Transcript World War II: US, Japan, China, and the Bomb

World War II: US, Japan, China, and
the Bomb
Zuoyue Wang
Cal Poly Pomona
[email protected]; www.csupomona.edu/!zywang
“Teaching American History: Trends in Foreign Policy”
San Bernadino, February 25, 2008
Main Points
• Main effects of Pearl Harbor was not military, but political
• WWII started for China long before Pearl Harbor or even
•
•
1939
The Motivation for the use of the bomb and its role in
Japan’s surrender are still being debated by historians
US had more options on ending the war with Japan than
invasion and the bomb
– Allow the Japanese to keep the emperor
– Wait for the Soviets to enter war
• US: Use of Bomb was more expedient solution than all
•
•
others, with the added benefits of limiting Soviet
occupation of Japan and demonstrating American power
Japan: Soviet entry into the war played as much a role
as the drop of the bomb in decision to surrender
Debates are still relevant to American foreign policy
today: the potential and limit of technological solutions
Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941
• Japanese: Disable American sea power in
the Pacific
• But attack missed American strategic
petroleum reserve and aircraft carrier
• No clear evidence for FDR conspiracy
• It did help end isolationism
• Chinese rejoicing, seeing American
assistance in four year-old war of
resistance against Japan
US-China Relations
•
•
•
•
•
Europe first
Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s Visit to US, 1943
US aid to China
“Flying Tigers” under Gen. Claire Chennault, 1941-1942
Chinese Nationalist government beset by conflict with
Communists, corruption, and inflation
• Nationalist capital in Chongqing in southwest China
• Communist capital in Yan’an in northwest China
• US tried to broker a coalition Chinese joint front against
Japanese military with only limited success
The Manhattan Project
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Nuclear fission discovered in late 1938
Einstein’s letter to FDR in 1939
British report on critical mass, 1940-1941
Major turning point of bomb project approved by
FDR on Dec. 6, 1941
Chicago Pile 1, Dec. 2, 1942
Los Alamos started in 1943
First atomic bomb test on July 16, 1945
Potsdam Conference, July-August 1945
Options to End the War with Japan
• Invasion, starting Nov. 1, 1945
• Allowing Japan to Keep Emperor
• Waiting for Soviets to Enter War
• The Bomb
Before the Bomb
• Truman and Stimson: Priority was to prevent invasion
• Stimson: Three ways to avoid invasion (7/2/45)
– Forceful warning with the possibility of “a constitutional
monarchy under her present dynasty”
– Atomic bomb
– Russian entry
–
Stimson quotes from Michael Stoff, et al., Manhattan Project.
• Truman at Potsdam: Asked Stalin to get in war
– “Most of the big points are settled. He'll be in the Jap War on
August 15th. Fini Japs when that comes about. We had lunch,
talked socially, put on a real show drinking toasts to everyone,
then had pictures made in the back yard. I can deal with Stalin.
He is honest--but smart as hell.” HST Diary 7/17/1945
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/fulltext.php?fulltextid=1
5
After the Bomb Test
• Stimson and Truman received full report on 7/21/45
• Stimson: Groves’ full report “revealed far greater
•
•
destructive power than we expected in S1 [atomic bomb
project].”
It gave Truman “entirely new feeling of confidence”
The news of the bomb coincided with a renewed alarm
over Russia:
– Stimson: “the great basic problem of the future is the
stability of the relations of the Western democracies
with Russia.”
– Contact with Russians at Potsdam convinced him that
international control of atomic energy with an
autocratic Russia would be difficult if not impossible.
7/21/1945
Truman: Waiting for the Bomb
• “P.M. and I ate alone. Discussed Manhattan (it is
•
•
a success). Decided to tell Stalin about it.
“Stalin had told P.M. of telegram from Jap
Emperor asking for peace. Stalin also read his
answer to me. It was satisfactory.
“Believe Japs will fold up before Russia comes
in. I am sure they will when Manhattan appears
over their homeland. “ Truman 7/18/1945
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/fulltext.php?fulltextid=15
Truman with the Bomb vs. Russia
• Stimson: Truman said that “the United States
•
•
was standing firm [with Russia] and he was
apparently relying greatly upon the information
as to S1.” 7/23/1945
Marshall felt that “now with our new weapon we
would not need the assistance of the Russians to
conquer Japan.” 7/23/45
Potsdam warning, signed by US, Britain, and
China, was timed with the bomb to have
maximum effect:
– After learning of accelerated bomb use by early
August, Truman said “It was just what he wanted…it
gave him his cue for his warning.” Stimson, 7/24/1945
Truman: Use the Bomb on Military
Targets
• “This weapon is to be used against Japan between now
and August 10th. I have told the Sec. of War, Mr.
Stimson to use it so that military objectives and soldiers
and sailors are the target and not women and children.”
• “[W]e will issue a warning statement asking the Japs to
surrender and save lives. I'm sure they will not do that,
but we will have given them the chance.”
• “It is certainly a good thing for the world that Hitler's
crowd or Stalin's did not discover this atomic bomb. It
seems to be the most terrible thing ever discovered, but
it can be made the most useful.”
Truman diary 7/25/1945
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/fulltext.php?fullte
xtid=15
Japan
• Hiroshima bomb effects took time to
digest
• Shock of Soviet entry
• Fear of Soviet occupation
• Conditional surrender—keeping emperor
• US acceptance—emperor subject to power
of Supreme Commander
Chinese Reactions
• Chinese danced in street over news of
Hiroshima
• Chinese government was promised
Japanese nuclear instruments, including
accelerators, but they were sunk in Tokyo
Bay
• Victory of war against Japan did not solve
Nationalist-Communist conflict but
intensified it
• Implications for Cold War
Implications for American Foreign
Policy
• Technological fixes to social and political
problems
• Banking on nuclear weapons
• First Soviet bomb in 1949
• Sputnik Shock of 1957
• Technological superiority in Vietnam War
• Shock and Awe
World War II: US, Japan, China, and the Bomb
--Further Reading
Prof. Zuoyue Wang, Cal Poly Pomona
• Robert H. Ferrell (ed.), The Decision to Drop the Atomic
Bomb, available at the Truman Library website:
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/index.php?action=documentary
• Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman,
and the Surrender of Japan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
•
•
•
•
UP, 2006)
Martin Sherwin, A World Destroyed (Stanford, CA:
Stanford UP, 2003)
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China (New
York: W. W. Norton, 1991)
Michael B. Stoff, et al., The Manhattan Project: A
Documentary Introduction to the Atomic Age (New York:
McGraw Hill, 1991)
Contact: [email protected];
www.csupomona.edu/~zywang