Re: "Fallout" Major Complaint!!

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 15:02 16.06.1999 -0500, you 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.
>The only question was how to allow the Emperor to remain a titular head.
Russia,
>under Stalin, was set to attack about August 10th from the Manchuria area
which
>would have had the effect of forcing the surrender post haste.
>
>THE BOMB WAS DROPPED BECAUSE TRUMAN DID NOT WANT TO SHARE POST-WAR
HEGEMONY WITH
>STALIN!
>
>I worked for many years at the classified U.S. Naval Defense Laboratory at
>Hunters Point in San Francisco. Part of my work was on Effects of Nuclear
>Weapons. At that time, almost everyone believed the "Invasion Myth"
because the
>diaries had not been released. For many scientists who worked on the
Manhattan
>Project, and for many others, the revelations in 1990 created moral problems.
>
>Therefore, I think it is a travesty of journalism to repeat this fairy
tale over
>and over on these programs. 

>Please read the article before flaming away.
>
>Michael A. Kay, ScD, CHMM
>makay@teleport.com

Michael,

Anybody flaming you about your remarks must be a alökfjölkt4op8ihpoiöbn. It
is known since decades, that Japan was desperately trying to negotiate for
peace. It was their fault that they also tried it via the Sovjetunion,
because the Sovjetunion was bound to take out most from the world war with
regard to territory. Americans, Australians, British and others were
fighting against Japan, which caused tremendous losses of lifes and you can
draw your conclusions about the Sovjetunion, when considering that they
declared war to Japan on August 8th, 1945, two days after the dropping of
the bomb over Hiroshima and one day before the bomb was dropped over
Nagasaki, though there existed a non-aggression pact with Japan from 1941.
Already on July 21st, 1945 the japanese ambassador in Moscow had asked the
Sovjet government for help in negotiating peace. According to my excellent
book on the second world war, Stalin informed about this both Truman and
Churchill at the Potsdam conference which was held during that time. Truman
hurried up and ordered the dropping of the first nuclear bomb on July 25th.
The Sovjets had enough time to bring most of their troops to the far east,
so that they could invade Mandjuria and the other areas held by the
Japanese - even down to Korea. (So the USA have somehow caused the Korean
war already then.) I once met an elderly Japanese gentleman on a flight to
Japan, who had been in Mandjuria at the time of invasion and what he told
me was more than comparable to the Serbs attitude in Kosovo. (We know very
well, that the Japanese had a similar attitude....) 

My book cites a US admiral Leahy stating that "The use of this barbarian
weapon was in no way of any help in the war against the Japanese. The
Japanese were already defeated because of our very efficient sea-blockade
and the successful attacks with conventional bombs and they were ready to
surrencer......  others wanted to test this weapon because of the huge sums
which were spent for the project. It was about 2 billion dollars." 

On August 15th, 1945 the Japanese emperor declared via radio to his nation
that he was to finish the war, because of the hopeless situation. Japan
surrendered unconditionally on Sept. 2, 1945. By then the Sovjetunion had
conquered what they intended to. Much of the problems encountered by the
USA in the Far East later was actually initiated during these times.

In the light of the threats from Nazi Germany it is understandable that the
nuclear bomb was developed. After Germanys surrender obviously another
target had to be used. I believe that bureaucrats would have critisized the
enourmous sums which had been spent for developing this weapon and this
might have been another reason why to use it. I doubt that the US president
really knew, what he was causing. And it was of course politics with regard
to the Sovjetunion which was a very convincing argument.



Melissa, I do not think that this is off topic. Much of the development in
radiation research, radiation protection and the use of nuclear energy is
practically a spin-off from the development of nuclear bombs. The clean ups
with all their problems which keep many health physicists busy are directly
connected to this development and I think that the status of nuclear power
would be much easier without this legacy.   

I think that there is another important reason, while it is not off-topic:
Scientists should be careful about their work, especially that it might be
used by others (politicians, military) in a way that they did not intend it
to. Scientists are used by others, if they are not very careful. This need
not be nuclear bombs and hundreds of thousands of victims, but this can
happen easily concerning environmental contamination and similar questions. 

If there is any ajlökdfnölkqi4hrpoöibn to flame me, please be patient,
because I will be away for four weeks and I will only then be able to
react....

Franz


Franz Schoenhofer
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
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Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
Fax.: same number
mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at

Office:
Hofrat Dr. Franz Schönhofer
Federal Institute for Food Control and Research
Department of Radiochemistry
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Austria
Tel.: +43-1-40 490 27820
e-mail: schoenhofer@baluf.via.at
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