The Courage to Nuke The Enemy

Great leadership is having the courage to make difficult decisions, like President Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II, which hastened the end of the war, and actually saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

At the Battle of Okinawa, which raged while final preparations were being made to invade Japan, 12,000 US troops were killed, 30,000 wounded, and one third of the island’s civilian population perished. Thirty ships were sunk and 300 damaged. Despite the massive fire-bombing of Tokyo that killed 100,000 residents, nothing seemed to sway the Japanese from their determination to fight until the very end. With no sign of surrender and an estimate that an American invasion of Japan would cost a quarter of a million GI lives, one of the most difficult decisions in history was, in the end,entirely up to Harry S. Truman.

Hiroshima was bombed August 5, 1945, with no apparent effect on Japanese resolve. Nagasaki was bombed a coupleof days later. In a radio message, Truman urged the citizens of Japan to flee the cities and spare their families. That night, contrary to the wishes of his three highest generals, one of whom was quoted as saying, “How great an end for Japan to be crushed like a flower,” while another called for one last great battle on Japanese soil, Emperor Hirohito surrendered. Truman’s decision had paid off by hastening the end…