President Obama's recent visit to Hiroshima where the President called for a moral revolution against nuclear warfare, resurrects the question about President Truman's moral compass when he authorized the August 6, 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and the August 9, 1945 bombing of Nagasaki.
Was President Truman justified in obliterating two cities and more than 100,000 Japanese men, women and children? Or was the 33rd President morally courageous when he used atomic bombs to force the stubborn and fanatical Japanese warlords to unconditionally surrender - a surrender that spared the lives of at least a quarter of a million U.S. servicemen, as well as hundreds of thousands of Japanese teenagers and elderly women conscripted to protect Japan from an invasion?
Following VE Day on May 8, 1945 marking the successful end of the war in Europe, Harry Truman and the U.S. allies focused on ending the horrendous war in the Pacific. President Truman and U.S. Allies, including Winston Churchill, demanded in the July 1945 Potsdam Declaration that Japan must agree to an unconditional surrender that would end a brutal war that had already resulted in millions of deaths.
The problem was the irrational refusal of Japan's military leaders to accept the certain reality that they would ultimately lose the war. Faced with Japan's maniacal commitment to win the war, Truman was advised by the Secretary of Defense, General George Marshall that the Allies' planned invasion of Japan would cost the lives of a minimum of 250,000 U.S. servicemen.
As Commander and Chief of the United States, Truman acted decisively to protect U.S. servicemen from a protracted war against a Japanese culture typified by suicidal Kamikazes pilots. Surrender and defeat were not acceptable options in Emperor Hirohito's Japan.
Truman's reason for the use of atomic warfare is clear in his letter to his wife Bess dated July 18, 1945, just a week before the President issued a military directive ordering the bombing after August 2, 1945. Truman wrote: "I'll say that we'll end the war a year sooner now (with use of the Atomic Bombs), and think of the kids who won't be killed."
In a letter Truman sent on August 9th, 1945 to Senator Richard B. Russell (D-GA), Truman reiterated his thoughts contained in his July 18th letter to Bess Truman: "My object (in using the Atomic Bomb) is to save as many American lives as possible but I also have a humane feeling for the women and children in Japan."
Importantly, even before the Japanese unconditionally surrendered on August 14, 1945 Truman's repulsion at the devastation of atomic warfare was evident at an August 9, 1945 cabinet meeting. At this cabinet meeting, Truman ordered that there would be no further use of the atomic bomb (a third one was available) unless the President explicitly approved this action. Truman further told his cabinet that the mere thought of decimating another city was horrible, particularly since it would necessarily kill "all those kids."
Three years later on July 21, 1948 Truman told National Security Council and Atomic Energy Commission members that he remained strongly opposed to any further use of an atomic bomb: "I don't think we ought to use this thing (the Bomb) unless we absolutely have to. It is a terrible thing to order the use of something that is so terribly destructive, destructive beyond anything we have ever had."
Truman not only reaffirmed his revulsion towards the Bomb on July 21, 1948 he subsequently took an important step by controlling U.S. military access to atomic and nuclear bombs. After hearing pleas from his senior military advisors that the Joint Chiefs of Staff should control atomic technology, Truman rejected this proposal and instituted the new policy whereby the President and future Presidents would have unilateral control of the Bomb. In taking this action, Truman wisely eliminated the possibility of rogue military officials securing the nuclear codes that have been exclusively in the possession of U.S. Presidents since 1945.
Throughout his Presidency, Truman demonstrated his unequivocal opposition to the use of the Bomb when confronting a possible World War III due to Russia's June 24, 1948 blockade of West Berlin and its 2.5 million citizens, North Korea's invasion of South Korea on June 24, 1950 and China's invasion of the Korean Peninsula on November 6, 1950.
Ironically, the words and actions of our 33rd President during the early years of the Cold War are consistent with and supportive of President Obama's words at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial on May 27, 2016 where the 44th President called for a moral revolution regarding nuclear warfare.
President Harry Truman showed moral courage in his first and only use of atomic bombs. He did what was necessary to end a war that would have costs the lives of at least a quarter of a million U.S. servicemen if the war continued. But Truman also showed his moral courage and vision when he put future atomic and nuclear warfare in the hands of U.S. Presidents, not the country's military leaders.