WEBVTT - Was Dropping the Atomic Bomb on Japan Necessary to End World War II? 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:13.920 This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories, 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:17.120 the show where America is the Star and the American 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:18.480 people coming to you from. 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:21.760 The city where the West begins, Fort Worth, Texas. 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.040 One of the greatest controversies to come out of World 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.080 War two is whether the dropping of the atomic bomb 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:31.840 on Japan was necessary to bring about the war's end. 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.920 Here to tell the story is Kenne La Court, host 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:39.320 of the popular YouTube channel Elephants in Rooms. 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:40.840 Let's take a listen. 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:47.680 It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:53.440 the basic power of the universe. The first from which 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:56.920 the Sun draws its power has been loose against those 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.480 who rough war to the far East. 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:04.880 Full war is a crime, arguably, but the best thing 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:06.280 you can do in the war is to end it. 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:12.560 Let's there being no mistake, we shall completely destroy Japan's 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:16.840 power to make war oo a line. 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.120 In the early hours of August sixth, nineteen forty five, 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:33.920 the world changed forever. An American bomber dropped a single 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:37.720 bomb over Hiroshima, Japan. It unleashed a force the world 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:41.479 had never seen, and in seconds, the entire city was destroyed. 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:45.160 Buildings vanished, one hundred thousand people died. It was the 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:48.760 most horrific weapon ever used on humanity, and three days 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:52.960 later the United States did it again. The question is 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:56.680 why why the second bomb within a relatively short amount 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:00.000 of time. Was it necessary or would Japan have surround 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:03.680 after realizing the devastation of the first attack. Was it 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.520 really about scaring the Soviet Union? We'll look at the 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:10.000 layers of strategy, hope, fear, and anger. In the last 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:15.520 hours of World War II, the United States was slow 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:17.440 to enter the war. The country was still in an 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:20.920 isolationist mood, still bitter about World War One, which killed 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:24.240 over one hundred thousand Americans. Now I've read a lot 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.080 of history, and I still can't easily explain what World 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.120 War One was all about, beyond the assassination of Archduke 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.239 Ferdinand and a whole lot of treaties. What was clear, though, 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:35.880 was that it didn't solve any problems, and twenty years 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.200 later Europe was added again. The mood in the US 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:47.680 was to let those people deal with it. But everything 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:51.080 changed on December seventh, nineteen forty one, with the Japanese 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:54.280 attack on Pearl Harbor. It killed almost twenty five hundred 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:59.639 Americans and instantly United a divided nation. Within days, hundreds 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:02.800 of thousand of Americans volunteered for the military, with some 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:05.960 enlistment centers staying open twenty four hours a day. There 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.360 were stories throughout the country of guys being rejected for 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:12.200 service and then killing themselves out of disappointment and fighting 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.280 this war against the Nazis in Japan. Americans didn't see 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:18.519 it as a bunch of archdukes fighting over some disputed land. 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.359 As America plunged into the Second World War, this was 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:26.320 seen as a fight against clear cut villains, tyranny, oppression, 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:30.320 and the darkness that threatened to engulf the world. And 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:33.160 after years of bitter fighting, the US had turned the 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:38.160 tide against Japan. Massive bombing raids pounded Japanese cities, factories, 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:42.240 military installations, laying the groundwork for an invasion. Japan was 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:45.480 on the losing path, but America's path to victory was 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:48.880 going to be bloody. We should look at the last 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:51.560 major battle, the Battle of Okinawa, because it gave a 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:54.960 grim forecast of what an invasion of mainland Japan would 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:58.440 actually cost. It was a rugged island and a stepping 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:01.280 stone to the Japanese mainland. The battle was a glimpse 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:05.760 into hell. Thirteen thousand Americans killed, seventy thousand wounded. For 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:09.480 the Japanese, almost the entire garrison of over one hundred 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:13.800 thousand men fought to the death. Another one hundred thousand 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:17.240 civilians on the island were killed, many by mass suicide. 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:21.919 Encouraged by the Japanese military, America's island hopping strategy was 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:26.159 met with fanatical defense. Every battle came at a horrific price, 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:30.480 showcasing the Japanese determination to fight to the last man 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:34.440 for their homeland. Operation Downfall, the plan to finish off 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:38.000 the war. They estimated American casualties from two hundred and 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:42.120 twenty thousand to several million, and estimated Japanese military and 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:45.960 civilian casualties from the millions to the tens of millions. 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:49.360 Against that backdrop of slaughter and the promise of even 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:52.880 bloodier invasion was the Manhattan Project. It was the greatest 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:56.799 scientific gamble of wartime, costing the equivalent of thirty billion 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:00.840 dollars and used one hundred and thirty thousand workers. Officials 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:03.040 hoped it'd be more than just another weapon, but one 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:06.200 that would end the war. President Roosevelt had hoped the 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:09.080 bomb could be used against Germany, whose scientists were also 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:12.040 working on nuclear weapons. But he died about two weeks 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:15.039 before Hitler killed himself, and it wasn't until he became 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:18.240 president that Harry Truman even learned about the Manhattan Project. 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.520 Before they had working bombs, officials debated how they would 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:24.839 use them. Some of the Manhattan Projects scientists argued for 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:27.880 a demonstration over a desolate area, but that was rejected 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:30.400 over concerns that it wouldn't be convincing enough, or that 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:32.960 a dud might embolden Japan even more, or that they 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:36.000 might even move POW's to where the bomb might explode. 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.600 Dropping multiple bombs was initially proposed a year beforehand by 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:42.520 Rear Admiral William Purcell, who thought that two or more 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.760 bombs would be required to shock the Japanese into surrender. 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:48.000 The first one would show the bomb's power, and the 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:50.240 second would let Japan know that the US had a 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.880 stockpile that could easily destroy their entire country. It was 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.919 all theoretical, though, until President Truman got word that the 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:00.240 Trinity explosion in New Mexico was a success that the 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:03.880 US was a nuclear power. He'd only been president for 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:07.039 three months now, By all accounts, Truman made the decision 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:10.640 to use the bombs relatively quickly and decisively. He never 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:14.520 wavered or publicly questioned that decision in his entire lifetime. 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:17.719 In fact, Truman's go ahead order for nuclear bombs didn't 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:19.800 even get into the details of how to use them. 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:22.760 They didn't even require the military to get approval for 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.479 later bombings. Truman wrote in his diary, this weapon is 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:29.360 to be used against Japan between now and August tenth. 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:32.520 I've told the Secretary of War, mister Stimpson, to use 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:35.280 it so that military objectives and soldiers and sailors of 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:37.800 the target, and not women and children. Even if the 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:41.880 Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic, we as the 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:44.640 leader of the world for common welfare, cannot drop that 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:47.440 terrible bomb on the old capital or the new. He 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:49.719 and I are in accord the target will be a 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:54.760 purely military one. Nevertheless, the vast majority of deaths in 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:56.279 Hiroshima were civilians. 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:00.240 And you've been listening to Ken Lecourt tell the story 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:03.840 of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and giving us 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.040 a context for all of it, and in riveting fashion, 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:10.360 the numbers were clear. These were the estimates of lives 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:13.040 to be lost if we kept going the Americans, not 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:16.720 just our lives, our men. When we come back more 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:21.720 of the story, the horrible and important story of the 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:24.080 bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:27.520 Here on our American Stories. 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:31.160 Lie h Habib here, and I'd like to encourage you to 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:37.240 subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:41.560 or wherever you get our podcasts. Any story you missed. 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:45.240 Or want to hear again can be found there daily again. 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:50.600 Please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.600 the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It 0:07:54.680 --> 0:08:09.440 helps us keep these great American stories coming. And we 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:13.240 continue with our American Stories and the story of the 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:17.720 bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Here to continue with the 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:22.240 storytelling is ken Lecourt, host of the popular YouTube channel. 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:26.120 Elephants and Rooms. Let's continue with the story. 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.640 After the bombing, there was shock and confusion within the 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:32.880 Japanese high command. A city's instant obliteration was unprecedented, and 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.520 a breakdown of communication with Hiroshima also slowed information there. 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:39.319 They first didn't believe that the US had the technical 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.040 ability to build and deliver an atomic weapon until they 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.480 sent scientists to Hiroshima, who confirmed it. Truman announced it 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:45.839 to the war. 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:50.920 A shark time ago, an American aeroplane dropped one bomb 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:54.800 on Hiroshima and destroyed its usefulness to the anime in 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:58.640 their present farm. These bombs are now in production and 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:02.760 even more power for firms are in development. It is 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:03.839 an atomic bomb. 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:08.160 The United States continued its tactic of dropping leaflets over 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:10.680 cities to speak to the citizens, and now they told 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:13.280 them about the atomic weapon. The leaflets warned that the 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:17.240 US had the most destructive explosive ever devised by man, 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:21.160 and told the Japanese to evacuate their cities. US radio 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:25.240 broadcast a similar message into Japan every fifteen minutes, stating 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:29.640 that more cities would be destroyed. But Japan hadn't been 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.200 defeated in two thousand years and they weren't going to 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:35.719 give up easily. In the Japanese Supreme War Council, some 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:39.240 advocated surrender, while others argued to continue the fight. They 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:42.040 hoped to hold out until the ground invasion began and 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.960 inflict so many casualties that they get a better settlement 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.360 that might leave their government in power. The US also 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.280 intercepted a message from Admiral Toyota, who believed that no 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.040 more than one or two more bombs could be prepared quickly. 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:56.960 He argued for a fight to the last man. The 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:00.640 American general saw no reason to wait. Nag Asaki was 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:05.720 destroyed three days later. So why that second bomb? Why 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:09.400 so quickly? The stated reasoning from Truman and military leaders 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.040 has been consistent and clear. They say they wanted to 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.199 end the war quickly, likely saving hundreds of thousands of 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:19.880 American and Japanese lives. None of Truman's generals advised against 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:23.360 using the bombs, although later some would express regret. Admiral 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:27.360 bull Halsey said later that the bomb was an unnecessary experiment. 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:29.720 They had this toy and they wanted to try it out, 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.840 so they dropped it. Truman's chief of staff, Admiral William Lahey, 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:36.559 first predicted the bomb would be a dud, then after 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:39.720 the war said it was of no material assistance. Admiral 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:44.000 Nimitz and President Eisenhower also criticized its use again after 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.559 the fact. During the war, though the concept of shak 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:50.840 and awe ruled the day, America had only two nuclear 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.560 weapons that had never dropped, one from a plane, and 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:55.760 one of the designs had never been tested at all. 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.520 They believed they'd need a massive psychological blow before the 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:03.839 Japanese would even consider surrendering. Now, one theory that became 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:06.520 more popular in recent years is that the second bomb 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.480 was to show the world, especially the Soviet Union, the 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.440 full power of the US Arsenal. The US relationship with 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.480 the Soviets was breaking down after the fighting in Europe stopped, 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:17.679 and there was a fear that the Soviet expansion was 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:21.439 already underway. Initially, the US had welcomed Russian help against 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:24.840 the Japanese, and Stalin had declared war against Japan two 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:28.320 days after Hiroshima. To some, the purpose of the quick 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:30.640 timing of the second bomb was to send a clear 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.640 message to the world of American supremacy and a way 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.880 to stop the Russians from meddling in post war Asia. Now, 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:38.800 with the hindsight of the Cold War and the nuclear 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.960 arm rais that seemed somewhat obvious. There was a huge 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:45.320 benefit to America having nuclear weapons and a willingness to 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.640 use them. On the flip side, though there's no evidence 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:51.880 of it. In historical records, no meeting notes or diaries 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:54.840 or memoirs showed that this was a factor. It definitely 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:57.320 may have been a bonus factor, but Truman had laid 0:11:57.320 --> 0:11:59.960 out a plan to defeat Japan as quickly as possible. 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.760 The military totally supported that notion and implemented it, and 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:06.680 no one wasted any time anywhere. They actually dropped the 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:10.199 bomb on Hiroshima just three weeks after the Trinity test. 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:12.880 There was also the possibility that Japan could get its 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.000 own nuclear bomb. It was concern, but not as worrisome 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:18.720 to the top brass as the Nazis nuclear program had been. 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:21.839 America knew Japan was trying, but it had no real 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.400 idea of how far along it was, and we still 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:28.199 really don't. The Japanese nuclear program was led by Yoshio Nashini, 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:31.119 and their nuclear research lab had about one hundred researchers. 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:34.679 Now there's a little known story that after Germany surrendered, 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:37.959 one of their submarines surrendered in New Hampshire. On board 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.000 was twelve hundred pounds of uranium oxide bound for Japan, 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:42.719 where they might be able to use it in a 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:46.240 nuclear program. There were also two Japanese officers on the 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:49.120 German sub and they were allowed to commit suicide instead 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:52.360 of turning themselves in. Later after Japan's surrender, the US 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:56.360 Army found and destroyed five Japanese cyclotrons which could help 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.599 convert uranium into a bomb. But there's another factor that 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.720 we have to look into as well, anger and hatred. 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:06.120 There was an increased hatred towards the Japanese that started 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:10.120 with Pearl Harbor and increased as Japan fought. You can't 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.360 understand World War II without a clear idea of how 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:18.360 horrific it was, of how horrific Japan was. Now they've 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:22.880 been pretty mello recently, but Imperial Japan was a militaristic, racist, 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.400 murderous regime every bit as bad as Nazi Germany. There 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:28.800 was an Asian holocaust that we hardly ever hear about, 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:32.520 but the Japanese military murdered tens of millions of people 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:37.319 in China, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia. In Ninjing, 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:40.440 China alone, they killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:43.760 buried them in mass graves. There were tens of thousands 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:48.360 of rapes. In fact, the Japanese essentially mass produced rape. 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:52.040 They literally created thousands of comfort stations where their soldiers 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:54.360 could rape native women. They say as many as two 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:57.679 hundred thousand women in conquered countries, and they treated their 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:02.079 prisoners of war worse than any country in modern times torture, starvation. 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:06.040 It's estimated that about a third of American POWs died 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.280 while in Japanese captivity. That compares to about four percent 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:13.880 of POW's dying in Nazi captivity. The Japanese military used 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:17.560 live humans as target practice for recruits, bayonetting the ones 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:20.720 who weren't killed outright. The human experiments they did at 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:24.440 Unit seven thirty one, sometimes called the Asian Auschwitz, should 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:27.280 have been unthinkable, as bad as anything that a human 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:29.680 could think of to do to one another. They did there. 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:33.360 You can research that one at your own risk, and 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:37.600 there are hundreds of documented examples of cannibalism of defeated soldiers. 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:41.120 These weren't driven by hunger, but by team building exercises 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:44.920 supervised by their commanders. The world hasn't seen war like 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:47.560 this in our lifetime, and killing a few hundred thousand 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:50.560 Japanese to end it wasn't seen as excessive in nineteen 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:53.840 forty five. In fact, a nineteen forty five gallop Pole 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:56.360 right after the war showed that only ten percent of 0:14:56.400 --> 0:15:00.040 Americans disapproved of the decision to use nuclear bombs. No 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:01.960 one was happier about it than one hundred and forty 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:05.080 thousand prisoners held in Japan, especially because many of them 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:08.480 knew that there was a kill all order where most 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.040 or all of them would be executed if an Allied 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:14.280 invasion got near Japan. In some cases, those plans were 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:17.280 actually carried out, but the Nagasaki bomb and the sudden 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:21.560 Japanese surrender prevented most and even after the Nagasaki bomb, 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:24.520 the Imperial Council vote to surrender was a three to 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:27.240 three tie. It wasn't until the Emperor, for the first 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:31.160 time in a generation, abandoned his ceremonial role and personally 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.440 broke the tie, ordering Japan to surrender. Even then, the 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.120 next day, some senior officers staged a coup to take 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.520 control of the government and continue the fight. Despite the odds, 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:43.600 they had a sense of honor that placed death above surrender, 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:45.360 and they wanted to fight it out to the end. 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.040 They seized parts of Tokyo and even burned down the 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.240 home of the Prime Minister before being defeated. So Truman 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:53.760 in his generals said that they needed that second bomb 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:56.280 to bring a timely end of the war. And in retrospect, 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:58.840 it looks to me like they were right. Today, far 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:01.520 removed from the horrors of war, it's easy to come 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.880 to some different judgments and see different motives. But the 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.040 more I researched it, the more I understood that decision, 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:10.040 and the more that it seemed to make sense. 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:13.760 And a terrific job on the production and editing by 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:17.160 our own Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to Ken Lecourt. 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:21.400 He's the host of the popular YouTube channel Elephants in Rooms. 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:25.320 That's Elephants in Rooms and go over to that page. 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:29.280 You won't stop learning, you won't stop listening and watching. 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:32.040 And what a story that he told here. 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:34.720 You know, there's a lot of revisionism looking back in 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.480 time at what someone might have done at a different time. 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:40.600 But the time was then, and the data and the 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.800 facts on the ground were rough. Truman had to make 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:48.920 the decision, and made the decision quickly and simply because 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:50.760 he had done the math, he had done the numbers, 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:52.720 he had seen the estimates, and he'd. 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:53.560 Seen the nature of the. 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:58.359 Enemy and seen the nature of in the end, mass suicides, 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:01.960 even by women and children. This is a very different 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:05.639 kind of fighting culture, and Truman had to do very 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:08.280 different things to end the war. And even after the 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:12.600 two bombs are dropped, there's still a split vote in 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:17.600 the high command of the Japanese military to carry on. 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:20.120 Until the last man, and not just the last man. 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:25.080 The important point here is the last man, woman and child, 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:29.760 and the American people were asked impolled on this. Only 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:33.919 ten percent disagreed, and that's the poll that matters most. 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:37.160 How we feel about it all these years later, having 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:41.000 lost nothing, having paid no price. I know my mom 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.720 lost her only brother, and it's removed from me, but 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.280 I still remember the story of the dropping of the 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:52.000 nuclear bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:54.440 Here on our American stories.