Little Man and Fat Boy 1
It happened 80 years ago – the nuking of two Japanese cities by America: “Little Man” dropped on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945, and “Fat Boy” on Nagasaki, August 9, 1945. The vast destruction ended the Second World War.
The war in Europe was over – officially on May 8, 1945. It had taken millions of lives.
Hitler had ordered the genocide of the Jews. So about 6,000,000 Jewish men, women, and children were murdered – most of them gassed to death.
The British and Americans had advanced on Germany from the West, the Russians from the East.
Dresden had been flattened by the Royal Air Force and the U.S. 8th Air Force with conventional bombs.
Hitler had committed suicide in his Berlin bunker. The Germans had surrendered.
The Japanese continued to fight. They were cruel to their prisoners, both civilian and military. Their treatment of military captives was extremely brutal.
When the nuclear bombs had done their worst, Emperor Hirohito read the message: surrender or die. He chose surrender.
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Here are Victor Davis Hanson’s arguments for the dropping of the bombs:
