On Fri, 9 Mar 2001, John D. Giorgis wrote:
> At 05:52 PM 3/7/01 +0200 Charlie Bell wrote:
> >>
> >> Why Harry Truman (IMHO one of the best Presidents of the 20th
> >> Century) ?
> >>
> >Being the only man in history to use nuclear weapons in warfare,
> >despite the enemy having already given indications that they were
> >willing to negotiate a peace?
>
> The first part is accurate, but the second part, as far as I know is
> not. In fact, the Japanese were so unwilling to negotiate that we had
> the drop a second bomb just to get the point across.
>From what the American decision-makers understood at the time, that's
reasonably accurate. But going back over everything, there was a
mis-translation somewhere that caused some problems, and the second bomb
drop was originally scheduled for a later date, but the weather forecast
indicated that the day they actually dropped the Nagasaki bomb was the
last day they'd be able to do so until after their originally intended
drop date. In hindsight, the Nagasaki bomb was unnecessary, IMO. Your
opinion may differ from mine, of course.
Julia
