The Atomic Bomb Myth: "Saving Lives and Ending the War?"
Description:
Recognizing that no hard documentary evidence exists to settle the question
definitively, the author, nonetheless, argues that the atomic bombings
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki neither ended the war in the Pacific nor saved
any lives, as has been asserted since 1945. While acknowledging a strong
coincidental relationship between the bombings and the Japanese surrender,
the author argues that no causal relationship can be discerned when the
events are examined closely. This is the case because, in the first place,
the claim that 500,000 to a million American lives were saved leads to
literally incredible statistical anomalies. In the second place, the claim
that the bombings "forced" Prime Minister Suzuki's government
to surrender cannot be sustained once one examines the question as an essentially
political issue from the Suzuki government's perspective in Tokyo. In the
conclusion, the fact that the bomb did not end the Pacific war suggests
strongly that it also lacks "deterrent" power, the power to prevent
war, as has been claimed since the 1950's.
Name:Brien Hallett
Present Post and Title: Director, Matsunaga Institute for Peace, University of Hawaii, Manoa
Final Education: Ph.D. University of Hawaii, Manoa
Specialized Field: Political theory, theories of war and democracy, congressional war powers,
sovereignty, human rights, and other issues in international law
Description: 
