After Mt. Fuji, Kim and I visited Hiroshima, which is down the south west tip of Japan - so it was a bit hotter than Tokyo or the Mt Fuji area.
Heat has been an ongoing battle or characteristic of our trip. Drinking lots of fluids is made easy by the fact that every block or two has a vending machine selling water, cold drinks and cold coffee. Because Kim was burned we borrowed an umbrella from the hostel/hotel/ryokan that we were staying at. She felt silly at first, but less silly when we counted and 1 in 3 women walk around with umbrellas in the sun there.
Ryokans are japanese style hotels. We have stayed at four or five now and what they have in common is that as soon as you enter the hotel, you must take off your shoes and wear slippers or walk around in socks. The rooms are super small and the main area of the room is covered with a tatami mat. Our bedding is thin mattresses with a duvet on top. The first thing we do when we go into the rooms is try and figure out the airconditioner because usually the rooms are about 32 degrees Celcius inside. Going to the bathroom requires putting on your normal slippers, then switching to bathroom slippers that are kept in the bathroom and then switching back when you are done.
At the ryokan in Hiroshima we met a french girl who was waiting for her brother. There seems to be lots of french tourists in Japan. She came with us a bit to see some of the Hiroshima monuments to the war and the atomic bombing. The trams have automated announcements in Japanese and in English. It is really weird to hear, in the middle of an urban city, an announcement like 'next stop, atomic bomb dome'
The atomic bomb dome is a monument which is the remains of the theatre which was about 600m from the epicentre of the bomb. There are lots and lots of monuments in this area.
There is also a peace memorial museum which shows the before and after impacts of the bomb. Touring the museum, both Kim and I felt a bit sick to the stomach.
Interestingly, the displays suggested that there were more political and scientific reasons for using the bomb than military ones.
On the political side, the displays suggested that the U.S. was looking for more leverage post war vs the Soviets. This leverage was to come from two ways: 1. by demonstrating the weapon and 2. by shutting the Russians out of the victory over the Japanese.
On the scientific side, the displays demonstrated that bombings of Hiroshima were deliberatly curtailed prior to the atomic ones so that the impact of the bomb could be measured. On the other hand several scientists that developed the bomb were specifically against using the bomb. i.e. the Szilard petition
On the military side, there is a wikipedia site which debates the bombings. Citing this site, if 1946 United States Strategic Bombing Survey, and military leaders like Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, Nimitz, William D Leahy and others felt it was militarily unnecessary then I think it was militarily unnecessary.
Really, the bomb shouldn't have been used and should have been used first as a negotiation tool. There are references which show this option was considered at the time: e.g. e.g. Memorandum by Ralph A. Bard, Undersecretary of the Navy, to Secretary of War Stimson, June 27, 1945
1 comment:
On the topic of whether Japan was a test case for the "bomb," I would like to add my two cents.
I have read that Hiroshima was not the U.S. government's first choice, of a target, for dropping the atomic bomb, Kyoto was. Therefore, Kyoto was not a target for regular bombing and left untouched so the results of an atomic bomb would be more clearly seen. However, because Kyoto was an historic site, the U.S, government decided that American and world public opinion would be against them, and reluctantly choose Hiroshima instead.
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