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. I wanted to forget this miserable world. . 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. He states in the book that He did not want to violate the widely held American moral view that war should be fought against soldiers, not civilians. Many kept body parts, such as hands, as trophies. The material covered is Fussells experience in the infantry, contrasted with that of people who have no such experience. Format: Hardcover. A conservative cultural critic with a passion for nude beaches and the Indy 500 . Former Pfc. 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. Namely, the importance of experience, sheer, vulgar experience, in influencing, if not determining, ones views about that use of the atom bomb. Kucinich supports the claim that the bomb was not needed to end the war, although some may disagree. To intensify the shame Gray insists we feel, he seems willing to fiddle the facts. The dramatic postwar Japanese success at hustling and merchandising and tourism has (happily, in many ways) effaced for most people the vicious assault context in which the Hiroshima horror should be viewed. Herseys straight, simple narrative technique presents the catastrophe in its raw form, including the voices of those who experienced the bombing firsthand. He and thousands of his fellows enfeebled by beriberi and pellagra, were being systematically starved to death, the Japanese rationalizing this treatment not just because the prisoners were white men but because they had allowed themselves to be captured at all and were therefore moral garbage. What did Paul Fussel feel towards the dropping of the Atomic Bomb? 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 . So many maimed. They did not know the horrors the soldiers went through. David Bentley Hart How to Write EnglishProse, Course Syllabi with Links to Readings and Slides. No one who knows what combat is like, he says, would argue that dropping the bomb was unethical.. In it, Fussell judges the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as necessary evils. I merely note that he didnt. Thousands of British assault troops would have been destroyed too, the anticipated casualties from the almost 200,000 men in the six divisions (the same number used to invade Normandy) assigned to invade the Malay Peninsula on September 9. 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. I find this canting nonsense. 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. [Excerpted from Paul Fussell's "Thank God for the Atom Bomb. As many as 200,000 deaths were caused by Little Boy alone and many people would die of radiation for years to come. Jones observes that the forthcoming invasion of Kyushu was well into its collecting and stockpiling stages before the war ended. (The island of Saipan was designated a main ammunition and supply base for the invasion,and if you go there today you can see some of the assembled stuff still sitting there.) Unit Commanders will take stern disciplinary action. A professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania whose speciality is the eighteenth century, Paul Fuss View the full answer (Dower 353). (LogOut/ On Okinawa, only weeks before Hiroshima, 123,000 Japanese and Americans killed each other. For this was hell, the soldier goes on. By that time, one million American casualties was the expected price. Paul Fussell. 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. His latest book is about American. On July 14, 1945, General Marshall sadly informed the Combined Chiefs of Staffhe was not trying to scare the Japanesethat its now clear . Within seconds of reading you understand his claim that there was justification in dropping the atom bomb. To this end he quotes Arthur T Hadley as saying, People holding such views [i.e., that dropping the bomb was wrong] do not come from the ranks of society that produce infantrymen or pilots. These are the people Fussell is addressing. It would seem even more crazy, he went on, if we were to have more casualties on our side to save the Japanese. One of the unpleasant facts for anyone in the ground armies during the war was that you had to become pro tern a subordinate of the very uncivilian George S. Patton and respond somehow to his unremitting insistence that you embrace his view of things. The intended audience of Fussell's essay is peoplesuch as John Kenneth Galbraith (whom the author names in his essay)who believe that dropping the atomic bombs on Japan at the end of World War II was not necessary. While many citizens of Hiroshima continued to feel a hatred for Americans which nothing could possibly erase, (117) some, like Mrs. Nakamura, remained more or less indifferent about the ethics of using the bomb. (117). Despite pleas from US President, Harry Truman, for Japan to surrender, the Japanese were intent on continuing the fight. I wonder what became of him. Relatively inarticulate, most have remained silent about what they know. (About 140,000 Japanese died at Hiroshima.) To this day, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still a source of pain and shame for those afflicted and for those who survived. In general, the principle is, the farther from the scene of horror the easier the talk. The aim of war is to destroy an enemy who is trying to destroy you. I yelled for medics, because subconsciously I wanted to live. So many dreams lost in the madness that had engulfed us. 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. He also argues that Japan was not close to surrender, and that although the devastation and casualties caused by the bombing were horrific, that opponents of the bomb neglect the equal or greater horrors suffered by the American soldiers, the Japanese civilians conscripted to fight against them, and the prisoners of war. Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes. 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. Theres no denying that Grays outlook on everything was admirably noble, elevated, and responsible. 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. 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. His books include: The Making of an American High School (Yale, 1988); How to Succeed in School Without Really Learning: The Credentials Race in American Education (Yale, 1997); The Trouble with Ed Schools (Yale University Press, 2004); Someone Has to Fail: The Zero-Sum Game of Public Schooling (Harvard, 2010); and A Perfect Mess: The Unlikely Ascendancy of American Higher Education (Chicago, 2017).View all posts by David Labaree. During World War II, tensions between Japan and the United States increased. So it's no wonder, with President Barack Obama's visit to Hiroshima this week (but no apology), that practically every journalist writing about the visit resorts to quoting from Paul Fussell's famous article in the New Republic in August, 1981: "Thank God for the Atomic Bomb.". (Pg.26) We all know that all war is cruel. As a result, Truman ordered the atomic bomb, a deadly revolution in nuclear science, to be dropped on the towns of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. My division, like most of the ones transferred from Europe, was to take part in the invasion of Honshu. . document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Nor do authors normally write about such vileness; unless they have seen it with their own eyes, it is too preposterous to think that men could actually live and fight for days and nights on end under such terrible conditions and not be driven insane. And Sledge has added a comment on such experience and the insulation provided by even a short distance: Often people just behind our rifle companies couldnt understand what we knew. Glenn Gray was not in a rifle company, or even just behind one. Someone, please help this child. When the young soldier with the wild eyes comes at you, firing, do you shoot him in the foot, hoping hell be hurt badly enough to drop or mis-aim the gun with which hes going to kill you, or do you shoot him in the chest (or, if youre a prime shot, in the head) and make certain that you and not he will be the survivor of that mortal moment? germany gives greece names of 10 000 citizens suspected of. . Thank God for the atom bomb. 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. "I have two questions about Paul Fussell's essay, "Thank God for the Atom Bomb". In speaking thus of Galbraith and Sherry, Im aware of the offensive implications ad hominem. knew better than did Americans at home what those bombs meant in suffering and injustice. It requires feeling its own pressure on your pulses without any ex post facto illumination. 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 . 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. Why does Fussell "thank God" for the atom bomb? Whereas yellow was the color of illness and treason and the Japanese were usually referred to as yellow, the color white symbolized purity which stood for the American race. In the essay, Fussell argues that the United States was justified in dropping atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Paul Fussell appeals to Pathos Reasons that he appeals to pathos is by including the audience in his speech. The dropping of the Atom bomb on Hiroshima is an extremely debatable issue with no right or wrong answer. "Thank God for the Atom Bomb" is an essay written by Paul Fussell, a historian and World War II veteran. 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. On August 2, we observed the 76th anniversary of the atom bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. The Nagasaki bomb was thus the trigger to allthe developments that led to peace. At this time the army was so unready for surrender that most looked forward to the forthcoming invasion as an indispensable opportunity to show their mettle, enthusiastically agreeing with the army spokesman who reasoned early in 1945, Since the retreat from Guadalcanal, the Army has had little opportunity to engage the enemy in land battles. Mr. 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. 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. articles boom san agustin google sites. (New York: Ballentine Books, 1990), 1-22. . In the summer of 1945 Marshal Terauchi issueda significant order: at the moment the Allies invaded the main islands, all prisoners were to be killed by the prison-camp commanders. Chapter 8, The Pure Self, Dower explains the Japanese traditions and culture, along with the humiliation and discrimination the Japanese received. 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. Change). But whats at stake in an infantry assault is so entirely unthinkable to those without the experience of one, or several, or many, even if they possess very wide-ranging imaginations and warm sympathies, that experience is crucial in this case. Customer Book Reviews. 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. he uses statistics to prove that while the bomb killed many japanese lives, it saved many more american lives. Fussell argues vigorously and, to my mind, convincingly that the bombing was crucial in cutting short the war and preventing the much greater loss of life that would have occurred as a result of a full-fledged invasion. Thank God For The Atom Bomb4 Pages886 Words. Truman was not being sly or coy whenhe insisted that the bomb was only another weapon. History, as Eliots Gerontion notes. In the Pacific the situation grew so public and scandalous that in September 1942, the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet issued this order: No part of the enemys body may be used as a souvenir. He does agree that the dropping of the bomb was horrific and not morally right, but the bombs were necessary. Hiroshima: A Soldier's View," The New Republic (August 26 and 29, 1981), pp. They would have annihilated a lot of us Fussell. 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.) Source: Paul Fussell, a World War II Soldier, Thank God for the Atom Bomb, 1990. John F. Kennedy. What does this quotation have to do with his argument? The reviewer naturally dislikes Manchesters still terming the enemy Nips or Japs, but what reallyshakes him (her?) Fussell's essay is an attempt to debunk the arguments of these critics, who argue that Japan would have surrendered without the Americans' detonation of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. . The Japanese believed their culture was unique, and spent this period of time during the war focusing on themselves and their race. Three days later Charles Sweeney flew in the Enola Gay to Nagasaki, where the bomb Fat Man was dropped. For present purposes we must jettison the second line (licking our lips, to be sure, as it disappears), leaving the first to register a principle whose banality suggests that it enshrines a most useful truth. Fussell starts his argument with why it was necessary to drop the bomb. Hiroshima, he says, was the most cruel ending of that most cruel war. He reminds us of what war is like for those who are actually fighting it as oppposed to theorizing about it after the fact. During the war there were many times for the Japanese to surrender, but it was never done. Understanding the past requires pretending that you dont know the present. Publication date 1988 Publisher Summit Books Collection inlibrary; printdisabled; internetarchivebooks; china Digitizing sponsor Kahle/Austin Foundation Contributor Internet Archive Language English. 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. Bottom Line Thank God for the Atom Bomb is my second collection of Paul Fussell essays. But thank God that did not happen. In Geoffrey Shepherds Article he tires to support, connect and persuade his audience. 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. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Paul Fussell is a smart man with an abundance of experience. . 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. Or simplified." Comment. Download the entire Thank God for the Atom Bomb study guide as a printable PDF! When the war ended, Bruce Page was nine years old. As I said, I am a peace-loving guy, a pacifist at heart but a realist in real life. With our Essay Lab, you can create a customized outline within seconds to get started on your essay right away. is this passage of Manchesters: After Biak the enemy withdrew to deep caverns. A bloody woman holds a bloody child in the ruins of a house, and the artist remembers her calling, Please help this child! Before Fussell concedes the brutality of the bombings, he takes a fairly one-sided position. I will let God be the Judge of that. Many of those who were not on the front lines disagreed with the decision to drop the bomb. Details; Description; . 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. ) Why does Fussell "thank God" for the atom bomb? 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. [Every Japanese] soldier, civilian, woman, and child would fight to the death with whatever weapons they had, ride, grenade, or bamboo spear. . 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. Analyzes how paul fussell, of "thank god for the atom bomb", believes the atomic bombs were necessary and the right course of action in ending world war ii. Many of the soldiers have remained silent about their firsthand experiences because they were, The soldiers and marines would view the Japanese as subhuman, little yellow beasts and the only approppriate treatment was annihilation. The Americans dehumanized the Japanese people, merely because they were not European. Fussell foregrounds the difficulties of weighing the lives of allied soldiers against those of their enemies. 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. Explains that paul fussell's thank god for the atom bomb is one of many essays written in favor of the bomb that aided the ending of world war 2. Over the years, opinion has shifted sharply toward the position that dropping the bomb both incredibly cruel and totally unnecessary. 2023. Who are the experts?Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. During this period Japanese people living in both Japan and the United States of America were seen as less that human. But when we meet in Japan proper, our Army will demonstrate its invincible superiority. This possibility foreclosed by the Emperors post-A- bomb surrender broadcast, the shocked, disappointed officers of one infantry battalion, anticipating a professionally impressive defense of the beaches, killed themselves in the following numbers: one major, three captains, ten first lieutenants, and twelve second lieutenants. . The killing was all going to be over, and peace was actually going to be the state of things. . This post is a stunning essay by Paul Fussell published in The New Republic in 1981. The Japanese were determined to win this fight; they would mobilize every Japanese person to suceed. In his classic essay "Thank God for the Atom Bomb," Paul Fussell (World War II vet and National Book Award-winner) observes, "Allied (Pacific) casualties were running to over 7,000 per week." After Nagasaki, "captured American fliers were executed (heads chopped off); the U.S. submarine Bonefish was sunk (all aboard drowned); the destroyer . Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. First, it can display the fineness of his moral weave. The Japanese pre-invasion patriotic song, One Hundred Million Souls for the Emperor, says Sledge, meant just that. Universal national kamikaze was the point. 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. 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. In the poem, Hiroshima Exit by Canadian Writer Joy Kogawa presents a flash back of these events that occurred during World War II. Japanese government and military leaders on trial for war crimes after the war #5. 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. E. B. Sledge, author of the splendid memoir With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa, noticed at the time that the fighting grew more vicious the closer we got to Japan,with the carnage of Iwo Jima and Okinawa worse than what had gone before. What role does his own experience of history play in shaping his views as an historian? Paul Fussell, "Thank God for the Atom Bomb" Mac computer capable with iMovie, Quicktime (for recording and exporting) and Internet access (for high school) Assignment: For middle school students: Have students write a script for a chapter of a hypothetical documentary on the decision to drop the bomb (approximately three pages). View fussels.docx from HIST MISC at Longwood University. Of the two the first was a tighter and better book. 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). In general, the principle is, the farther from the scene of horror the easier the talk. He also attacked other writers who opposed the use of the Atom Bomb for their lack of . I dont demand that he experience having his ass shot off. A few days later, the second atomic bomb devastated the city of Nagasaki. 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 . ) Why does Fussell "thank God" for the atom bomb?What role does his own experience of history play in shaping his views as an historian? Analyzes how fussell pointed out that those that opposed the dropping of the atom bomb were not of those men going into war and actually fighting. Q. 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. David F. Labaree is Lee L. Jacks Professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education and a professor (by courtesy) in history. What role does his own experience of history play in shaping his views as a historian? Chapter 9, The Demonic Other, discusses the Japaneses opinions on American racism, and seemed to believe Americans disregarded every other race except their own. He heaps sarcasms on the "sensitive humanitarian" who "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 else's." The combat soldier, he says. Do not let the title or the first few selections lead . . Imagine living in a period in which the realities of war encased the world, and the lethal potential to end all suffering was up to a single being. Another way was that he used much imagery to display the gory scenes of the war, and it also kept the reader interested. Everybody in Japan was willing to die to for the war effort. Japanese-Americans living on the west coast were savagely and unjustifiably uprooted from their daily lives. 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. 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! 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. We thought the Japanese would never surrender. The warning from US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin . Why does Fussell "thank God" for the atom bomb? In his paper "Thank God for Atom the Bomb", Paul has put forward several arguments against those who oppose his stance while providing justifications from the literature to support his argument. The Japanese pre-invasion patriotic song, one Hundred million Souls for the Atom bomb on Hiroshima is an debatable... Hiroshima bomb necessary not let the title or the first few selections lead ended, Page. The brutality of the ones transferred from Europe, was to take part in the Enola Gay Nagasaki! Is an extremely debatable issue with no right or wrong answer most have remained silent about they... 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