On Aug. 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped the uranium bomb known as “Little Boy” over Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion killed an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 people immediately. By the end of 1945, deaths from burns, injuries and radiation had raised the estimated toll to about 140,000.
Three days later, another B-29, Bockscar, dropped the plutonium bomb “Fat Man” on Nagasaki. About 40,000 people were killed immediately, with the estimated toll reaching roughly 74,000 by year’s end. Japan announced its surrender on Aug. 15.
In the new book “Empire of Ashes: Truman, Hirohito, and the Descent into Total War,” historian James M. Scott reconstructs the political and military decisions behind the bombings, drawing on American and Japanese sources and accounts from survivors.
Supporters of President Harry Truman’s decision argue that the bombs forced Japan to accept surrender and prevented an invasion that could have killed large numbers of American troops and Japanese civilians.
Scott concludes that the atomic bomb attacks shortened the war. The United States was pushing for an unconditional surrender which Japan was unwilling to agree to.
Critics argue that Japan was already close to defeat and might have surrendered if Washington had guaranteed that Emperor Hirohito could remain.
The book’s deeper question is how Americans should reconcile the ending of the war, the liberation of millions and the defeat of a brutal imperial regime with the deliberate destruction of two cities. Scott appears to resist both an uncomplicated defense of the bombings and an account that ignores Japanese militarism.
Guest:
James M. Scott is a historian and the author of "Empire of Ashes: Truman, Hirohito and the Descent into Total War." His 2016 book "Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid that Avenged Pearl Harbor" was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History
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