence officer in charge of preparing summaries of intercepted Japanese cables for
President Truman and his advisors – said (pg. 359):
“When we didn’t need to do it, and we knew we didn’t need to do it, and they knew that we knew we didn’t need to do it,
we used them as an experiment for two atomic bombs.
The commander in chief of the U.S. Fleet and
Chief of Naval Operations, Ernest J. King,
stated that
the naval blockade
and prior bombing of Japan in March of 1945,
had rendered the Japanese helpless and that
the use of the atomic bomb
was both unnecessary
and immoral.
A Double Crime
Also, the opinion of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz was reported to have said in a press conference on September 22, 1945, that
“The Admiral took the opportunity of adding his voice to those insisting
that
Japan had been defeated before
the atomic bombing
and Russia’s entry
into the war.”
In a subsequent speech at the Washington Monument on
October 5, 1945,
Admiral Nimitz stated
“The Japanese had, in fact, already
sued for peace before the atomic age was announced to the
world with the destruction of
Hiroshima and before the Russian entry into
the war.”
Why Were Bombs Dropped on Populated Cities
Without Military Value?
Eisenhower’s assessment was “It wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing . . . to use the atomic bomb, to kill and terrorize civilians,
without even attempting [negotiations], was a double crime.”
“ the Japanese would probably wish to get out on almost any terms short of the dethronement of the Emperor.”
Revulsion
Even military officers who favored use of nuclear weapons mainly favored using them on unpopulated areas or Japanese military targets …
not cities.
Demonstration Proposed
For example, Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy Lewis Strauss proposed to Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal that a non-lethal demonstration of atomic weapons would be enough to convince the
Japanese to surrender … and the Navy Secretary agreed (pg. 145, 325):
I proposed to Secretary Forrestal that the weapon should be demonstrated before it was used.
Primarily it was because it was clear to a number of people,
myself among them, that the war was very nearly over.
The Japanese were nearly ready to capitulate…
My proposal to the Secretary was that the weapon should be demonstrated over some area accessible to Japanese observers and
where its effects would be dramatic.
I remember suggesting that a satisfactory place
for such a demonstration
would be a large forest of
cryptomeria trees not far from
Tokyo.
The cryptomeria tree is the Japanese version of our redwood…
I anticipated that a bomb detonated at a suitable height above such a forest…
would lay the trees out in windrows from the center of the explosion in all directions as though they were matchsticks, and, of course, set them
afire in the center.
It seemed to me that a demonstration of this
sort would prove to the Japanese that we could
destroy any of their cities at will…
Secretary Forrestal agreed wholeheartedly
with the recommendation…
It seemed to me that such a weapon was not necessary to bring the war to a successful conclusion, that once used it would find its way into the
armaments of the world…
Warning Should Have Been Given First
General George Marshall agreed:
Contemporary documents show that Marshall felt
“these weapons might first be used against straight
military objectives such as a large naval installation…
Targeting Civilians
Historians Agree that the Bomb Wasn’t Needed
Historians agree that nuclear weapons did not need to be used to stop the war or save lives.
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission historian J. Samuel Walker has studied the history of research on the decision to use nuclear weapons
on Japan.
As historian Doug Long notes:
In his conclusion he writes, “The consensus among scholars is that the bomb was not needed to avoid an invasion of Japan and to end the war
within a relatively short time.
It is clear that alternatives to the bomb existed and that Truman
and his advisors knew it.”
(J. Samuel Walker, The Decision to Use the Bomb: A Historiographical
Update, Diplomatic History, Winter 1990, pg. 110).
Politicians Agreed that Atomic Bombs Were Not Needed
Many high-level politicians agreed. For example, ex-US President
Herbert Hoover said:
The Japanese were prepared to negotiate
all the way
from February 1945…
up to and before the time the atomic bombs
were dropped;
…if such leads had been followed up,
there would have been
no occasion to drop the [atomic] bombs.
Douglas MacArthur and Hoover in Tokyo, Japan, May 7 1946
The Japanese Wanted to End the War
War flag of the Imperial Japanese Army.
Under Secretary of State Joseph Grew noted (pg. 29-32):
In the light of available evidence I myself and others felt that if such a categorical statement about the [retention of the] dynasty had been
issued in May, 1945,
the surrender-minded elements in the [Japanese] Government might well have been afforded by such a statement a valid reason and the
necessary strength to come to an early clear-cut decision.
If surrender could have been brought about in May, 1945, or even in June or July, before the entrance of Soviet Russia into the [Pacific] war
and the use of the atomic bomb, the world would have been the gainer.
Why Then Were Atom Bombs Dropped on Japan?
If dropping nuclear bombs was unnecessary to end the
war or to save lives,
why was the decision to drop them made?
Especially over the objections of so many top
military and political figures?
Scientists Like to Test Their Toys
One theory is that scientists like to play with their toys:
Fat Man preparations on Tinian, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Preparing the final weapon, sealing the ballistic case joints with red
Pliobond and blue Glyptol
On September 9, 1945, Admiral William F. Halsey,
commander
of the Third Fleet,
was publicly quoted extensively as stating that
the atomic bomb was used
because the scientists had
a “toy and
they wanted
to try it out ….”
He further stated,
“The first atomic bomb was an unnecessary
experiment . . . .
It was a mistake
to ever drop it.”
Even Scientists Opposed Using the Atom Bomb
However, most of the Manhattan Project
scientists who developed the atom bomb
were opposed
to using it on Japan.
June_26__1945_memo_ demonstrating_worry_among_Manhattan_Project_scientists_
about_what_they_have_ created
Albert Einstein – an important catalyst for the development of the atom bomb (but not directly connected with the Manhattan Project)
– said differently:
Precipitating An Atomic Arms
Race
“A great majority of scientists were opposed to the sudden employment of the atom bomb.”
In Einstein’s judgment, the dropping of the bomb was a political – diplomatic decision rather than a military or scientific decision.
Indeed, some of the Manhattan Project scientists wrote directly to the secretary of defence in 1945 to try to dissuade him from dropping the
bomb:
We believe that these considerations make the use of nuclear bombs for an early, unannounced attack against Japan inadvisable.
If the United States
would be the first
to release this new means of
indiscriminate destruction upon mankind,
she would sacrifice
public support
throughout the world,
precipitate the race of armaments, and prejudice the
possibility of reaching an international agreement on the future control of such weapons.
Political and Social Problems, Manhattan Engineer District
Records, Harrison-Bundy files, folder # 76, National Archives
(also contained in: Martin Sherwin, A World Destroyed, 1987 edition, pg. 323-333).
The scientists questioned the ability of destroying Japanese cities with atomic bombs to bring surrender when destroying Japanese cities with
conventional bombs had not done so, and –
like some of the military officers quoted above – recommended a demonstration of the atomic bomb for Japan in an unpopulated area.
Launching The Cold War
The Potsdam Conference between U.S. President Harry S. Truman, Russian leader Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill (before being
replaced by Clement Attlee) ended just four days before the bombing of Hiroshima.
The US decision to drop atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
in 1945 was meant to
kick-start the Cold War rather than end
the Second World War, according to two
nuclear historians
who say they have
new evidence backing
the controversial theory.
New Scientist reported in 2005:
Causing a fission reaction in several kilograms of
uranium and plutonium and killing
over 200,000 people
60 years ago was done more to impress
the Soviet Union than to cow Japan, they say.
And the US President who took the decision, Harry Truman,
was culpable, they add.
“He knew he was beginning the process of annihilation of the species,” says Peter Kuznick, director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University in Washington DC, US. “It was not just a war crime; it was a
crime against humanity.”
[The conventional explanation of using the bombs to end the war and save lives] is disputed by Kuznick and Mark Selden, a historian from
Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, US.
Japan Was Searching
For Peace
According to an account by Walter Brown, assistant to then-US secretary of state James Byrnes, Truman agreed at a meeting three days before the bomb was dropped on
Hiroshima that Japan was “looking for peace ”.
Truman was told by his army generals, Douglas Macarthur
and Dwight Eisenhower, and his naval chief of staff, William Leahy, that there was no military need to use the bomb.
“Impressing Russia was more important than ending the war in Japan,” says Selden.
The US secretary of war, Henry Stimson, told President Truman
he was “fearful” that the
US air force would have Japan so “bombed out”
that the new weapon
would not be able
“to show its strength”.
John Pilger points out:
He later admitted that “no effort was made,
and none was seriously considered, to achieve surrender
merely in order not to have to use the bomb”.
General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project that made the bomb, testified: “There was never any illusion on my part that Russia
was our enemy, and that the project was conducted on that basis.”
The day after Hiroshima was obliterated, President Truman voiced his satisfaction with the “overwhelming success” of “the experiment”.
Conservatives Opposed the Atom Bomb As Immoral
Though most Americans are unaware of the fact, increasing numbers of
historians now recognize the United States did not need to use the atomic bomb to end the war against Japan in 1945.
We’ll give the last word to University of Maryland
professor of political economy – and former Legislative
Director in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and Special Assistant in the Department of State –
Gar Alperovitz:
Moreover, this essential judgment was expressed by the vast majority of top American military leaders in all three services in the years after
the war ended: Army, Navy and Army Air Force.
Nor was this the judgment of “liberals,” as is sometimes thought today.
In fact, leading conservatives were far more outspoken in challenging the decision as unjustified and immoral than American liberals
in the years following World War II.
Serving the Cause of Communism in Asia
Instead [of allowing other options to end the war, such as letting the Soviets attack Japan with ground forces],
the United States rushed to use two atomic bombs at almost
exactly the time that an
August 8 Soviet attack had originally been scheduled:
Hiroshima on August 6
and Nagasaki on August 9.
The timing itself has obviously raised questions
among many historians.
The available evidence,
though not conclusive, strongly suggests that the atomic bombs may well have been used in part
because American leaders “preferred”
—as Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Martin Sherwin
has put it
—to end the war with the bombs rather than the Soviet attack.
Impressing the Soviets
during the early
diplomatic sparring
that ultimately became
the Cold War
also appears likely
to have been
a significant factor.
Unnecessary
The most illuminating perspective,
however, comes from
top World War II
American military leaders.
The conventional wisdom that the atomic bomb saved a million lives
is so widespread that …
most Americans haven’t paused to ponder something rather striking
to anyone seriously concerned with the issue:
Not only did most top U.S. military leaders think the bombings were unnecessary and unjustified, many were morally offended by what they
regarded as the unnecessary destruction of Japanese cities and what were essentially noncombat populations.
Moreover, they spoke about it quite openly and publicly.
A Political Decision
Shortly before his death General George C. Marshall quietly defended the decision, but for the most part he is on record as repeatedly saying
that it was not a military decision, but rather a political one.
Official Protest
On 11 August 1945, the Japanese government filed an official protest over the atomic bombing to the U.S. State Department through the
Swiss Legation in Tokyo, observing:
“Combatant and non-combatant men and women, old and young, are massacred without discrimination by the atmospheric pressure of the
explosion, as well as by the radiating heat which result therefrom.
Consequently there is involved a bomb having the most cruel effects humanity has ever known …
The bombs in question, used by the Americans, by their cruelty and by their terrorizing effects, surpass by far gas or any other arm,
the use of which is prohibited.
Japanese protests against U.S. desecration of international principles of war paired the use of the atomic bomb with the earlier firebombing,
which massacred old people, women and children,
destroying and burning down Shinto and Buddhist temples, schools, hospitals, living quarters, etc...
They now use this new bomb, having an uncontrollable and cruel effect much greater than any other arms or projectiles ever used to date.
This constitutes a new crime against humanity and civilization.”
Survivors of the first atomic bomb. Awaiting emergency medical
treatment, on August 6, 1945. Hiroshima, Japan
Judicial Review
In 1963, the bombings were the subject of a
judicial review.
The District Court of Tokyo found, "the attacks upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused such severe and indiscriminate suffering that they did violate the most basic legal principles governing the conduct of war."
The Hague Conventions
In the opinion of the court, the act of dropping an atomic bomb on cities was at the time governed by international law
found in the Hague Regulations on Land Warfare of 1907
and the Hague Draft Rules of Air Warfare of 1922–1923
and was therefore illegal.
War Crime
In the documentary The Fog of War, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara recalls General Curtis LeMay, who relayed the
Presidential order to drop nuclear bombs on Japan, said:
"If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been
prosecuted as war criminals." And I think he's right. He, and I'd say I, were behaving as
war criminals.
LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral
if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose
and not immoral if you win?
Detail from a U.S. Air Force map of Hiroshima, pre-bombing, circles drawn at 1,000 foot intervals radiating out from ground zero, the site directly under the explosion
Indiscriminate Mass Murder
Takashi Hiraoka, mayor of Hiroshima
Takashi Hiraoka, mayor of Hiroshima, said in a hearing to The Hague International
Court of Justice (ICJ):
"It is clear that the use of nuclear weapons, which cause indiscriminate mass murder that leaves effects on survivors for decades, is a violation
of international law".
Iccho Itoh, the mayor of Nagasaki, declared in the
same hearing:
“It is said that the descendants of the atomic bomb survivors will have to be monitored for several generations to clarify the genetic impact, which means that the descendants will live in anxiety for [decades] to
come...
with their colossal power and capacity for slaughter and destruction, nuclear weapons make no distinction between combatants and non-
combatants or between military installations and civilian communities...
The use of nuclear weapons... therefore is a manifest infraction of international law.”
Genocide
damage in Hiroshima in March of 1946
University of Chicago historian Bruce
Cumings states there is a consensus
among historians
"the Nagasaki
bomb was gratuitous at best and genocidal at
worst."
Democide
Professor R. J. Rummel’s definition
of democide
includes not only genocide, but also an excessive killing of civilians in war,
to the extent this is against the agreed rules for warfare;
he argues the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were war crimes,
and thus democide.
Rummel quotes among others an official protest from the US
government in 1938 to Japan, for its bombing of Chinese cities:
"The bombing of non-combatant populations violated international and humanitarian laws."
He also considers excess deaths of
civilians in conflagrations
caused by conventional
means,
such as in Tokyo, as acts of
democide.
Terrorism
In 1967, Noam Chomsky described the atomic bombings
as
"among
the most unspeakable
crimes in history".
Chomsky pointed to the complicity of the American people
in the bombings.
The definition of terrorism is "the targeting of innocent civilians to achieve a political goal".
Unnecessary Suffering and Destruction
The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 set rules in place regarding the attack of civilian populations.
The Hague Convention of 1907
The Hague Conventions stated that religious buildings, art and science centres, charities, hospitals,
and historic monuments,
were to be spared as far as possible in a bombardment, unless they were being used for military purposes.
The bomb exploded approximately 1900 feet directly above this hospital, emitting heat greater than 5,000°F.
Torii of Sanno Shrine in Nagasaki after the atomic bomb was dropped on August 9, 1945. It was the only thing that withstood the explosion
in the area.
The Hague Conventions also prohibited the employment of "arms, projectiles, or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering".
Indiscriminate bombing was internationally outlawed. The Washington Treaty of 1922 expressly forbade the use of bombing
against civilian populations.
United States government
propaganda films condemned the
Japanese Empire for bombing of cities, such as Shanghai.
Yet upon America’s entry into the war, US General, H. H. Arnold,
advocated the policy of strategic bombing of cities as the only way that Germany could be beaten.
Winston Churchill commented: The air opened paths along which death and terror could be carried far behind the lines of the actual enemy;
to women, children, the aged, the sick, who in earlier struggles would perforce have been left untouched.
As he faces the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, Emperor Hirohito waves his hat as he looks out over the crowd during a visit to the city on
Dec. 7, 1947
Hiroshima today – with the memorial dome on the left
A-Bomb dome as it stands today
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial, known as the 'Atomic Bomb Dome.'
Hiroshima today - detail from a panoramic view of Hiroshima Peace Memorial
Memorials inline with the epicenter of the bomb
Hiroshima Ground Zero Memorial
The Peace Flame has burned for the atomic bomb victims at the Memorial Cenotaph at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima,
The Memorial Mound, Hiroshima
Gold Peace Dove - Peace Park, Nagasaki, Japan
Peace monument at Nagasaki's atomic bomb ground zero
Nagasaki
Nagasaki Ground Zero
nagasaki-atomic-bomb-epicenter-ground-level
Atomic Bomb Museum,Nagasaki
A Madonna scarred by the bombing
serves as a powerful symbol
in Nagasaki
Nagasaki Ground Zero
1959 - Urakami Cathedral, Urakami, Nagasaki (Japan). Largest Church in East Asia when completed in 1914. At ground zero of the atomic bomb.
The reconstructed Urakami Cathedral.
Urakami Cathedral rebuilt
Urakami Cathedral
Replica of the Western style bell from Urakami Cathedral
The New Zealand memorial sculpture 'Cloak of Peace' dedicated to the victims of the Atomic Bomb in Nagasaki
Nagasaki-Peace-Park-Monument
People at Peace monument at Nagasaki's atomic bomb ground zero
Nagasaki, monument showing where atomic bomb exploded
Paper cranes (Senbazuru) at Hiroshima and Nagasaki peace memorial in Ueno Park, Tokyo
MITSUO FUCHIDA From Pearl Harbour to Calvary
By Dr. Peter Hammond
MITSUO FUCHIDA From Pearl Harbour to Calvary
Mitsuo Fuchida (1902-1976) is best known for leading the devastating air attack on Pearl Harbour, 7 December 1941.
After the war, Fuchida became a Christian Evangelist, who conducted Evangelistic outreaches throughout Japan, the United States and Europe.
Fuchida was the son of the Master of the Primary School in Kashihara. His grandfather was a Samurai.
Japanese Naval Aviator
Mitsuo Fuchida entered the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1921,
graduated as a mid-shipman in 1924,
was promoted to Ensign in 1925,
and sub-Lieutenant in 1927.
He specialised in horizontal bombing and gained combat experience
during the Sino-Japanese War,
when he was assigned
to the aircraft carrier, Kaga, in 1929.
Promoted to Lieutenant Commander in 1936,
he was accepted into the Naval Staff College
and joined the aircraft carrier Akagi in 1939,
as Commander of the Air Group.
In October 1941, Fuchida was
made Commander.
Under the command of Vice Admiral
Nagumo,
with 6 aircraft carriers, and
423 aircraft, Commander Fuchida was
responsible for the co-
ordination of the aerial attack on
the US Pacific Fleet.
Attack on Pearl Harbour
He was in the first wave of 183 dive-bombers, torpedo-bombers, level-bombers and fighters, which took off from carriers 370 km North of
Oahu and targeted the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbour.
At 07:40 (Hawaiian Standard Time), Fuchida ordered
"Tenkai!" ("Take attack position!"),
slid back the canopy of his Nakajima Kate torpedo bomber and fired a green flare to signal attack.
He then instructed his radio operator to send the coded signal "To, to, to" ("strike!").
At 7:53, Fuchida sent the code words "Tora! Tora! Tora!" back to the carrier Akagi, the flagship, to report that complete surprise had been
achieved.
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Tora was the acronym for
Tosugeki Raigeki (torpedo attack)
and in Japanese Tora
means Tiger.
When the attack on Pearl Harbour hit, at 7:55am,
many American sailors, or soldiers, were on leave, or sleeping late.
Attack at Dawn
7 Battleships were lined up on battleship row.
The Oklahoma capsized. The West Virginia and California was sunk. The Nevada was damaged and beached near the mouth of Pearl Harbour.
Tennessee, Maryland and Pennsylvania were damaged.
10 Other ships were sunk or seriously damaged.
The Arizona sank with over 1,000 sailors on board,
after a stupendous explosion of its forward magazine.
(Just 8 days earlier, the American's had published a picture of the Arizona with the words: "It is significant that despite the claims of
air enthusiasts, no battleship has yet been sunk by bombs." )
Pride goes before a fall.
As the first wave returned to the carriers, Fuchida remained over the target to access damage and to observe the second wave attack.
He returned to his carrier only after the second wave
had completed its mission.
21 large flack holes were found
in his aircraft, the main control wires were barely holding together
and it is incredible that he survived so many hits to his aircraft.
The Japanese lost 29 aircraft in the attack on Pearl Harbour. The US Pacific Fleet lost 21 ships – including almost every battleship - 188
aircraft destroyed, another 159 damaged and 2,403 lives lost.
In Fuchida's Memoirs, he remarks being upset by the Admiral's cancelling of the third wave attack, which would have destroyed Pearl Harbour's fuel tanks and dry dock facilities. "I was upset and thought,
'What stupidity!' But the decision belonged to the Commander.
It would not do any good if I complained.".
Years later, Fuchida said that while he mourned those who died aboard the USS Arizona and other ships, he did not regret his role in the Pearl
Harbour attack.
It was war, he said.
After the successful Pearl Harbour attack,
Fuchida was granted an audience with the Emperor.
On 19 February 1942, Fuchida led the first of two waves of 188 aircraft in an air raid on Darwin, Australia. On 5 April, he led another series of
air attacks against the Royal Navy bases in Ceylon.
Wounded at Midway
In June 1942, Fuchida was recovering from an emergency shipboard appendectomy, when he was wounded at the Battle of Midway.
He was on the ship's bridge during the morning attacks by US aircraft. As Akagi was hit, a chain reaction from the burning fuel and live bombs
began the destruction of the ship.
An explosion threw him to the deck and he broke his ankle.
After recuperation Fuchida spent the rest of the war
as a staff officer.
Two weeks before
the American invasion of Guam,
Fuchida was ordered to Tokyo.
A Hand of Protection
When the Japanese failed to repel the invasion, Vice Admiral Kakuta and his staff chose Seppuku, the Samurai suicide ritual of disembowelment.
"Again the sword of death had missed me only by inches." Fuchida declared. "What did it mean?"
The day before the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, he was in that city to attend a conference. A long distance call from naval
headquarters required him to return to Tokyo.
Hiroshima Bombing
As he ate breakfast
in Yamato,
200km away,
Fuchida learned
that everyone
he had been working with in Hiroshima
had perished
in the atomic explosion.
The day after the atomic bombing, he returned to Hiroshima to access the damage. All of the members of Fuchida's party died of radiation
poisoning, but Fuchida exhibited no symptoms.
Each of the Officers who had accompanied Fuchida, to investigate the devastation in Hiroshima, showed strange signs of illness.
One by one they died through radiation poisoning.
As Fuchida returned to Kashirhara, to help his wife raise their children, he was depressed: "Life had no taste, or meaning… I had missed death
so many times and for what. What did it all mean?"
After the war, Fuchida was called to testify at the trials of Japanese military leaders.
War Crimes Trials
When General Douglas McArthur summoned Fuchida to testify in the
Tokyo War Crimes trials, Captain Fuchida was disgusted and
declared that everyone should know that "War was war" and that cruel acts occurred on both sides.
The petty vindictiveness of the Allies infuriated him and he denounced the "victor's justice."
In 1947, he met his former flight engineer, Kazuo Kanegasaki,
who he thought had died in the Battle of Midway.
Love For One’s Enemies
However Kanegasaki reported that a young Christian woman,
Peggy Covell, had cared for them, in the prison camps, despite her Missionary parents having been
killed by Japanese soldiers on the Island of Panay, in the Philippines.
Peggy Covell's parents were Missionary teachers in Japan until 1939. They then relocated to the Philippines. The Japanese conquered the
Philippines in 1941. They beheaded both of Peggy's parents on Sunday morning, 19 December 1943.
To Fuchida, this love for one's enemies was inexplicable as the Bushido code required revenge against the murder of one's parents to restore honour. He became obsessed with trying to understand why anyone
would treat their enemies with kindness and forgiveness.
The extraordinary example of Peggy Covell and Jacob De Shazer inspired Fuchida to know more about the God of the Christians.
Inspiring Example
When Japanese Prisoners of War asked the young 18-year old Peggy Covell why she volunteered to help them, her reply was:
"Because Japanese soldiers killed my parents."
When Peggy considered her parent's sacrificial service for the Kingdom of God, and their love for the Japanese people, she was convinced that
she must continue their Mission, reaching Japanese for Christ.
As Fuchida researched from every source in the Philippines that knew the Covells, he learned that they had been forced to their knees by their
captives and they had prayed together as they were about to be beheaded. They had prayed for the Japanese!
In 1948, as Fuchida was passing by the bronze statue of Hachiko at the Shibuya station, he was handed a pamphlet about the life of Jacob De Shazer, a member of the Doolittle Raid, who was captured when his
B-25 bomber ran out of fuel in occupied China.
Literature Evangelism
In the pamphlet: "I was a Prisoner of Japan", De Shazer, a former US Army Air Force staff sergeant and bombardier, related his testimony of
imprisonment, torture and awakening to God.
Jacob De Shazer was the bombardier of B-25 No.16. After taking off from USS Hornet and dropping bombs on Nagoya, Japan, they flew to
China, but ran out of fuel over Japanese controlled China.
Doolittle Raid Bombers
They were captured after parachuting to the ground.
De Shazer was imprisoned for 40 months,
34 of these months in solitary confinement. He was beaten, malnourished and 3 of his crew were executed by firing squad.
The fourth member, Lt. Bob Meder died of starvation.
After 25 months of hating his captives,
a Bible came into his hands,
for only three weeks,
but it changed his life completely.
He began to learn Japanese and to treat his captives with respect. He resolved to bring the Message of Christ to Japan. After returning to the USA, De Shazer attended Seattle Pacific College and returned to Japan
to preach the Gospel.
After 40 months as captives, three of the
four surviving American prisoners
— noticeably emaciated — arrived at Chungking,
China, in late August 1945.
From left - Jake DeShazer, Bob Hite
and Chase Nielsen.
DeShazer-missionary-meeting-japan
He established a church in Nagoya, the very city he had
bombed years before.
Fuchida became intrigued with the Christian Faith.
The shocking examples of Christians able to forgive their enemies
staggered Fuchida.
"That’s when I met Jesus. Looking back
I can see now that the Lord had laid His hand
upon me so that
I might serve Him."
Fuchida read the tract on the spot and on the train he saw an advertisement for a book with the same title. When he disembarked,
he headed for a book store and purchased it.
The Power of the Printed Page
De Shazer's story engrossed Fuchida.
Determined to understand what had motivated De Shazer,
Fuchida bought a Bible
from a Japanese man
on the street.
When he read "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:24), Fuchida realised that this
was what the Covells had been praying before their execution.
In 1949, Fuchida purchased a Bible at the same Shibuyu station where he had received a pamphlet.
Faith Comes From Hearing the Word of God
As he read the Gospels he came to understand the reason for the life of forgiveness and mercy that motivated Peggy and Jacob.
It was the crucifixion of Jesus and His Words in the Gospel:
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." On 14th April 1950, he surrendered to Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour.
By the time he had completed reading the Gospel of Luke,
Fuchida had become a Christian. He knew no Christians,
but now he began to declare himself to be a Christian.
The Power of God
As Christianity was considered the "occupation religion" in Japan,
this brought him much reproach from his former friends and family.
Pietsch and Glenn Wagner,
of the Pocket Testament League of Japan met with
Fuchida and encouraged him to join them
in open air outreach.
In the business section of Osaka, as the Americans stood to speak, fewer than 40 Japanese would stop to listen.
Open Air Preaching
But when Fuchida, Hero of Pearl Harbour, was introduced,
the crowd swelled rapidly. Rush hour traffic stopped.
Hundreds gathered, even the police listened in.
This was the beginning of Fuchida's new career as an Evangelist.
Soon he filled an auditorium in Osaka, 500 Japanese came forward
at that rally.
Japan for Christ
Almost every newspaper in Japan reported on it:
He described his conversion as
"It was like having the sun rise."
He preached against Japanese-egocentrism and xenophobia.
Like Paul on Mars Hill
(Acts 17:16-34),
he used Japanese cultural examples to communicate
the Gospel of Christ.
Captain Fuchida went from being a vital part of Japan's military attack on the United States, to being a vital part of God's Missionary offensive into the hearts, minds and souls of Japanese, and later Americans and
Europeans too.
In May 1950, Fuchida and De Shazer met for the first time.
Fuchida and De Shazer
In May he visited De Shazer, knocked on his door and said:
"I have desired to meet you, Mr De Shazer. My name is Mitsuo
Fuchida."
De Shazer recognised the name and said: "Come in! Come in!" The former enemies embraced
as brothers in Christ.
In 1951, Fuchida published an account of the Battle of Midway
War Author
and in 1952 he toured
the United States
as a member of the
Worldwide Christian
Missionary Army
of Sky Pilots.
In February 1954, Readers Digest published Fuchida's story
of the attack on Pearl Harbour.
Fuchida wrote - From Pearl Harbour to Golgotha
(later renamed - From Pearl Harbour to Calvary
and a 1955 expansion of his book: Midway – The Battle that Doomed
Japan, the Japanese Navy Story.
His autobiography - For That One Day, The Memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbour, was published in Japan
2007 and translated into English and published in 2011.
In Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan,
Fuchida wrote:
"Five minutes! Who would have believed that the tide of battle would
shift in that brief interval of time?
The Turning Point
...We have been caught flat-footed in the most vulnerable position possible, decks loaded with planes armed and fuelled for attack."
Fuchida turned down an offer from the Japanese government to organise their new Air Force, he faced down an angry pilot who pulled a
knife and threatened to kill him. This man later came to Christ.
Courage and Self-Sacrifice
Mitsuo Fuchida, at Pearl Harbor in 1966, points to where he led Japanese planes
Fuchida ministered in prisons and led people to Christ, even in the cells of condemned murderers. He formed Calvary Clubs in prisons.
Mitsuo Fuchida related
the testimony of Peggy Covell
and her brave parents all over Japan.
The Blood of the Martyrs
He quoted her testimony:
"But the Holy Spirit has washed away my hatred and has replaced
it with love."
The Covells had gone to their death singing
hymns joyfully
and praying
for the conversion of their enemies.
The Blood of the martyrs is the seed
of the Church.
Mitsuo Fuchida was one of the fruit of their Faith.
Fuchida spent the rest of his life as an Evangelist,
taking the Gospel of Christ throughout Japan,
the
United States of America and Europe.
PRAY FOR JAPAN
This month, 50,000 Scouts worldwide will be gathering in Japan for the 23rd World Scout Jamboree.
Jamboree In Japan
This has been scheduled to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the atom bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki (6 & 9 August).
Special Remembrance services will be
held,
with Scouts participating,
at the sites where the
devastating
atom bombs were dropped.
Japan is recognised as the world's third largest economy,
yet it has been rocked by recessions and economic stagnation in recent years.
Economic Superpower
Despite a lack of natural resources and oil, Japan has one of the world's most powerful exporting orientated economies.
Unlike most economies,
Japan has a high savings and enormous trade surplus.
However, the low birth rate and ageing population presents major societal and economic concerns for the future.
The Japanese have a strong work ethic and are polite, yet materialism dominates the ambitions of these very busy people, so they give little thought to God and Eternity.
Tokyo/Yokohama with 36 Million people, is one of the largest cities in the world.
Over 66% of the population of Japan are urbanised.
Life expectancy is 82 years.
Urbanised Mission Field
The multiple religious loyalties of the Japanese can be seen in that 85% describe themselves as Buddhist and 90% Shinto!
Japan is an extremely materialistic culture.
Its own leaders call Japan:
"A superpower without a moral compass."
Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world
– over 30,000 a year.
Bullying and teenage prostitution are major social problems.
Japan is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy.
Missionary Challenge
Of the 126 Million people in Japan, 85% claim to be Buddhist
and only 1.5% members of a Christian church.
Of the 2 Million Christians, barely 600,000 would identify themselves as Evangelical. Only 10% of the Japanese
population believe in the existence of a personal God.
The concept of a Creator-God is foreign to most.
Strong pressure to conform to the social norms and the shame/honour mentality held by many Japanese, makes
conversion to Christ very difficult.
A pervasive nationalistic Shintoism makes Missionary work extremely difficult in Japan. Japan is the largest unevangelised
Missionfield that is completely open to Missionaries.
There are 15,575 congregations in Japan, consisting of 1,291,021 church members and 2 Million adherents. 3% of
Japanese would identify themselves as Christians.
Christians in Japan
Christians are a small minority in a society where consensus and conformity are important. House Churches have been
effective in reaching Japanese.
70% of all churches in Japan have an average attendance of less than 30. On average, woman attenders outnumber men,
7 to 1.
Yet there are approximately 300 Japanese Missionaries serving in 34 countries.
Japan has a 100% literacy rate. This highly literate, reading, commuting society offers an excellent market for publishing
and distributing high quality Christian literature.
Strategic Literature Ministry
Yet, there are only 100 Christian book stores in the whole country.
Pray for the impact
of the
Japanese Church on the nation.
The churches in Japan desperately need
Biblical Reformation
and Spiritual Revival.
Reformation and
Revival
They need to turn from their insular bunker mentality to engage with the society and effectively Evangelise their
nation.
"For I am not ashamed of the Gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God to Salvation for everyone who believes."
Romans 1:16
PRAY FOR JAPAN
REFORMATION SOCIETY Dr. Peter Hammond
PO Box 74
Newlands, 7725
Cape Town
South Africa
E-mail:
Web: www.ReformationSA.org
