Killing the Rising Sun

by Bill O'Reilly

  Finally, Truman signs off. He does not need to order a second bomb to be dropped on Japan, for that command was given two weeks ago, on the same date he approved the Hiroshima attack. In fact, the order allows for bombings to continue as long there is a supply of atomic bombs.

  The Augusta is just north of Bermuda as Truman completes his speech. The temperature is finally warming. Knowing that a media whirlwind awaits him upon his arrival home tomorrow, the president settles in to enjoy a day of sunshine, hoping for news of a Japanese surrender.

  * * *

  In Manila, General Douglas MacArthur is appalled. It is just after midnight on Tuesday when an aide awakens him with news of the Hiroshima bombing. The general is hypersensitive to slights both perceived and real, and when it comes to the atomic bomb there have been many. For the past three years, MacArthur has waged war on his terms, attacking when and where he wants. He knows the Japanese culture from his decades living in the Pacific and is confident that they are on the verge of surrender.

  Even though MacArthur wears the five-star rank of general of the army, President Truman has rarely consulted him about the state of the Pacific conflict, unlike George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower, who routinely advise the president on matters of war. While Marshall has long known about the bomb and Eisenhower was made aware of it shortly after the Trinity explosion, MacArthur learned of its existence only one week ago.

  MacArthur was never once asked about the A-bomb’s tactical use in his theater of war. It is a situation, he believes, no different than if the A-bomb had been dropped on Europe without Eisenhower being informed.

  MacArthur knows that would never happen.

  Now, on top of those insults, comes the stunning realization that Harry Truman does not trust Douglas MacArthur.

  On Sunday, August 5, the general received verbal confirmation that the bomb would be dropped the following day. However, this courtesy also contained a key element of misdirection: instead of Hiroshima, the courier from Washington informed the general that ground zero would be a lightly populated industrial district south of Tokyo,

  Someone, somewhere, believes Douglas MacArthur cannot keep a secret.

  Unfortunately, MacArthur’s behavior lends credence to the view that he can’t keep his mouth shut. On the morning of the Hiroshima explosion, still not knowing its true location or whether the mission has been a success, MacArthur calls reporters to his office at Manila City Hall and, in off-the-record comments, coyly predicts, “The war may end sooner than we think.”

  The truth is that MacArthur approved of the Tokyo strike. Showcasing the power of the explosion in an area almost completely devoid of civilians made military sense to him. The tragic slaughter of Manila’s residents by the retreating Japanese just a few months ago is still fresh in MacArthur’s memory; even before those senseless killings, the general has been openly opposed to targeting civilians. When Japanese commanders accused his troops of firing artillery at a hospital in Rabaul, on the island of New Britain, MacArthur immediately denied the charge and used a neutral embassy in Tokyo to send a message to the Japanese general, telling him that an artillery battery next to the hospital was the real target. But there is inconsistency in his stance: MacArthur does support the bombing of civilians when it suits his purposes, such as the aerial attacks designed to soften up the island of Kyushu for Operation Olympic.

  At this point in his career, MacArthur’s military training precludes him from publicly criticizing his commander in chief, but for the rest of his life he will privately share his views about August 6, 1945. “MacArthur once spoke eloquently to me about it,” Richard Nixon will one day recount to reporters. (The future president served a year in the Pacific during World War II as a naval officer.) “He thought it a tragedy that the bomb was ever exploded.… MacArthur, you see, was a soldier. He believed in using force only against military targets, and that is why the nuclear thing turned him off.”

  Others will reveal that MacArthur saw “no earthly justification for dropping the bomb.”1

  MacArthur’s personal pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Weldon “Dusty” Rhoades, will remember MacArthur’s opinion of the bomb even more vividly, writing in his journal, “General MacArthur definitely is appalled and depressed by this Frankenstein monster.”

  Accurately, MacArthur believes that bombing Hiroshima will not lead to a Japanese surrender. The shame would be overwhelming.

  According to MacArthur, a Japanese surrender will happen only if President Truman allows the emperor to remain in power after the war. “The retention of the institution of the emperor … will allow the Japanese nation to seek peace with dignity, knowing that their divine emperor will continue to guide them.”

  * * *

  But most Americans see the situation far differently.

  “Thank God for the atomic bomb” is a common refrain among American soldiers and sailors, who have been dreading the bloodbath sure to come if American troops invade the beaches of Japan. To many of them, the bombing of civilians is not an issue—it’s payback for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. And if the destruction could lead to peace, US enlisted men almost unanimously believe it is worth it. For the first time since they put on that uniform, these soldiers and sailors can start planning for the distant future. “For all the fake manliness of our facades,” a twenty-one-year-old infantry lieutenant will write, “we cried with relief and joy. We were going to live. We were going to grow up to adulthood.”

  * * *

  In Los Alamos, New Mexico, Robert Oppenheimer stands before an auditorium filled with the scientists who designed and produced the atomic bomb. Clasping his hands over his head like a boxer entering the ring, he tells the cheering audience that it is “too early to determine what the results of the bombing might have been, but I’m pretty sure the Japanese didn’t like it.”

  Oppenheimer soon leaves the stage, but not before bringing down the house with his final comment: “My only regret is that we didn’t develop the bomb in time to use it against the Germans.”

  * * *

  A Gallup poll reports that 85 percent of Americans believe that the use of the atomic bomb is justified. Most of the media also support the decision. Across the country, newspapers trumpet the A-bomb blast in banner headlines. The New York Times reports the event with six front-page stories.

  The Times, however, sounds a rare cautionary note on its editorial page, predicting that the use of the A-bomb will now be justified by other nations in the future. “Yesterday man unleashed the atom to destroy man, and another chapter in human history opened, a chapter in which the weird, the strange, the horrible becomes the trite and the obvious. We clinched victory in the Pacific, but sowed the whirlwind.

  “Americans have become a synonym for destruction. And now we have been the first to introduce a new weapon of unknowable effects which may bring us victory more quickly, but will sow the seeds of hate more widely than ever.”2

  There are others who display trepidation. Manhattan Project physicist Luis Alvarez, after observing the explosion aboard The Great Artiste, begins questioning the bomb’s morality. In a letter to his son written on the return flight to Tinian, he ponders what he has just seen: “What regrets I have about being a party to killing and maiming thousands of Japanese civilians this morning are tempered with the hope that this terrible weapon we have created may bring the countries of the world together and prevent future wars.”

  David Lawrence, the conservative founder of the United States News, will pen one of the most damning criticisms of Truman’s decision: “We shall not soon purge ourselves of the feeling of guilt which prevails among us. Military necessity will be our constant cry in answer to criticism, but it will never erase from our minds the simple truth that we, of all civilized nations, though hesitating to use poison gas, did not hesitate to employ the most destructive weapon of all times indiscriminately against men, women and children. What a precedent for the future we have furnished to other nations even less concerned tha
n we with scruples or ideals!”3

  * * *

  In Japan, there is simply shock, but no talk of accepting the Potsdam Declaration and surrendering. Instead, as a wave of 385 B-29 bombers attacks four targets in Tokyo with conventional bombs, the military broadcasts a series of defiant radio messages from the capital. The people of Japan are directed to remain calm in the face of American bombings and to renew their pledge to continue the fight.

  An August 8 broadcast in English, aimed at North America, accuses the United States of an “atrocity campaign” that will “create the impression that all Japanese are cruel people.” And while Japan has ignored the terms of the Geneva Conventions and Hague Conventions throughout the war, it is the United States that the Japanese now accuse of war crimes. “This is made clear by Article 22 of The Hague Convention. Consequently, any attack by such means against open towns and defenseless citizens are unforgivable actions.”4

  The broadcast asks: “How will the United States war leaders justify their degradation, not only in the eyes of the other peoples but also in the eyes of the American people? How will these righteous-thinking American people feel about the way their war leaders are perpetuating this crime against man and God?

  “Will they condone the whole thing on the ground that everything is fair in love and war or will they rise in anger and denounce this blot on the honor and tradition and prestige of the American people?”

  In an unusual attempt to win the sympathy of Europeans, a third broadcast is transmitted in French. “As a consequence of the use of the new bomb against the town of Hiroshima on August sixth, most of the town has been completely destroyed and there are numerous dead and wounded among the population.

  “The destructive power of these bombs is indescribable, and the cruel sight resulting from the attack is so impressive that one cannot distinguish between men and women killed by the fire. The corpses are too numerous to be counted.

  “The destructive power of this new bomb spreads over a large area. People who were outdoors at the time of the explosion were burned alive by high temperatures while those who were indoors were crushed by falling buildings.”5

  * * *

  The Tokyo broadcasts can be heard quite clearly 1,500 miles away on the island of Tinian, where a B-29 bomber is now loaded with the second atomic weapon, an even more lethal plutonium bomb code-named Fat Man.

  American aircrews are gearing up to unleash more hell on what is now a defenseless Japan. In addition, the dictator Joseph Stalin is set to attack Japanese-held territory in Manchuria. The plan for that sneak attack has been kept from Harry Truman and America, as Stalin has rightly assessed Japan’s weakness. In just three short days, the world has changed—and it will now be altered even further.

  The next A-bomb destination is about to be revealed.

  23

  TOKYO, JAPAN

  AUGUST 9, 1945

  10:30 A.M.

  Emperor Hirohito is morose. He again walks through the elms and pine trees of his extensive garden, knowing the war is lost. He is brooding about the destruction of Hiroshima—he knows it has crushed the spirit of the Japanese people, and now there is even more horrible news: the Soviet Union has invaded Manchuria.1

  Although he is protected in a bunker, Hirohito understands that his people are not. The United States has been bombing Japan for months, destroying so many cities that they are running out of targets. Tokyo itself has been hit more than a dozen times. Just last night, the emperor once again heard air-raid sirens throughout his capital city as sixty B-29s bombed a nearby aircraft factory. The Japanese people are weary of war, but they continue to endure it, hoping to save their god-king from shame.

  The invasion of Manchuria makes surrender inevitable. Russia and Japan signed a nonaggression pact four years ago, which Stalin has now violated. Hirohito knows the Russians to be an aggressive people, as evidenced by their continued occupation of Eastern Europe three months after the European war. The Soviet entry into the Pacific war makes it possible that the Russians may also attempt to invade Japan. Hirohito’s nation has neither the men nor the arms to hold off a two-pronged American and Soviet invasion.

  Ignoring the heat, Hirohito continues to ponder the possibility of surrender. But this path is fraught with peril: the Japanese military might not cooperate. Some military and civilian leaders actually welcome the coming invasion for the chance to make a historic last stand against people they consider to be barbarians. “If it came to a final battle on Japanese soil,” War Minister Korechika Anami believes, “we could at least for a time repulse the enemy, and might thereafter somehow find life out of death.”

  Even as the emperor absorbs the terrible news about the Soviet attack in Manchuria, the top military and civilian cabinet known as the Supreme Council for the Direction of the War is meeting in the concrete bunker beneath the residence of Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki to discuss whether or not to accept the Potsdam Declaration and take the first steps toward surrender.

  Hirohito knows that surrender to the Americans will require the complete backing of his military. Despite Hirohito’s deity and his imperial reign, it is the military that truly holds power in Japan. It has been almost ten years, but Hirohito well remembers the terrible events of 1936, when a military mutiny saw the assassination of several top government officials and the takeover of downtown Tokyo.

  A faction loyal to Hirohito was successful in crushing the revolt, but there is no certainty the results will be the same should such a coup happen again.

  * * *

  In his Spartan Manila office, General Douglas MacArthur greets the news of the Manchurian invasion with great joy: “I am delighted at the Russian declaration of war against Japan. This will make possible a great pincers movement which cannot fail to end in the destruction of the enemy. In Europe, Russia was on the eastern front, the Allies on the west. Now the allies are on the east and the Russians on the west, but the results will be the same.”

  Like many other top American military leaders, MacArthur still sees Joseph Stalin as an ally, not an enemy. He has previously told other officers that “we must not invade Japan proper unless the Russian army is previously committed to action in Manchuria,” believing that such an invasion would pin down Japanese divisions that might otherwise be shifted to fight against American forces. The general also thinks that Russian occupation of large segments of China and Korea is “inevitable”—not realizing he will one day be called upon to fight the Communist advance in those areas.

  It has now been three days since the atomic bomb was dropped. The Japanese have chosen not to surrender, and MacArthur is still hoping to lead the greatest amphibious invasion in the history of the world. To the general’s way of thinking, another A-bomb is not needed.

  America has him.

  * * *

  In Hiroshima, the stench of burned flesh and rotting corpses still hangs over the city as citizens search for missing family members. In scenes played over and over again, the living wander into first-aid stations, calling out the names of lost loved ones. They are rarely answered.

  The surviving soldiers of the Akatsuki Corps lead relief efforts, distributing rice, using wood to burn dead bodies, and arranging transportation out of the shattered city for the living.

  “A light southerly wind blowing across the city wafted to us as an odor suggestive of burning sardines. I wondered what could cause such a smell until somebody, noticing it too, informed me that sanitation teams were cremating the remains of people who had been killed … the dead were being burned by the hundreds,” one survivor will later remember.

  The mayor of Hiroshima at the time of the blast was a teetotaling Christian named Senkichi Awaya. His official residence was in the city’s Kakomachi district, well within the blast-zone radius. At the time of the detonation, he was eating breakfast with his son and three-year-old granddaughter; all three were killed instantly. Awaya’s wife, the mother of his seven children, survived the bombing, only to die one month lat
er from radiation poisoning.2

  The head of Hiroshima’s rationing department is a man named Shinso Hamai, who will one day become mayor himself. Before the bombing, concerned that the people of Hiroshima would not have food in the event of a major disaster, Hamai arranged that rice balls should be delivered to the city. So it is that villagers in the surrounding countryside make rice balls and deliver them to the hungry survivors in Hiroshima.

  Within days, the exodus from Hiroshima is complete. More than 150,000 residents travel by military truck or train to temporary shelters. The island of Ninoshima, five miles offshore in Hiroshima Bay and untouched by the A-bomb blast, is a storehouse for medical supplies and becomes the region’s biggest relief center, providing comfort to more than ten thousand burn victims. The number of wounded quickly overwhelms the available hospital beds, leading many of the burned and maimed to sleep in stables and other enclosures.

  Bacterial infection stemming from the extreme smoke and debris of the blast runs rampant. Teams of doctors perform surgery around the clock, seeing so many patients that there is no time to clean the operating theater between victims; the most common procedure is amputation. The island facility is not actually a hospital but a quarantine center that once housed military men and horses returning from duty in foreign lands. There is no provision for the removal of medical waste, so surgeons dispose of severed limbs by throwing them out hospital windows. Piles of arms and legs soon rise higher than the level of the window itself.

  Yet the amputees are the lucky ones. At least they are alive and can begin planning for a new future; many victims of the blast who come to Ninoshima seeking medical help die within days from their infections and burns. At first, their corpses are stacked one on top of the other for burning. But soon the number of dead bodies is so great that mass cremation becomes impossible. Instead, the dead are carried to air-raid shelters and caves, where they are left to rot. These impromptu burial sites will be excavated decades later, uncovering not just bone fragments and ashes but artifacts like rings and shoes that will help reveal the identities of the dead.