According to this line of thinking, the United States deployed the plutonium bomb on Nagasaki to make clear the strength of its nuclear arsenal, ensuring the nation’s supremacy in the global power hierarchy. Statements like these have led historians such as Gar Alperovitz, author of The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb, to suggest that the bomb’s true purpose was to get the upper hand with the Soviet Union. Even the famously hawkish General Curtis LeMay told the press in September 1945 that “the atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war at all.” This is also why military historian Richard H. Byrnes argued on August 29, 1945, and had reached out to the Soviets to see if they would mediate in possible peace negotiations. This is why artifacts such as the schoolgirl’s lunchbox and the Enola Gay itself were the focus of so much controversy: they were the emotional centers of the exhibit. Japanese leaders knew they were beaten even before Hiroshima, as Secretary of State James F. Various military and civilian officials have said publicly that the bombings weren’t a military necessity. The two shacks in the foreground have been constructed from pieces of tin picked up in the ruins.īettmann Archive/Getty Images The Other Reason? Get the Soviet Union’s Attentionĭespite the arguments of Stimson and others, historians have long debated whether the United States was justified in using the atomic bomb in Japan at all-let alone twice. The center area where the bomb struck in Nagasaki, photographed on September 13, 1945.
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