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A review by tasmanian_bibliophile
Hiroshima Nagasaki by Paul Ham
4.0
‘We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world.’ (Harry S. Truman 25 July 1945)
In an interview, Paul Ham said that it took him four years to write this book: 2.5 years of research and 1.5 years to write and edit. He said that he chose this topic because ‘I have always felt that there is something wrong with American narratives that attempt to justify the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in a nuclear holocaust.’ After researching and analysing the core archives, Paul Ham said he ‘felt a strong impulse to write an accurate account of the bomb, and to dissect the truth from the lies and popular myths.’
The lead up to August 1945, and the aftermath, is covered from a number of different angles: historical and political as well as military and scientific. Aspects of the book are based on extensive interviews with eighty survivors and depict the human communities of the two cities before and after they were destroyed. So much of the damage was civilian: schools, hospitals, and the homes of so many – primarily women, children and the aged.
‘It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.’
Paul Ham writes that the orthodox view of why the atomic bombs were dropped is President Harry S Truman’s justification (enunciated two years after the decision was made) that the bombs saved the necessity of invading Japan and the loss of one million American servicemen. Ham scrutinises this ex post facto justification: pointing out that the atomic bombs were not the only option and, in any case, Japan was rapidly running out of the raw materials required in order to continue.
General Curtis LeMay, like the RAF’s Air Vice Marshall ‘Bomber’ Harris (who ordered the area bombing of Hamburg and Dresden) believed that Japan’s military leaders could be shamed into surrender if their cities and civilian population were blanket bombed. The dropping of Little Boy and Fat Man was an extension of that strategy and while these bombs killed thousands of civilians, it apparently had little impact on the Japanese war machine or those directing it. Or did it? Surely it’s not total coincidence that Japan surrendered just days after Nagasaki was bombed.
In Ham’s view, what really led to the Japanese surrender was Stalin’s sudden entry into the war in the Pacific. The Japanese generals could see one million Soviet troops pouring into Manchuria, ready to invade Japan and to avenge the Russian defeat of 1904-05.
‘The Japanese people had kept their Emperor and lost an empire.’
Having read the book, having had some of my views and assumptions challenged, I’m still forming my own conclusions – especially on the role of science and the responsibility of scientists. Revisiting the choices made in 1945 is important: can we apply learning from the past to an unknown future?
‘Total war had debased everyone involved.’ As it does, and will continue to do.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
In an interview, Paul Ham said that it took him four years to write this book: 2.5 years of research and 1.5 years to write and edit. He said that he chose this topic because ‘I have always felt that there is something wrong with American narratives that attempt to justify the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in a nuclear holocaust.’ After researching and analysing the core archives, Paul Ham said he ‘felt a strong impulse to write an accurate account of the bomb, and to dissect the truth from the lies and popular myths.’
The lead up to August 1945, and the aftermath, is covered from a number of different angles: historical and political as well as military and scientific. Aspects of the book are based on extensive interviews with eighty survivors and depict the human communities of the two cities before and after they were destroyed. So much of the damage was civilian: schools, hospitals, and the homes of so many – primarily women, children and the aged.
‘It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.’
Paul Ham writes that the orthodox view of why the atomic bombs were dropped is President Harry S Truman’s justification (enunciated two years after the decision was made) that the bombs saved the necessity of invading Japan and the loss of one million American servicemen. Ham scrutinises this ex post facto justification: pointing out that the atomic bombs were not the only option and, in any case, Japan was rapidly running out of the raw materials required in order to continue.
General Curtis LeMay, like the RAF’s Air Vice Marshall ‘Bomber’ Harris (who ordered the area bombing of Hamburg and Dresden) believed that Japan’s military leaders could be shamed into surrender if their cities and civilian population were blanket bombed. The dropping of Little Boy and Fat Man was an extension of that strategy and while these bombs killed thousands of civilians, it apparently had little impact on the Japanese war machine or those directing it. Or did it? Surely it’s not total coincidence that Japan surrendered just days after Nagasaki was bombed.
In Ham’s view, what really led to the Japanese surrender was Stalin’s sudden entry into the war in the Pacific. The Japanese generals could see one million Soviet troops pouring into Manchuria, ready to invade Japan and to avenge the Russian defeat of 1904-05.
‘The Japanese people had kept their Emperor and lost an empire.’
Having read the book, having had some of my views and assumptions challenged, I’m still forming my own conclusions – especially on the role of science and the responsibility of scientists. Revisiting the choices made in 1945 is important: can we apply learning from the past to an unknown future?
‘Total war had debased everyone involved.’ As it does, and will continue to do.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith