Truman and the Hiroshima Cult

Truman and the Hiroshima Cult
Author :
Publisher : MSU Press
Total Pages : 290
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780870139406
ISBN-13 : 0870139401
Rating : 4/5 (06 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Truman and the Hiroshima Cult by : Robert P. Newman

Download or read book Truman and the Hiroshima Cult written by Robert P. Newman and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 1995-07-31 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan in 1945 to end World War II as quickly and with as few casualties as possible. That is the compelling and elegantly simple argument Newman puts forward in his new study of World War II's end, Truman and the Hiroshima Cult. According to Newman: (1) The U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey conclusions that Japan was ready to surrender without "the Bomb" are fraudulent; (2) America’s "unconditional surrender" doctrine did not significantly prolong the war; and (3) President Harry S. Truman’s decision to use atomic weapons on Japanese cities was not a "racist act," nor was it a calculated political maneuver to threaten Joseph Stalin’s Eastern hegemony. Simply stated, Newman argues that Truman made a sensible military decision. As commander in chief, he was concerned with ending a devastating and costly war as quickly as possible and with saving millions of lives. Yet, Newman goes further in his discussion, seeking the reasons why so much hostility has been generated by what happened in the skies over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August, 1945. The source of discontent, he concludes, is a "cult" that has grown up in the United States since the 1960s. It was weaned on the disillusionment spawned by concerns about a military industrial complex, American duplicity and failure in the Vietnam War, and a mistrust of government following Watergate. The cult has a shrine, a holy day, a distinctive rhetoric of victimization, various items of scripture, and, in Japan, support from a powerful Marxist constituency. "As with other cults, it is ahistorical," Newman declares. "Its devotees elevate fugitive and unrepresentative events to cosmic status. And most of all, they believe." Newman’s analysis goes to the heart of the process by which scholars interpret historical events and raises disturbing issues about the way historians select and distort evidence about the past to suit special political agendas.


Truman and the Hiroshima Cult Related Books

Truman and the Hiroshima Cult
Language: en
Pages: 290
Authors: Robert P. Newman
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 1995-07-31 - Publisher: MSU Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan in 1945 to end World War II as quickly and with as few casualties as possible. That is the compelling and elegan
Truman and the Hiroshima Cult
Language: en
Pages: 296
Authors: Robert P. Newman
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 1995-07-31 - Publisher: MSU Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan in 1945 to end World War II as quickly and with as few casualties as possible. That is the compelling and elegan
Racing the Enemy
Language: en
Pages: 448
Authors: Tsuyoshi Hasegawa
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2006-09-30 - Publisher: Harvard University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

With startling revelations, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa rewrites the standard history of the end of World War II in the Pacific. By fully integrating the three key actors
Proclaiming the Truman Doctrine
Language: en
Pages: 212
Authors: Denise M. Bostdorff
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008 - Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this work, Denise M. Bostdorff considers President Truman’s address to a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947. She focuses on the public and private
Weapons for Victory
Language: en
Pages: 236
Authors: Robert James Maddox
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2004-08-23 - Publisher: University of Missouri Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The highly acclaimed Weapons for Victory originally appeared in 1995, the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II. Now, in this paperback edition, Rober