Postby BillB » Sat Apr 11, 2015 9:45 pm
Here's some quotes by people who did not have the benefit of these forums to teach them about WW II -
– "In 1945 Secretary of War [Henry] Stimson, visiting my headquarters in Germany, informed me that our government was preparing to drop an atomic bomb on Japan. I was one of those who felt that there were a number of cogent reasons to question the wisdom of such an act...on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary...I thought [atomic bombs] were no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives." – Dwight Eisenhower (General of the Army)
– "The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace. The atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military point of view, in the defeat of Japan." – Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz (Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet)
"There was no military justification for the dropping of the bomb[s]. The war might have ended weeks earlier, if the United States had agreed, as it later did anyway, to the retention of the institution of the [Japanese] emperor." – Douglas MacArthur (General of the Army)
– "The use of [the atomic bombs] at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons... I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children." – Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy (Chief of Staff to President Truman)
Last edited by
BillB on Sat Apr 11, 2015 9:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
