The Bomb

The USA and England killed millions of civilians in the last two years of WWII intentionally. Everybody talks about The Bomb as if it fundamentally changed the way the allies were doing war. It didn't change much in 1945. The firebombing of Hamburg, Dresden and Tokyo had accomplished in a few hours what The Bomb did in a much shorter period of time. The justification for the use of The Bomb was preached like fundamentalist dogma when I was growing up. The revisionist historians now claim that Japan was ready to make peace but only if the honor of the Emperor was preserved in the process. It was FDR's "unconditional surrender" policy and the preoccupation with unseating the Emperor that made the process drag on. The Manhattan Project was aimed at ending the war with the brutal display of awesome force. Once The Bomb was ready to use the voices which opposed using it -- there were plenty of people in high places who opposed it -- these voices were silenced and the official story of why it was used became sacred dogma that only a traitor would challenge.

For a good read on this topic get your hands on

House of war : the Pentagon and the disastrous rise of American power
Carroll, James, Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006.