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Ronald Takaki

Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb.

Boston: The Back Bay Press, 1995.

            Ronald Takaki’s Hiroshima is nonfictional, which investigates the various perspectives concerning the complexity that arose with the development and detonation of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, Japan. The book attempts to encourage the reader to examine the different accounts of those people closely associated with the Manhattan project, more exclusive President Harry Truman. Takaki is not hesitant in his critique of President Truman. The author had written this book in hopes of awakening perceptions concerning the decision to drop the bomb, that it was not merely dropped to end the war in the Pacific and saved thousands of American lives, but it was much more dynamic.

            This book raises several issues pertaining to World War II such as racism, ethics, and international relations, and the command of the military. However, Takaki, in trying to expand the readers’ mind about the bomb, he points to issues of race and Truman’s identity as focal points. It discusses the prevalence of racial discrimination in the United States.  Asian Americans were significant more susceptible to racial subjugation to be more or less foreign to European Americans in the United States during the 1930’s and 1940’s.

Asian people were much more likely to receive harsh treatment; this was due to how Americans viewed the enemies. “During World War II, the enemy was Hitler and the Nazi’s not the German people. “They looked like us thought many white Americans. Many white Americans were of German ancestry. They made up the second largest groups of immigrants.”[i] It was those “Asians or Japanese that looked different, which simply made it easier to exploit because they were not seen as American. It was Harry Truman that the author believed fought to embody that American image.

As President and shown in Takaki’s text, Harry Truman is the individual who received the most praise or criticism for the detonation of the atomic bomb.  That is why the author centralizes that figure, it makes sense, and it was his decision to follow through with the mission.  The author here does an excellent job of providing information about Truman support of the atomic bomb decision. Exposing how he appeared to stand firm behind his decision publically, but also, privately feeling frustrated about the decision. In President Truman’s response to the question of did he regret dropping the bomb, he said, “Never, never waste a moment on regret; it is a waste of time.”[ii] However, in a letter to his wife Bess he says that he dreaded using the atomic bomb and experienced regret over.

Well informed in the book were Harry Truman’s obstacles of various circumstances in his life. President Truman, from his childhood had to shed the traits of “sissy,” and being someone who did no exude potential.  The author reveals thorns that were Truman’s that believed Truman had to fend off. The most significant was the “inferiority complex,” where which stemmed from his meager upbringing and the shadowed that he lived in as the successor to one of the most beloved American presidents in United States history. To say that he “had big shoes to fill,” was an understatement.

He lacked a strong education of a typical President. He was surrounding by extremely intelligent people within the Interim Committee and along with highly educated military officials. His father embedded in him a sense of confidence one in which he would not be easily persuaded, especially in international relations. When speaking with the Russian Prime Minister, Molotov, the Prime Minister responded that he had never been spoken to so inconsiderately in his life.”[iii] It was a glaring example of Harry Truman letting the world knows, according to Takaki, that even though there was a changing of the guard the United States would not soften up.

The author presented an intriguing look at the multifaceted aspects of the atomic bomb because it provided so many different characters Hiroshima, written by John Hersey discusses the aftermath of the first atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima, named Little Boy. It focuses on the realities and hearts of those present in that city. John Hersey tells the story about the condition of six people during from the blast and revisited them 40 years later to discover where life had taken them.[iv]

In terms of how the material was presented, Takaki’s work is strong. The idea of encouraging the reader to analyze the history of the atomic bomb is an excellent approach. The book reminds me of Charles Payne in Debating the Civil Rights Movement, where Payne mentions how history has tended to be taught with weak description of issues, merely mentioning key figures. Charles Payne, says, “History is often told from a top down approach, mentioning figures in passing, refraining from discussing the complexities of a movement, person, or event.”[v] In short, Takaki, like Payne, desire the reader to expand their minds to see the whole pictures of history beyond, President Truman dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in hopes of ending the war.

The author involves many different characters, scientists from the Manhattan Project, military personnel, as well as making references to the arms race with Russia, and letters from Harry Truman to his family. Ronald Takaki, in his research of Truman’s writings expresses how pertinent the atomic bomb was in relationship with Russia its arms race.

It was evident that the author had close emotional ties to the information in the book in which he elaborates on the treatment of Japanese and other Asian Americans living in the United States. It made sense; it exposed the humanity and personal linkage of the text. The book also produces a strong argument concerning the authors belief in President Truman’s inferiority complex, it appears quite clear that the President wrestled with that notion, whether or not it was subconscious. He was motivated by his past, where people had placed little faith in his ability to succeed, let alone help lead the United States to victory. “As a child, he was regarded as average, not someone with a promising future, and certainly not a future president. He did have a college education, one major problem was Harry Truman was not FDR, who was imperial, Truman looked and like a failed haberdasher.”[vi]

Hiroshima succeeds in presenting and intricate look at the variables of the atomic bomb, more specifically, its international implications. Questions arose of the brutality of total war which was present on all fronts. Morality was dismissed as notions of resentment grew as horrible treatment of the enemy intensified.

The racial and elitist ideology that was occurring in the United States was certainly true, which cannot be ignored. You cannot argue with Takaki in his assumptions in matters of race in the United States. Pearl Harbor was “salt on the wound,” as afar as race relations were concerned. It only magnified prejudiced that European Americans had towards Asian Americans, deepening hatreds, which served as racist propaganda. It made a dramatic horrible effect on the American population in the war time struggle.

In knowing minimal about the decision to drop the atomic bomb, it was an exciting opportunity to become more informed about the significance of the bomb. It invited me into a world of hostility. The book mentions several people who opposed the detonation of the bomb, including Robert J. Oppenheimer.  Emotionally, he was distraught about what had occurred in Hiroshima. According to a private conversation, the author noted what Oppenheimer said to President Truman, “that his work at the laboratory meant that he had blood on his hands.”[vii]  Several other prominent figures in American expressed their criticism of the attack on Hiroshima, a decision that President Truman was willing to deal.

It was not an easy decision for President Truman to make. Regardless of the decision, the consequences would be immense. Prior to reading this book, it was foreign to me how people who played roles in his decision felt about the use of the bomb, such as people doing the research, as well as those in the elite military and political positions. It has spurred me to investigate deeper into everything that was involved to produce and use the bomb.

The book is insightful, content filled, read, which successfully strives to produce a work of extensively research about the intricacies of the use of the bomb, revolving primarily around commander in chief, Harry Truman. As discussed in the text, the bomb was a scary thought. Then Secretary of War, Stimson said to President Truman in April 1945, “in a few months we shall have probability completed the most terrible weapon ever known in human history, one bomb of which could destroy a whole city.”[viii] It would change the world, one that paved the way for an arms race of the Cold War that would last between the United States and Russia. It was Truman’s pursuit of triumph and legacy that removed his label and underachiever. He portrayed himself as self-confident to the Russians, supported claims of racism that supported the view of the majority of the American population. As Takaki alludes to, Truman desired to embodied the spirit of confidence that America boasted, allowing himself to express other feelings behind closed doors.