Four Prominent Americans Who Opposed Dropping the Atomic Bomb on Japan
Numerous quotes from four prestigious American individuals who opposed the use of the atomic bomb in Japan.
With the highly popular Oppenheimer movie out in theaters across the world, the history of the atomic bomb, its creation, and the ever-present threat of global nuclear annihilation are uniquely popular subjects up for discussion. As such, an important debate has heated up once more surrounding both the morality and necessity of dropping not one, but two atomic weapons on Japan during the latter stages of World War II.
Like any significant event in U.S. history, the American people have not been taught the full history of the atomic bomb’s usage in Japan, much less the truth about it. For all the talk regarding this vastly important stage in our history, there is hardly any discourse on the prominent men within the U.S. government and U.S. military who steadfastly opposed using the bomb. Though an ignored minority, a sizable portion believed it wildly immoral or strategically unnecessary to induce Imperial Japan’s surrender.
Contemporary American history has failed to make mention of the dissent from these individuals and has instead resorted to flatly stating that the use of the atomic bombs was necessary to end the war. It would not be difficult to imagine that most Americans would be shocked to find out that two of America’s greatest generals were against the bomb’s use. Hence, the purpose of this article is not to argue whether or not the bomb should have been dropped, but to highlight the men who disagreed with utilizing it — and why.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) served as the 34th President of the United States and was one of America’s leading generals during the Second World War. Promoted to the rank of general in 1943 and appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force later in the year, Eisenhower spearheaded, supervised, and planned the most ambitious aspects of the war, such as Operation Torch (the Allied invasion of North Africa) and the infamous D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe in 1944.
Eisenhower first learned of the atomic bomb and its creation at the Potsdam Conference in 1945. He later recalled a visit by Secretary of War Henry Stimson, in which Stimson informed Eisenhower of the atomic bomb’s recent tests in New Mexico and the intent of the Truman administration to use it against Japan as quickly as possible. Upon listening to the contents of Stimson’s dialogue, Eisenhower voiced his opposition, both on moral grounds and the fact that the bomb’s use was wholly unnecessary to achieve victory.
He remembered:
“During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of ‘face.’ The Secretary was deeply perturbed by my attitude.”
In 1963, Eisenhower once again affirmed his opposition to dropping the bomb, saying that “the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing.”
William Leahy
Admiral William Leahy (1875–1959) was the highest-ranked senior military officer during World War II. Beforehand, Leahy served in numerous wars, such as the Spanish-American War, the Philippine-American War, and World War I. Chief of Naval Operations from 1937 to 1939, and Chief of Staff to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman throughout World War II, Leahy played a vital role in the planning and deliberations of the war. He is also remembered as one of the most trusted advisors to both presidents.
Leahy later contended in his memoirs that it was unnecessary to drop the atomic bombs and lamented the “frightening” prospect of this “barbarous weapon” being used in future wars:
“The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons. … The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future are frightening. My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.”
Herbert Hoover
Hebert Hoover (1874-1964) was America’s 31st President. Wrongly blamed for the Great Depression, his presidency continues to be ridiculed by many historians. Although he held no office of prominence during the Second World War, his dissenting opinions on the atomic bomb cannot be brushed aside.
“The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul,” Hoover once said. He asserted that the Japanese were ready “to negotiate all the way from February 1945,” and “if such leads had been followed up” by the Truman administration, “there would have been no occasion to drop the bombs.”
In May 1945, Hoover attempted to convince Truman to drop his demand for Japan’s “unconditional surrender” and allow Emperor Hirohito to remain as leader. According to Hoover, this would have led to an earlier and less costly surrender. Hoover recalled a conversation with General Douglas MacArthur a year later, in which the latter agreed with Hoover’s proposition:
“I told MacArthur of my memorandum of mid-May 1945 to Truman, that peace could be had with Japan by which our major objectives would be accomplished. MacArthur said that was correct and that we would have avoided all of the losses, the Atomic bomb, and the entry of Russia into Manchuria.”
Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) was America’s leading general in the Pacific theater during World War II. In 1942, he was appointed Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific and was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines, which he helped liberate from Japanese occupation in 1944. He was soon given command of all Army forces in the Pacific and accepted Japan’s surrender aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. In the aftermath of the war, he oversaw the Allied occupation of post-war Japan and led UN forces in the Korean War.
One day after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, MacArthur’s pilot, Weldon Rhoades, recalled that the general was “appalled and depressed by this Frankenstein monster.” President Richard Nixon too recalled how MacArthur felt about the bomb, saying that MacArthur “thought it a tragedy that the bomb was ever exploded” and “that the military objective should always be limited damage to noncombatants.”
Similar to Hoover, MacArthur held the opinion that America’s demand for “unconditional surrender” unnecessarily dragged the war on. According to American Journalist Norman Cousins, MacArthur “saw no military justification” for the bomb’s use:
“MacArthur’s views about the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were starkly different from what the general public supposed. When I asked General MacArthur about the decision to drop the bomb, I was surprised to learn he had not even been consulted. What, I asked, would his advice have been? He replied that he saw no military justification for the dropping of the bomb. The war might have ended weeks earlier, he said, if the United States had agreed, as it later did anyway, to the retention of the institution of the emperor.”
By no means were Eisenhower, Leahy, Hoover, and MacArthur the only prominent individuals at the time to oppose the nuking of Japan. Paul Nitze, Fleet Admirals Chester Nimitz and William Halsey Jr., General “Hap” Arnold, Major General Curtis LeMay, and Lewis Strauss all disagreed with the unprecedented action taken by the Truman administration.
Great slice of history.
All I remember reading was dropping those bombs saved thousands of American lives because it shortened the war and Japan was never going to surrender. I really had No sympathy for the Japanese military. My great uncle lost his life in the Bataan Death March! Brutal and barbaric! I did not agree with what happened to Japanese women and children!!