What do you think president Truman would say about the current state of Japan?

~ I don’t know, but whatever he would say we can only hope that his advisers would give him a good briefing on the proper pronunciation of “Fukushima”.

I think he would be horrified at the devastation.

I think he would be incredibly sad. Why – what do you think he would say?

I’m guessing this is a correlation between him giving the order to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the similar devastation the natural disaster and now ensuing nuclear crisis have caused.

And I believe the correct answer would be “Well at least I didn’t have to prolong World War 2 and cost a few million lives by invading.”

As I recall, he was kinda reluctant to nuke Japan in the first place.

@Nullo Yah, and he also went out of his way to target less populated, and significantly less strategically important, cities. The military recommended dropping the second bomb on Tokyo.

Not to mention during the Korean war even after it was suggested by the joint chiefs of staff and UN General (also US general) MacArthur that we drop the bomb on North Korea and or China…. he told them no.

We’ll help in any way we could.

Two bombs were dropped, would one not have been more than enough?

@flutherother Em… they were not dropped simultaneously. One was dropped on August 6th and the next on August 9th. I would think that if one was enough Japan would have surrendered sometime between August 6th and August 8th.

That aside, there is no link what so ever between the end of WWII and the aftermath of the current natural disaster and frankly, I don’t have a very high opinion of those who try to make such a connection.

@YoBob Japan didn’t surrender until 15 August, maybe we could have given a bit more time.

Word for word:
“I shall recommend that the United States consider promptly the establishment of an appropriate commission to control the production and use of atomic power within the United States. I shall give further consideration and make further recommendations to the Congress as to how atomic power can become a powerful and forceful influence towards the maintenance of world peace.” (a bit of irony there)

From a Press Release from President Harry S Truman on August 6, 1945 concerning the dropping of the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
Full press release: http://americanhistory.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/presshiroshima.htm

Truman understood that Europe and Japan were ripe for exploitation by the communists, and thus he authorized rebuilding their infrastuctures rather that let them suffer exploitation by same.
Having said that, today Truman would not recognize the same communist threat. He would certainly recognize a loyal ally that served as a trading partner, and also served as “our” bulwark against possible Chinese hegemony.
I suspect Truman would spend a whole lot of money to stabilize Japan in this moment of crisis.
For the same reason, the US better be ready to ante up to help Japan recover. This amazing civilization is our first line of defense against an ambitious China.

@flutherother The Empire stated outright that it wasn’t going to surrender. The government fully planned to fight ground forces until every last Japanese was dead. At this point, Japan’s defeat was a given; it was just a question of time and casualties. The first bomb didn’t do it, and Wikipedia suggests that the second one wouldn’t have either if not for the fact that the Soviets declared war in between them.

There were ten days between the Potsdam Declaration – effectively a “surrender or be destroyed” ultimatum – and the bombing of Hiroshima. There were another three days before Nagasaki. In all, it took nearly two weeks for the Emperor to tell the Supreme Council for the Direction of the War how things were going to be.

@Nullo In fact even after it was announced to high ranking officers in Japan that the Emperor intended to surrender…. There was a military coup to overthrow him and continue the war…. That coup was attempted on the day the second bomb was dropped.

President Truman had already been dead a long time ago. What to say?