One of the main criticisms was that the estimated (American) casualty figures were ridiculously low. Recall the controversy over the Smithsonian’s Enola Gay exhibit twenty years ago. What’s more, the low figure completely ignores Japanese casualty figures in the event of an American land invasion, not to mention begs the question: If the US lost some 7,000 men in taking a rock like Iwo Jima, how do get such a low figure for an invasion of the main Japanese islands, whose population has been inculcated with the belief to fight to the death? General George Marshall believed there would be over 250,000 American casualties. casualties, including 40,000 deaths.” But as one commenter pointed out to Professor Herken (with references), this was General MacArthur’s initial casualty estimate. Joint War Plans Committee estimates of mid-June 1945 which predicted approximately “193,000 U.S. While much more even-handed overall than Kuznick and Alperovitz, Herken’s second “myth” is that the A-bomb saved upwards of 500,000 American lives. Most recently, the University of California’s Gregg Herken provided “ Five Myths About the Atomic Bomb” in the Washington Post. He also claims the US refused a “conditional” peace offer from Japan in the spring of 1945 - that they be permitted to keep the emperor (which the US actually did allow, after the fact) - so that the atomic bombs could be used. I recall Alperovitz on numerous debate shows during the fiftieth anniversary of the bombings, and one of his main contentions is that President Truman wanted to use the atomic bomb to scare the Soviet Union more than anything else. This alone should indicate from what perspective he’s coming at you.Īnother professor considered to be a popular “revisionist” is Gar Alperovitz of the University of Maryland.
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Professor Kuznick has teamed with filmmaker Oliver Stone to produce the Showtime series “The Untold History of the United States” (also available in book form). It happens every year, but especially so on certain milestone anniversaries: Certain academics and historians, usually with an axe to grind, trot out narratives that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and Augrespectively, were unjustified.įor example, American University’s Peter Kuznick says the idea that “hundreds of thousands of American and Japanese lives … would have been lost if the United States had invaded mainland Japan” is “sheer mythology.” The College Fix on Facebook The College Fix on Twitter The College Fix on Reddit The College Fix on Parler Share on Email