Was Japan warned about Fat Man and Little Boy?

Commentary

Quite a stir has been raised my recent commentary (from this Catholic's perspective) on the upcoming anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japan.

I've been accused by some of advocating indiscriminate killing, to murder, to racism.

I'll counter the hysterical with the historical.

From The Catholic Perspective

Many of those of my own Faith who disagree with me have cited 2314 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as to why they believe I'm in error.

To wit: 2314 "Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation."110 A danger of modern warfare is that it provides the opportunity to those who possess modern scientific weapons especially atomic, biological, or chemical weapons - to commit such crimes."

The key word here is "indiscriminate". As I will prove in this commentary, Hiroshima and Nagasaki simply weren't indiscriminately destroyed cities, but valid military targets.

• Not America, but Japan placed troops in these population centers, making them legitimate military targets.
• Not America, but Japan built arms factories in these population centers, making them legitimate military targets.
• Not America, but Japan made these same population centers military transportation/logistical centers, making them legitimate military targets.

As stated above, the official Teaching of The Church is that there will be no indiscriminate use of atomic/nuclear weapons. What America did was totally in line with Church teaching. Those two cities were legitimate military targets. If you want to blame anyone for making those cities such, blame Japan.

If Hiroshima and Nagasaki were wholly populated by nuns, orphans, unicorns and Gummi Bears... then yes, it would have been an intrinsic evil to attack them. But the historic evidence points to something much different.

True examples of indiscriminate killing would be that of what the Japanese Empire displayed in their absolute barbarity towards helpless non-combatants.

Case in point - The Manila Massacre (100,000 civilians dead), the Rape of Nanking (400,000 civilians dead), the slaughter of the Allied POWs (death rates as high as 50%+ in many POW Camps).

Keep in mind that the examples I just gave were of zero military significance, unlike Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Murder?

As stated at the beginning of this commentary, I've been accused of advocating the murder of 180,000 Japanese alleged non-combatant civilians.

In 2008, the San Antonio Express-News published an article in regards to the recently uncovered diary of executed war time Japanese Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo.

A defiant Tojo criticized his colleagues, accusing government leaders of "being scared of enemy threats and easily throwing their hands up." Surrender proponents were "frightened by 'the new type of bomb.'"

The article also describes the fact that Japan "had begun arming children, women and the elderly with bamboo spears."

Also, in an article by Satoshi Kanazawa in Psychology Today entitled "Dropping atomic bombs on Japan was an act of utmost compassion", Kanazawa notes that in "August 1944, the government had issued a decree, officially classifying all Japanese citizens (what's left of them, mostly women, children, and the elderly, as all young men had already been mobilized) as military combatants and armed them all with bamboo spears." (Emphasis mine)

Did America Warn Japan?

As seen in the slideshow below, the leaflet dropped by the US military to the Japanese people.

From GlobalSecurity.org: Front side of OWI notice #2106, dubbed the "LeMay bombing leaflet," which was delivered to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and 33 other Japanese cities on 1 August 1945.

Office of War Information [OWI] presses were turning out leaflets that revealed the special nature of Hiroshima's destruction and predicted similar fates for more Japanese cities in the absence of immediate acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam agreement.

The Japanese text on the reverse side of the leaflet carried the following warning: "Read this carefully as it may save your life or the life of a relative or friend. In the next few days, some or all of the cities named on the reverse side will be destroyed by American bombs. These cities contain military installations and workshops or factories which produce military goods. We are determined to destroy all of the tools of the military clique which they are using to prolong this useless war. But, unfortunately, bombs have no eyes. So, in accordance with America's humanitarian policies, the American Air Force, which does not wish to injure innocent people, now gives you warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives. America is not fighting the Japanese people but is fighting the military clique which has enslaved the Japanese people. The peace which America will bring will free the people from the oppression of the military clique and mean the emergence of a new and better Japan. You can restore peace by demanding new and good leaders who will end the war. We cannot promise that only these cities will be among those attacked but some or all of them will be, so heed this warning and evacuate these cities immediately." (See Richard S. R. Hubert, "The OWI Saipan Operation," Official Report to US Information Service, Washington, DC 1946.)

By 9 August, more than 5 million leaflets about the atom bomb had been released over major Japanese cities. The OWI radio station beamed a similar message to Japan every 15 minutes.

In Conclusion

As horrific as war is, there simply is no getting around the fact that America acted within the bounds of civilized behavior and The Law of Land Warfare when we struck Japan in early 1945 with atomic weaponry.

• We gave Japan the opportunity to surrender, they refused.
• It was Japan that turned civilian population centers into military targets.
• It was Japan that officially pressed every man, woman and child into military service.

Japan simply gave us no other option.

By the way, I can't help but wonder if Japan goes through a national hand-wringing and psychological self-flagellation every December 7th?

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