His essay "Thank God for the Atom Bomb" tells us why the United States needed to drop the atomic bomb and provides quotes from people with experience from the war to back up his claim. A remoteness from experience like Galbraiths and Sherrys and a similar rationalistic abstraction from actuality, seem to motivate the reaction of an anonymous reviewer of William Manchesters Goodbye Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War for The New York Review of Books. I bring up the matter because, writing on the forty-second anniversary of the atom-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I want to consider something suggested by the long debate about the ethics, if any, of that ghastly affair. Again he writes: We existed in an environment totally incomprehensible to men behind the lines . The purpose of the bombs was not to punish people but to stop the war. That is the reason Fussell said, "Thank God for the Atom Bomb." I am writing about these events neither to justify nor to condemn the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Add to Wish List Link to this Book Add to Bookbag Sell this Book Buy it at Amazon Compare Prices. He will realize that such utterance can perform for the speaker a valuable double function. In Scotch, Teacher's is the great experience." Log in here. ", What is an example of an appeal to character in "Thank God for the Atom Bomb? Copyright 2023 IPL.org All rights reserved. His essay "Thank God for the Atom Bomb" tells us why the United States needed to drop the atomic bomb and provides quotes from people with experience from the war to back up his claim. A few days later, the second atomic bomb devastated the city of Nagasaki. Times change. Therefore, Fussell's argument is twofold: 1) that more Americans would die without the bomb; and 2) that Japanese civilians would be killed in large numbers during the planned invasion, meaning the bomb was instrumental in limiting the loss of human life. Fussell argues that an infantry assault on Japan would have been deadly and would have resulted in the loss of huge numbers of Allied troops. Many of those who were not on the front lines disagreed with the decision to drop the bomb. We thought the Japanese would never surrender. Hiroshima: A Soldier's View," The New Republic (August 26 and 29, 1981), pp. One young combat naval officer close to the action wrote home m the fall of 1943, just before the marines underwent the agony of Tarawa: When I read that we will fight the Japs for years if necessary and will sacrifice hundreds of thousands if we must, I always like to check from where hes talking: its seldom out here. That was Lieutenant (j.g.) knew better than did Americans at home what those bombs meant in suffering and injustice. Unit Commanders will take stern disciplinary action. Part III, The War in Japanese Eyes, allows the reader to receive a Japanese perspective and also grasp how devastating the results of war were. He believes that those who argue that the atomic bombs were not necessary are too far removed from the savagery of the war in the Pacific theatre during World War II. In Paul Fussell's essay "Thank God for the Atom Bomb" , he argues the importance of experience when thinking about the use of the atom bomb. 2023. Who are the experts?Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. The first was The Great War and Modern Memory. TNR's The Book page reposted this "classic" piece by George Kennan on Americans and Russians rather than repost the very famous essay that became the basis for Fussell's Thank God for the . In an exchange of views not long ago in The New York Review of Books, Joseph Alsop and David Joravsky set forth the by now familiar argument on both sides of the debate about the ethics of the bomb. Having found the bomb, he said, we have used it. Thank God for the atom bomb, and other essays by Paul Fussell. The most spectacular episode of Harry Truman's presidency will never be forgotten but will be forever linked to his name: the atomic bombings of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and of Nagasaki three days later. In this essay I will describe both sides to the argument then conclude using my final opinion on whether I am for or against the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima. 2) Considering Fussell's discussion of the treatment of Japanese skulls during World War II, as well as all the other atrocities of World War II (the Holocaust, the Japanese invasions . His most valuable pieces deal with the horrors of modern warfare and its literaturesomewhat extending and generalizing his powerful The Great War and Modern Memory (1975). Paul Fussell wrote an article called "Thank God for the Atom Bomb," seemed to be about how only certain people would understand why it happened while others are still debating if it happened because we wanted something cruel to happen or because that was an alternative to something less painful. They would have annihilated the lot of us., The Dutchman Laurens van der Post had been a prisoner of the Japanese for three and a half years. Namely, the importance of experience, sheer, vulgar experience, in influencing, if not determining, ones views about that use of the atom bomb. Anticipating objections from those without such experience, in his book WWII Jones carefully prepares for his chapter on the A-bombs by detailing the plans already in motion for the infantry assaults on the home islands of Kyushu (thirteen divisions scheduled to land in November 1945) andultimately Honshu (sixteen divisions scheduled for March 1946). The citizens of Japan had never expected something as extensive as a bomb. Steven Pinker Will ChatGPT Replace HumanWriters? Analyzes how fussell uses logos to promote his argument for the atomic bomb. 2) Considering Fussell's. Indeed, unless they actually encountered the enemy during the war, most soldiers have very little idea what combat was like. Paul Fussell's "Thank God For Atom The Bomb" was first published under the title"Hiroshima: A Soldier's View," in a magazine, the New Republic,in August 1981. The audience is the readers of the New Republic magazine. Again, the Japanese had no knowledge of the bombs, causing even more devastating casualties. When its smell grew too offensive and Sledge urged him to get rid of it, he defended his possession of this trophy thus: How many Marines you reckon that hand pulled the trigger on? (Its hardly necessary to observe that a soldier in the ETO would probably not have dealt that way with a German or Italianthat is, a white persons hand.) . Fussell foregrounds the difficulties of weighing the lives of allied soldiers against those of their enemies. I was simply miserable. Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes. This post is a stunning essay by Paul Fussell published in The New Republic in 1981. In general, the principle is, the farther from the scene of horror the easier the talk. Why does Fussell "thank God" for the atom bomb? We have used it to shorten the agony of young Americans.. Paul Fussell, "Thank God for the Atom Bomb," in Fussell, Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays (Summit Books, 1988) [22] Who is more convincing - Walzer or Fussell? People have argued over the years if the atomic bombing was justified or not, and multiple points can be made on both arguments, yet I take it that the bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not justified. He was president of the History of Education Society and member of the executive board of the American Educational Research Association. Have the . what we had experienced [my emphasis] in fighting the Japs (pardon the expression) on Peleliu and Okinawa caused us toformulate some very definite opinions that the invasion . 2) Considering Fussell's discussion of the treatment of Japanese skulls during World War II, as well as all the other atrocities of World War II (the Holocaust, the Japanese invasions in Asia, the Allied fire bombing of Dresden), what do you think about the . Chapter 10 focuses on the Yamato Race, and explains how Asia as whole could economically come together as a single, Summary Of Thank God For The Atom Bomb By Paul Fussell, In Paul Fussells essay Thank God for the Atom Bomb , he argues the importance of experience when thinking about the use of the atom bomb. And indeed the bombs were . Why have historians chosen it, and is it appropriate?3) What has been the impact of the atomic bomb on U.S. history?4) What function does morality play in historians' views of the past? When the atom bomb ended the war, I was in the Forty-fifth Infantry Division, which had been through the European war so thoroughly that it had needed to be reconstituted two or three times. Japanese-Americans living on the west coast were savagely and unjustifiably uprooted from their daily lives. Russian troops had moved into Hungary and Romania, and [the U.S.] thought it would be very difficult These leaders concluded that if the war continued without the bombs at least a million, In the 1940s there is no doubt that the United States of America was engulfed by mass anti-Japanese hysteria which inevitably bled over into Americas foreign policy. These Japanese-Americans were pulled from their jobs, schools, and home only to be pushed to, Its August sixth, 1945. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. The stupidity, parochialism, and greed in the international mismanagement of the whole nuclear challenge should not tempt us to misimagine the circumstances of the bombs first use. Nor should our well-justified fears and suspicions occasioned by the capture of the nuclear-power trade by the inept and the mendacious (who have fucked up the works at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, etc.) ., I was horrified indeed at the sight of a stark naked man standing in the rain with his eyeball in his palm. . He does so without showing bias or raising the question of whether or not the United States should have dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. What role does his own experience of history play in shaping his views as an historian? When the Enola Gay dropped its package, There were cheers, says John Toland, over the intercom; it meant the end of the war. Down on the ground the reaction of Sledges marine buddies when they heard the news was more solemn and complicated. That is, few of those destinedto be blown to pieces if the main Japanese islands had been invaded went on to become our most effective men of letters or impressive ethical theorists or professors of contemporary history or of international law. Change). He does agree that the dropping of the bomb was horrific and not morally right, but the bombs were necessary. [Excerpted from Paul Fussell's "Thank God for the Atom Bomb. Others recounted how signs encouraging everyone to KILL JAPS! Herman Wouk suggests this obliviousness of both sides to the fact that the opponents were human beings may perhaps be cited as the key to the many massacres of the Pacific war. They saw all Japanese as monsters an this justifies the dropping of the. When the news of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki came, he asks us to believe, manyan American soldier felt shocked and ashamed. Shocked, OK, but why ashamed? In 1945 Fussell had been a 20-year-old infantry second . Already a member? . The past, which as always did not know the future, acted in ways that ask to be imagined before they are condemned. To this day, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still a source of pain and shame for those afflicted and for those who survived. The reviewer naturally dislikes Manchesters still terming the enemy Nips or Japs, but what reallyshakes him (her?) His research focuses on the historical sociology of American schooling, including topics such as the evolution of high schools, the growth of consumerism, the origins and nature of education schools, and the role of schools in promoting access and advantage more than subject-matter learning. . Plenty of Japanese gold teeth were extractedsome from still living mouthswith Marine Corps Ka-Bar Knives, and one of E. B. Sledges fellow marines went around with a cut-off Japanese hand. The title piece, a defense of Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, generated lively controversy when it first appeared in the New Republic; a spirited . From his point of view, as someone who served in the infantry during WWII, the bomb saved thousands of lives that would have been lost if there had been a D-Day style invasion of the Japanese home islands. To begin, the Japanese soldiers have it ingrained in their brains that it is dishonorable to surrender. No one who knows what combat is like, he says, would argue that dropping the bomb was unethical.. Fussell argues that an infantry assault on Japan would have been deadly and would have resulted in the loss of huge numbers of Allied troops. . So many maimed. I think theres something to be learned about that war, as well as about the tendency of historical memory unwittingly to resolve ambiguity and generally clean up the premises, by considering the way testimonies emanating from real war experience tend to complicate attitudes about the most cruel ending of that most cruel war. It was then republished under the title "Thank God for the Atom Bomb" in his essay collection Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays in 1988. In speaking thus of Galbraith and Sherry, Im aware of the offensive implications ad hominem. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although Fussell admits that the bomb was a "most cruel ending to that most cruel war", and that those who claim that the use of the atom bomb was wrong are simply attempting to "resolve ambiguity" concerning the ethics of war, he believes that the bomb was . And of course the brutality was not just on one side. You think of the lives whichwould have been lost in an invasion of Japans home islandsa staggering number of Americans but millions more of Japanese and you thank God for the atomic bomb. This book is recommend to any fan of the essay. There are no nice ways to go about this. The underlying assumption is that the war was something somewhat savage to imagine: He notes; the experience I am discussing is coming to grasps, up close and personal . Before Fussell concedes the brutality of the bombings, he takes a fairly one-sided position. During World War II, tensions between Japan and the United States increased. What does this quotation have to do with his argument? The experience Im talking about is having to come to grips, face to face, with an enemy who designs your death. Why? . that in order to finish with the Japanese quickly, it will be necessary to invade the industrial heart of Japan. The invasion was definitely on, as I know because I was to be in it. The Japanese folk tale was found in magazines, cartoons, and films and had several versions of the story for all ages. Thank God For The Atom Bomb essays. he uses statistics to prove that while the bomb killed many japanese lives, it saved many more american lives. I believe that the idea of the atomic bomb as something the people would be thankful for is very challenging and yet Fussell, in my opinion, was able to gather all the main ideas behind his argument along with statistics and gave the people a new perspective for the ending of World War II. Among Americans it was widely held that the Japanese were really subhuman, little yellow beasts, and popular imagery depicted them as lice, rats, bats, vipers, dogs, and monkeys. What role does his own experience of history play in shaping his views as a historian? 4 Paul Fussell, who faced death in combat, articulately and forcefully states this view. Dower explains that the often overlooked component of racial hatred and propaganda was a driving force in the kill or be killed atmosphere of no surrender, in the Pacific compared to the European theater (Dower 12). The editors of The New YorkReview gave the debate the tendentious title Was the Hiroshima Bomb Necessary? surely an unanswerable question (unlike Was It Effective?) and one precisely indicating the intellectual difficulties involved in imposing ex post facto a rational and even a genteel ethics on this event. Source: Paul Fussell, a World War II Soldier, Thank God for the Atom Bomb, 1990 OFTHE BOMB AMERICANVIEWPOINT DOCUMENT D Stopping Russia "[Byrnes] was concerned about Russia's postwar behavior. The veterans in the outfit felt we had already run out of luck anyway. On August 2, we observed the 76th anniversary of the atom bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. The Japanese were determined to win this fight; they would mobilize every Japanese person to suceed. Someone, please help this child. due to the strong beach defenses, caves, tunnels, and numerous Jap suicide torpedo boats and manned mines, few Marines in the first five assault waves would get ashore alivemy company was scheduled to be in the first and second waves. The "we had no choice but to use the bomb" argument is most strongly presented in Paul Fussell's (in)famous essay, "Thank God for the Atom Bomb.". What was required, said the Marine Corps journal The Leatherneck in May 1945, was a gigantic task of extermination. The Japanese constituted a pestilence, and the only appropriate treatment was annihilation. Some of the marines landing on Iwo Jima had Rodent Exterminator written on their helmet covers, and on one American flagship the naval commander had erected a large sign enjoining all to KILL JAPS! To conclude, Paul Fussells essay is very convincing. During the time between the dropping of the Nagasaki bomb on August 9 and the actual surrender on the fifteenth, the war pursued its accustomed course: on the twelfth of August eight captured American fliers were executed (heads chopped off); the fifty-first United States submarine, Bonefish, was sunk (all aboard drowned); the destroyer Callaghan went down, the seventieth to be sunk, and the Destroyer Escort Underhill was lost. Sitting in stunned silence, we remembered our dead. Source: Paul Fussell, a World War II Soldier, Thank God for the Atom Bomb,1990. germany gives greece names of 10 000 citizens suspected of. Fussell's argument resembles the standard defense of the bombings: dropping atomic bombs on two cities forced Japan to surrender without a costly US invasion of Japan and thus supposedly saved more American and Japanese lives than were lost in the bombings. . Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Arthur T. Hadley said recently that those for whom the use of the A-bomb was wrong seem to be implying that it would have been better to allow thousands on thousands of American and Japanese infantrymen to die in honest hand-to-hand combat on the beaches than to drop those two bombs. People holding such views, he notes, do not come from the ranks of society that produce infantrymen or pilots. And theres aneloquence problem: most of those with firsthand experience of the war at its worst were not elaborately educated people. Who is the intended audience? eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. Basically, Fussell contends that the atomic bomb was deserving of gratitude to God in view of the lives it spared. In addition to the almost unbearable pictures, the book offers brief moments of memoir not for the weak-stomached: While taking my severely wounded wife out to the river bank . By July 10, 1945, the prelanding naval and aerial bombardment of the coast had begun, and the battleships Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and King George V were steaming up and down the coast, softening it up with their sixteen-inch shells. would be a ghastly bloodletting. He begins his essay with a verse: In life, experience is the great teacher. Understanding the past requires pretending that you dont know the present. Fussell is writing for an audience (readers of the New Republic magazine) that quite likely was born after World War II and has no direct experience with the war in the Pacific, or in later wars such as Korea or, more significantly, Vietnam. The man of conscience realized intuitively that the vast majority of Japanese in both cities were no more, if no less, guilty of the war than were his own parents, sisters, or brothers. My division, like most of the ones transferred from Europe, was to take part in the invasion of Honshu. Although early in his essay Fussell admits that the bomb was a "most cruel ending to that most cruel war" (14), and that those who claim that the use of the atom bomb was wrong are simply attempting to "resolve ambiguity" (14) concerning the ethics A senior US defense official said Tuesday that Iran could produce enough fissile material for one nuclear bomb in under two weeks. [Every Japanese] soldier, civilian, woman, and child would fight to the death with whatever weapons they had, ride, grenade, or bamboo spear. Over the years, opinion has shifted sharply toward the position that dropping the bomb both incredibly cruel and totally unnecessary. He begins his essay with a verse: "In life, experience is the great teacher. Still thankful for the bomb By John Rossi Some years ago, Paul Fussell wrote a controversial essay titled "Thank God for the Atom Bomb." In it, he argued that dropping two nuclear bombs on Japan was necessary to end the war in the Pacific. Another way was that he used much imagery to display the gory scenes of the war, and it also kept the reader interested. Thats a harder thing to do than Joravsky seems to think. Except for a few widely scattered shouts of joy, the survivors of the abyss sat hollow-eyed and silent, trying to comprehend a world without war. The atom bomb was dropped by an American B-29 Superfortress bomber named Enola Gay and the bombs code name was Little Boy. David Bentley Hart How to Write EnglishProse, Course Syllabi with Links to Readings and Slides. I cursed the war, I cursed the people who were responsiblefor it, I cursed God for putting me here to suffer for something I never did or knew anything about. Thank God for the Atom Bomb, and Other Essays. In Before Hiroshima : The Path Towards total War ; Ronald Takaki discusses the various reasons on why America decided to drop the atomic bombs on Japan and why they felt like dropping bombs were better than having to invade. "So many bright futures consigned to the ashes of the past.So many dreams lost in the madness that had engulfed us.Except for a few widely scattered shouts of joy,the survivors of the abyss sat hollow-eyed and silent, trying to comprehend a world without war." Paul Fussell, Thank God for the Atom Bomb & Other Essays 6 likes Like All Quotes The Hiroshima bomb, he says, was dropped without any warning. But actually, two days before, 720,000 leaflets were dropped on the city urging everyone to get out and indicating that the place was going to be (as the Potsdam Declaration had promised) obliterated. Its not hard toguess which side each chose once you know that Alsop experienced capture by the Japanese at Hong Kong early in 1942, while Joravsky came into no deadly contact with the Japanese: a young combat-innocent soldier, he was on his way to the Pacific when the war ended. A conservative cultural critic with a passion for nude beaches and the Indy 500 . Theres no denying that Grays outlook on everything was admirably noble, elevated, and responsible. 3 Pages. It would be not just stupid but would betray a lamentable want of human experience to expect soldiers to be very sensitive humanitarians. The main argument of the essay is based around social class and personal experience. Despite mixed reactions of the people of Hiroshima themselves, never does the author condemn the decision to drop the bomb, nor does he condone. The warning from US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin . One of the strong supporters of the dropping of the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima is Paul Fussell. As William Manchester says, All who wore uniforms are called veterans, but more than 90 percent of them are as uninformed about the killing zones as those on the home front.Manchesters fellow marine E. B. Sledge thoughtfully and responsibly invokes the terms drastically and totally to underline the differences in experience between front and rear, and not even the far rear, but the close rear. He looked to be in great pain but there was nothing that I could do for him. If the bomb had only been ready in time, the young men of my infantry platoon would not have been so cruelly killed and wounded. These troops who cried and cheered with relief or who sat stunned by the weight of their experience are very different from the high-minded, guilt- ridden GIs were told about by J. Glenn Gray in his sensitive book The Warriors. of drones and debtors forbes. Why not blow them all up, with satchel charges or with something stronger? The Japanese pre-invasion patriotic song, One Hundred Million Souls for the Emperor, says Sledge, meant just that. Universal national kamikaze was the point. Probably around two hundred thousand persons were killed in the attacks and through radiation poisoning; the vast . He notes that thousands of allied soldiers died each week, and that the claim that "the Japanese would have surrendered if given time, so the bombings were unethical" ignores the consequences of such patience (4). Hiroshima, he says, was "the most cruel ending of that most cruel war." During the war there were many times for the Japanese to surrender, but it was never done. The testimony of experience has tended to come from rough diamondsJames Jones is an examplewho went through the war as enlisted men in the infantry or the Marine Corps. Keep in. is this passage of Manchesters: After Biak the enemy withdrew to deep caverns. What did you do in the Great War, Daddy? The recruiting poster deserves ridicule and contempt, of course, but here its question is embarrassingly relevant, and the problem is one that touches on the dirty little secret of social class in America. On August 6th, 1945 at 8:16 AM, a great yet horrific event in history occurred. His premise is that absent those horrific shocks, Japan would have never surrendered without a bloody invasion. All this is not to deny that like the Russian Revolution, the atom-bombing of Japan was a vast historical tragedy, and every passing year magnifies the dilemma into which it has lodged the contemporary world. Paul Fussell appeals to Pathos Reasons that he appeals to pathos is by including the audience in his speech. . What role does his own experience of history play in shaping his views as an historian? . ISBN-10: 0671638661. The combat soldier, he says. But no answer came. ryan on apple books. Fussells point is that personal experience changes how we understand the decision to use the bomb against Japan. Dower crafts his argument using a variety of scholarly sources. A professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania whose speciality is the eighteenth century, Paul Fuss View the full answer One does, doesnt one? they supported the idea that the war was going to end . Hes not the only one to have forgotten, if he ever knew, the unspeakable savagery of the Pacific war. The first was The Great War and Modern Memory . One remembers the gleeful use of bayonets on civilians, on nurses and the wounded, in Hong Kong and Singapore. During the time of World War 2, as the bombs were being dropped on different parts on the country, they were not only killing the men that were fighting in the war, but also killing innocent civilians. To this end he quotes Arthur T Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this answer and thousands more. Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays by Paul Fussell. They did not know the horrors the soldiers went through. . I wonder what became of him. If only it could have been rushed into production faster and dropped at theright moment on the Reich Chancellery or Berchtesgaden or Hitlers military headquarters in East Prussia (where Colonel Stauffenbergs July 20 bomb didnt do the job because it wasnt big enough), much of the Nazi hierarchy could have been pulverized immediately, saving not just the embarrassment of the Nuremberg trials but the lives of around four million Jews, Poles, Slavs, and gypsies, not to mention the lives and limbs of millions of Allied and German soldiers. Being aware of the segregation against blacks, the Japanese created propaganda such as books that illustrated the racism in America along with how the African Americans were treated. The degree to which Americans register shock and extraordinary shame about the Hiroshima bomb correlates closely with lack of information about the Pacific war. From this, one recoils says the reviewer. And second, by implicationit can also inform the audience that during the war he was not socially so unfortunate as to find himself down there with the ground forces, where he might have had to compromise the purity and clarity of his moral system by the experience of weighing his own life against someone elses. When the atom bombs were dropped and news began to circulate that Operation Olympic would not, after all, be necessary, when we learnedto our astonishment that we would not be obliged in a few months to rush up the beaches near Tokyo assault-firing while being machine-gunned, mortared, and shelled, for all the practiced phlegm of our tough facades we broke down and cried with relief and joy. On the other hand, John Kenneth Galbraith is persuaded that the Japanese would have surrendered surely by November without an invasion. 08/08/2022 Ralph Raico. President Harry Truman, in his speech, Announcement of the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb, supports his claim that the dropping of the A-bomb shortened the war, saved lives, and got revenge by appealing to American anger by mentioning traumatic historical events and. Japanese-Americans living on the other hand, John Kenneth Galbraith is persuaded that the atomic bomb later... Incomprehensible to men behind the lines, opinion has shifted sharply toward the position that dropping the bomb incredibly... The Indy 500 the gleeful use of bayonets on civilians, on nurses the! To God in view of the war articulately and forcefully States this view japanese-americans living on west... But the bombs code name was Little Boy appeals to Pathos is by including the is. Worst were not elaborately educated people bomber named Enola Gay and the Indy 500 again he writes we! Display the gory scenes of the lives of allied soldiers against those of their enemies Log... 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End he quotes Arthur T Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this answer and thousands more the for!