{"id":11361,"date":"2018-08-23T13:44:50","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T20:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=11361"},"modified":"2018-08-23T13:44:50","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T20:44:50","slug":"the-bombs-of-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-bombs-of-august\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bombs of August"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"drop\">O<\/span>n Aug. 6, 1945, the United States dropped a uranium-fueled atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, another U.S. Army Air Forces B-29 repeated the attack on Nagasaki, Japan, with an even more powerful plutonium bomb.<\/p>\n<p>Less than a month after the second bombing, Imperial Japan agreed to formally surrender on September 2. That date marked the official end of World War II \u2014 the bloodiest human or natural catastrophe in history, accounting for more than 65 million dead.<\/p>\n<p>Each August, Americans in hindsight ponder the need for, the morality of, and the strategic rationale behind the dropping of the two bombs. Yet President Harry Truman\u2019s decision 73 years ago to use the novel, terrifying weapons was not considered particularly controversial, either right before or right after the attacks. Both cities were simply military targets.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2018\/08\/president-truman-atomic-bombing-of-japan-better-option\/\">Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review On Aug. 6, 1945, the United States dropped a uranium-fueled atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, another U.S. Army Air Forces B-29 repeated the attack on Nagasaki, Japan, with an even more powerful plutonium bomb. Less than a month after the second bombing, Imperial Japan agreed to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1111,1,307],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2Xf","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9265,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-horrors-of-hiroshima-in-context\/","url_meta":{"origin":11361,"position":0},"title":"The Horrors of Hiroshima in Context","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online The dropping of two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 remains the only wartime use of nuclear weapons in history. No one knows exactly how many Japanese citizens were killed by the two American\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Europe&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4308,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/60-years-later-considering-hiroshima\/","url_meta":{"origin":11361,"position":1},"title":"60 Years Later: Considering Hiroshima","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online For 60 years the United States has agonized over its unleashing of the world\u2019s first nuclear weapon on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. President Harry Truman\u2019s decision to explode an atomic bomb over an ostensible military target \u2014 the headquarters of the crack\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;August 2005&quot;","block_context":{"text":"August 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/august-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12556,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-annual-august-debate-over-the-bombs\/","url_meta":{"origin":11361,"position":2},"title":"Our Annual August Debate over the Bombs","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review This\u00a0month marks the 75th anniversary of the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, at Hiroshima on August 6, and Nagasaki on August 9. Each year, Americans argue about our supposed moral shortcomings for being the only nation to have used an atomic weapon\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13414,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/historians-corner-the-firebombing-of-japan-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":11361,"position":3},"title":"Historian&#8217;s Corner: The Firebombing of Japan","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 20, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"B-29 Superfortress Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Private Papers Part Two:\u00a0Very Bad Versus Worse Choices? 1) The Japanese Empire, while doomed in Spring 1945, was more than capable of killing thousands of innocents every day the war dragged on. Depending on the nature of particular sources, and how data are compiled\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 10 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 10 comments","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/historians-corner-the-firebombing-of-japan-2\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/B29Bomber-e1621482082162.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/B29Bomber-e1621482082162.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/B29Bomber-e1621482082162.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/B29Bomber-e1621482082162.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13440,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/historians-corner-the-firebombing-of-japan-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":11361,"position":4},"title":"Historian&#8217;s Corner: The Firebombing of Japan","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Private Papers Part Three. The Nihilist Logic of Death Once the sick dogs of war are unleashed, legalized murder has a Satanic logic of its own. In the US case, the agenda from December 8 onward was how to end the war as quickly as possible\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 10 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 10 comments","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/historians-corner-the-firebombing-of-japan-3\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7900,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bomb-occupy-or-neither\/","url_meta":{"origin":11361,"position":5},"title":"Bomb, Occupy, or Neither?","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Blowing apart a problem for a while is different from ending it for good. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Wars usually end only when the defeated aggressor believes it would be futile to resume the conflict. Lasting peace follows if the loser is then forced to change\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Terrorism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Terrorism","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/war-on-terror\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/pic_giant_1001214_SM_Hornets-Over-Iraq_0-500x291.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11363,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11361\/revisions\/11363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}