Re: "Fallout" Major Complaint!!

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

On Wed, 16 Jun 1999 LASHLEYT@dteenergy.com wrote:

> 
> THERE NEVER WAS GOING TO BE AN INVASION OF JAPAN!!!!!!!!!
> 
> Please, Please read "Why the United States Dropped the Bomb" in the
> August/September 1990 edition of Technology Review (Published by MIT).
> Copies of
> the pertinent pages of Truman's Diaries in his own handwriting are included.
> The
> war was all but over. Japan was negotiating for a surrender and peace in
> Geneva.

	--My understanding is that negotiations were in progress but there
were two wings of opinion among Japanese leaders, one advocating peace and
the other advocating fighting to the end. It was far from clear which of
these factions would predominate. This situation had been going on for
some time before the bomb was dropped, and no early solution was in
prospect.
	U.S. was very definitely planning an invasion. My navy ship was
back in Pearl Harbor along with a large number of other navy ships being
outfitted for an invasion about Nov. 1, 1945.
There is very abundant other evidence that U.S. was planning an invasion
and that the Japanese were planning desparate methods of resisting it.

> THE BOMB WAS DROPPED BECAUSE TRUMAN DID NOT WANT TO SHARE POST-WAR HEGEMONY
> WITH
> STALIN!

	--It was my understanding that Truman worked very hard in the
few months before the bomb was dropped to get the Russians to join the war
against Japan. Why would he have done this if your statement is true? From
what I have read, Churchill was very worried about Stalin, and was very
much upset by the fact that Truman was not worried about Stalin.


Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245
Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu


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