# Hiroshima Day: A Worthy Cause **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 30, 2002, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiroshima-day-a-worthy-cause/121542 "2002-07-30T15:29:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2002, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiroshima-day-a-worthy-cause/121542/161 "2002-08-09T14:42:47Z")
I am not a rabid Harry Truman fan, but an honest assessment of his life and presidency turns up much to admire. His postwar kindness to the defeated Axis powers and the winning of the peace through the Marshall Plan were genuinely great things. The suffering of the Japanese people immediately after the war would have been much greater without this kindness shown by the United States and Harry Truman. Do you concede these points, **Halo** , or are all American presidents automatically warmongers to you? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2002, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiroshima-day-a-worthy-cause/121542/162 "2002-08-09T14:43:15Z")
And, from Truman’s memoirs, > [@](#): > > On July 28 radio Tokyo announced that the Japanese government would continue to fight. There was no formal reply to the joint ultimatum of the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. There was no alternative now. The bomb was scheduled to be dropped after August 3 unless Japan surrendered before that day. > > On August 6, the fourth day of the journey home from Potsdam, came the historic news that shook the world. I was eating lunch with members of the Augusta’s crew when Captain Frank Graham, White House map Room watch officer, handed me the following message: > > Following info regarding Manhattan received. “Hiroshima bombed visually with only one tenth cover at 052315A. There was no fighter opposition and no flak. Parsons reports 15 minutes after drop as follows: ‘Results clear cut successful in all respects. Visible effects greater than in any test. Conditions normal in airplane following delivery.’” > > I was greatly moved. I telephoned Byrnes aboard ship to give him the news and then said to the group around me, “This is the greatest thing in history. It’s time for us to get home.” ---
**Author:** ![Sgt.J](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sgt.J](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sgt.J)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2002, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiroshima-day-a-worthy-cause/121542/163 "2002-08-09T14:53:11Z")
I was pulling for you to actually back up some of your “I am a bastion of enlightenment” crap with actual ideas we could think about **Halo13** , but it appears you have nothing else. In the midst of all the discussion here the best you can do is: “keep 'em coming” and: > [@](#): > > I read a Harold Truman quote recently; he referred to the bombing of Hiroshima at the time as, “the greatest thing in history”. That’s weak. You should be embarrassed. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2002, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiroshima-day-a-worthy-cause/121542/164 "2002-08-09T14:53:19Z")
And, from Truman’s memoirs, > [@](#): > > On July 28 radio Tokyo announced that the Japanese government would continue to fight. There was no formal reply to the joint ultimatum of the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. There was no alternative now. The bomb was scheduled to be dropped after August 3 unless Japan surrendered before that day. > > On August 6, the fourth day of the journey home from Potsdam, came the historic news that shook the world. I was eating lunch with members of the Augusta’s crew when Captain Frank Graham, White House map Room watch officer, handed me the following message: > > Following info regarding Manhattan received. “Hiroshima bombed visually with only one tenth cover at 052315A. There was no fighter opposition and no flak. Parsons reports 15 minutes after drop as follows: ‘Results clear cut successful in all respects. Visible effects greater than in any test. Conditions normal in airplane following delivery.’” > > I was greatly moved. I telephoned Byrnes aboard ship to give him the news and then said to the group around me, “This is the greatest thing in history. It’s time for us to get home.” ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2002, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiroshima-day-a-worthy-cause/121542/165 "2002-08-09T14:55:38Z")
Sorry about the double post. I was timing out. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2002, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiroshima-day-a-worthy-cause/121542/166 "2002-08-10T03:03:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sauron \* > \*\* > > Okay, I will freely admit I’m lazy, and haven’t re-read the thread. Did someone actually say that? I don’t recall it, but my memory isn’t very good. \*\* This is the bit that caught my eye: > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by **Whack-A-Mole** _ > Do you know where you’d be without the good old US of A? I’ll tell you where! The smallest fucking province in the Japanese empire that’s where! Rereading it I can see that it may not have been a serious comment. Also reading through, I’m beginning to regret saying anything in favour of the OP, the later posts are pretty extreme. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2002, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiroshima-day-a-worthy-cause/121542/167 "2002-08-10T08:12:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Skogcat \* > Rereading it I can see that it may not have been a serious comment. Good call. It’s a paraphrase of a line from _A Fish Called Wanda_. Otto (Kevin Kline) directs the line at Archie (John Cleese) and his wife Wendy (Maria Aitken), except it was “the Russian Empire”. And if Truman said the a-bombing was “the greatest thing in history”, he might have been thinking about how wars could be now be ended in one huge bang rather than after months and years of slow slaughter. Truman himself had seen action as an artillery commander in the 35th Division in WW1. He had ample opportunity to witness for himself the destruction caused by years of warfare. Besides, all (or most) of Truman’s advisors were telling him this one operation would end the war in the Pacific. The fact that the operation went off successfully is enough call for relief, if not hyperbole. Holding up a single out-of-context quote as self-evident damnnation is pretty fucking weak. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiroshima-day-a-worthy-cause/121542.md?page=8)