The New Evidence “Explodes the ‘Myth of Military Necessity’

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The New Evidence “Explodes the ‘Myth of Military Necessity’” as Studs Terkel is Quoted
Introduction
It is a widely accepted argument that the motives of President Harry Truman to order for the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese was to quickly bring an end to war and prevent massive deaths among the Americans during the invasion. In Ronald Takaki’s book, “Hiroshima: Why America dropped the Atomic Bomb,” this interpretation is simplistic in nature, mainly because of lack of evidence to associate President Truman with the event. According to Takaki, although it is grim to see and tell everything, there is a plethora of evidence to decipher the intents of dropping the bomb. He adds that, today, it is possible to scrutinize sensitive and recently declassified documents belonging to the military, diaries of Henry Stimson, the Secretary of War and a key advisor, and Douglas McArthur and Dwight Eisenhower’s papers and recollections. McArthur and Eisenhower had served as military leaders during Truman’s time in office of the presidency. Files archived by atomic scientists such as Leo Szilard and Robert Oppenheimer have also been declassified. More importantly, personal letters of Truman to his family members and high secrets contained in his Potsdam diary have been revealed (Takaki 4-5). This essay shows how the new source materials shaped Takaki’s conclusions and drawing upon the evidence from Hiroshima, the essay will identify the factors that played a role in his decision besides saving the American lives and ending the war.
Takaki is convinced that President Truman’s intent to use the atomic bomb against Japan was associated with the racial rage that hitherto existed between the Americans and the Japanese as well as Truman’s racial attitudes towards the Japanese people. As Truman understands, Truman is the key personality to find out answers why the United States dropped the atomic bomb (Takaki 10). From the basis of this claim, the author notes that Truman had an intricate personality that was driven by notion of race, inferiority complex, ambivalence, remorse, and a need to be masculine and resolute (10). The atomic bombings mainly exploded out of Truman’s mentality of mass destruction that was largely triggered by a loathing for the Japanese people laced with racism. This would result in massive bombings of two major sites in Tokyo and Yokohama claiming thousands of lives. In Takaki’s book, the character of Truman is psychoanalyzed to arrive at conclusions that his behaviors led to the decision that a bomb attack against Japan would be the ultimate an answer to his perceptions (114-5). Truman and his policy advisors viewed the bomb with some conception of masculinity, just like war has in history been viewed at a definitive test of manliness. This perception also reveals some details on the decision to use the bomb. Takaki also identifies other revealing details to show that Truman’s character that might have developed du...