Atomic bombs unnecessary as Japan had plans to surrender

I refer to the letter “Atomic bombs may have saved Japan from a slaughter” (May 14).

I cannot feel sorry for Japan, as it had caused suffering to millions of Asians, but I disagree that the bombs were dropped to save lives.

In 1995, 52 historians and professors from reputable American universities signed a letter stating that the Smithsonian Institution’s claim that the bombs led to Japan’s immediate surrender and “made unnecessary the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands” was highly contentious.

A 1946 study by the United States War Department’s Military Intelligence Division concluded: “The war would almost certainly have terminated when Russia entered the war against Japan.”

US leaders, including General Dwight Eisenhower, Admiral William Leahy and Secretary of War Henry Stimson, thought it highly probable that Japan would surrender well before the earliest possible invasion, scheduled for November 1945.

Three of the four Joint Chiefs of Staff were against using the atomic bomb. A committee that included eminent scientist Leo Szilard produced a report on June 11, 1945, also advising against its use.

US President Harry Truman, however, had appointed another committee, which gave a report on June 16 supporting the use of the bomb. On June 22, Japan sought Soviet mediation to end the war.

On July 12, the Allies intercepted a telegram to Japan’s ambassador to Moscow indicating that all Japan wanted was to retain its Emperor in the event of a surrender.

On July 26, the Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration demanding “unconditional surrender” without addressing the Emperor’s future. On Aug 6, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. On Aug 9, the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, and the Soviets declared war on Japan.

Eventually, Japan was allowed to retain its Emperor. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State James Byrnes contended that the bombs might help in managing Moscow.

The chronology of events suggests that Truman and Byrnes probably prolonged the war to use the bombs to intimidate the Soviets.

The bombing of population centres with no military or industrial value was to “measure the destructive powers of the atomic bomb” as the historians’ letter stated.