lkk@mit-eddie.UUCP (Larry Kolodney) (10/03/84)
Re: Using the Bomb to force Japan to surrender.
I read a few years back that US intelligence had reports that the
Japanese cabinet was fairly evenly split over the question of
surrender, and that given a few more days, they might very well have
done so, without using the bomb.
Can anyone confirm or deny this?
--
larry kolodney (The Devil's Advocate)
UUCP: ...{ihnp4, decvax!genrad}!mit-eddie!lkk
ARPA: lkk@mit-mcsteiny@scc.UUCP (Don Steiny) (10/05/84)
***
This passage from "World Challange", by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber
helped me understand Japan's prespective on the bomb:
At eight-fifteen, directly above the industrial area of the great
port city of Hiroshima, the mechanism was set in motion and the
bomb dropped.
Since then the story of the indescribable phenomenon has been told
many times. It continuse to defy the imagination. The shock struck
the minds of the Japanese leaders with a violence that surpassed
all human faculities of apprehension.
To make them aware of what had happened, the White House immediately
issued a communique: "This morning an Americian plane dropped a bomb,
a single bomb, on Hiroshima ... We have mastered an elementry
force of the physical universe, that from which the sun draws its
own power. This power has been unleashed against those who would
put the Far East to fire and the sword."
In Tokyo, General Kawabe, Chief of Staff of the Army, read a telegram
from his intelligence sources: "The city of Hiroshima has been destroyed
with a single bomb."
Kawabe could not believe it.
In return, he asked about the condition of the powerful Japanese Second
Army, whose headquarters were in Hiroshima. He was told that eight-
fifteen that day most of the troops were assembled on the city's
parade ground for their hour of exercises, and that there minutes
later there was nothing left of them.
Belatedly, the physisist Yshio Nishina was summoned to the Ministry of
War to meet with the entire general staff. He confirmed that this was
indeed what a nuclear bomb would be like.
The horror was imprinted on everyone's mind. No one talked about it,
there were no discussions. It was as if a natural disaster had
occurred -- an earthquake or a hurricane. The government and the
military officials returned to their routines. But they were no
longer the same men. Every one of the leaders who survived confirmed it:
they were no longer able to think or plan logically.
Hours, days passed, Japan was silent, paralyzed.
On Thursday, August 9, the Supreme Council of War, the body that
brought together government and military leaders, held its usual
meeting. During the discussion a message arrived, it read:
"A second device, the same as the one that destroyed Hiroshima,
has exploded, at 11:01, in the port of Nagasaki" -- Japan's legendary,
sacred ancient door to the world.
The council decided to go in a body to the Imperial Palace to speak
with the Emperor.
The Emperor never left the Imperial Palace. He never spoke in public.
He took no part in government meetings. He was the incarnation of
Japan. But if he were to speak or give a command, there was no
precedent for not obeying him immediately.
The Emperor spoke, more precisely, alone in his office, he dictated
a message to the Prime Minister instructing him to accept the
American ultimatum immediately and end the war. The Prime Minister
called a Cabinet meeting. The ministers agreed to obey the
Emperor. Responsiblity for the request to surrender would be assumed
by the government and the government alone, enabling the Emperor to
remain aloof in the silence of his palace.
It was then that the consequences of the nuclear explosions first
shattered the deepest foundations of Japanese tradition. In the
Imperial Staff's great confrence room, General Anami, the Minister
of War, Generl Umezu, now Chief of Staff, and Admiral
Toyoda, Chief of Staff of the Navy, stood up one by one and
declared that they refused to accept capitulation. They refused
to obey the Emperor, an event as unthinkable as the atomic bomb
itself -- and as revolutionary.
Hirohito learned of the unprecedented action and asked the Prime
Minister to call a meeting oof the entire government for that very
evening, the ninth of August, in the Imperial Palace's underground
shelter.
The meeting began at eight-thirty. The generals were intrasigent.
General Animi declared in the Emperor's presence, "The hour of
glory has just sounded for Japan. We must let the Americans
come and assault the Empire itself, on our archipelago's three
islands. And Japanese power will annihilate them as in 1281 the
divine kamikaze wind stopped the forces of Kublai Khan, the only
one who ever attempted this impossible assult."
Prime Minister Suzuki turned toward the Emperor and asked him to speak.
Stunned by what he had heard, the Emperor, who had suddenly become
a man among others, without hesitation and without protocall curtly
repeated his order to cease hostilities. The meeting was ended.
The Emperor realized that nothing had been settled, and so he decided
on a course of action that would have irrevocable consequences. For
the first time in the history of the dynasty, his people would hear
his voice.
He sent for a recording machine. It was heavy and difficult to operate,
but he recorded a brief message to be broadcast an hour later over
all Japanese radio stations. He asked the nation to accept the
decision of fate and give up the armed struggle. He concluded,
"We charge you, you our loyal subjects, to faithfully carry our our will."
Before this voice which had never before been heard reached the people,
there was an attempt at an insurrection. Two generals, accompanied
by their guards, entered the Imperial Palace and ordered the chief of
the Emperor's personal guard to surrender and hand over the recording.
When he refused, he was dispatched with two sword thrusts. Another
officer burst into the room, and he too was killed.
When Admiral Takigishi, a former associate of Admiral Yamamoto's in
the Navy's high command, learned of the madness that had taken hold
of the entire military command, he intervened to protect the Emperor.
He ordered the rebels arrested and saw to the broadcast of the recording.
General Anami committed hara-kiri. Within an hour, the four remaining
army chiefs followed his example. Then it was Admiral Takigishi's
turn to commit hara-kiri. It was all over.
No people have ever known such an end, such annihilation. If the
country were to rise again one day, it would have to be a different
Japan. The past must be erased, the future invented.
The World Challenge
Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber
pps 163-166
--
scc!steiny
Don Steiny - Personetics @ (408) 425-0382
109 Torrey Pine Terr.
Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060
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