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Johnathan Hoyle
HIST 4000-A01
2-1-08
Ronald Takaki
Hiroshima; Why America
Dropped the Atomic Bomb
Canada; Little, Brown, and
Company Limited
193 pp, photographs $14.95
0-316-83124-7
In the book
Hiroshima, Ronald Takaki uses documentation and historical information
to initiate a debate on the truth of why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb.
Takaki advances the thesis that issues of racism, inferiority complex, and a
required need of total surrender brought about the decision to drop the
Atomic Bomb. Takaki uses the division of chapters in his book to discuss
these reasons advance proof to his thesis, he does this through letters and
interviews, along with some fragmented documentations of verbal
conversations.
Takaki
received his Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Berkeley,
where he is a professor of Ethnic Studies. Takaki is a nationally recognized
scholar and a fellow of the Society of American Historians. He has written
other books on the issues of Slavery, and Asian history.
Takaki argues
that there was no true reason for the dropping of the Atomic Bomb and that
the leadership of the United States did this to respond to many underlined
issues. Takaki advances that President Truman choose to drop the bomb due to
his childhood affairs, along with a hidden discrimination towards those of
Asian origin. He investigates these issues with Truman through letters
mainly to his wife containing both racial remarks and his childhood
recollections of inferiority.
Takaki
also advances that total surrender was an issue so a reoccurrence like that
in Germany within WWI would not occur. That the dropping of the Atomic Bombs
saved half a million American lives, and that we did not have to invade
Japan to win the war, since Japan had adapted a policy of total win or loss,
and would fight to the last man and cause as many deaths as possible to
prove their strength.
Takaki’s Hiroshima is a well written book that helps to provide insight to
an Asian Americans view of the wrong decision to drop the Bombs on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. He advances his reason for trying to stimulate an educational
debate on the issue. Takaki’s use of documents and reason for using them in
the notes section of the book.
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