Hiroshima (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

The most controversial action of the United States during World War II was the dropping of atomic bombs upon the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Historians have asked two separate but related questions. First, was the use of these weapons the only alternatives to either a bloody invasion of Japan or the war dragging on indefinitely? Second, what were Truman’s motivations?

Takaki rejects any simplistic explanation, whether it is Truman’s claim that he ordered the bombing to save American lives, or the insistence of “revisionist” historians that the decision had more to do with the Cold War with the Soviet Union than the military campaign against Japan, although he agrees that both the need to end the war and to impress Stalin played a part. He argues that confronted with perhaps the most difficult decision of his life, Truman was subjected to many influences.

Among the factors that swayed Truman was the nature of the war with Japan. For Americans, World War II in the Pacific was a campaign for revenge, a war in which violence against civilians was commonplace. It was also a racialized war: The Japanese were depicted in American propaganda in racial stereotypes as subhuman. Some of this hatred was rooted in the long history of racial discrimination against Asians and Asian Americans in the United States. In Takaki’s opinion, all these racial currents would have made Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb a little easier.

Another element was psychological. Takaki argues that Truman had spent his life proving he was a man. Called a sissy as a youth because he was small and wore glasses, he spent a good deal of his life proving his masculinity.

In the end, Takaki asks why Truman did not say no to dropping the bomb. He concludes that Truman lacked the tremendous moral strength and self-confidence necessary for a president to reject the use of the atomic bomb at that moment in history.

Sources for Further Study

Booklist. XCI, August, 1995, p. 1926.

Far Eastern Economic Review. CLVIII, August 17, 1995, p. 54.

Library Journal. CXX, July, 1995, p. 99.

Nature. CCCLXXVI, August 10, 1995, p. 476.

New Scientist. CXLVII, August 12, 1995, p. 41.

The New York Times Book Review. C, July 30, 1995, p. 11.

Publishers Weekly. CCXLII, July 10, 1995, p. 52.

The Washington Post Book World. XXV, August 6, 1995, p. 6.