The Atomic Bomb

Reading Haruki Murakami's amazing The Wind-up Bird Chronicle has encouraged me to learn a bit about Second World War Japan, and any cursory glance of this topic ultimately points you in one terrifying direction: the atomic bomb. After the war with Germany had ended, America turned its full attention to the Pacific and the Japanese, and, bored instantly at the thought of engaging in a long and drawn-out conflict, instead put the finishing touches to the newly-invented atomic bomb, which it promptly dropped on Hiroshima and a few days later on Nagasaki, wiping out about a quarter of the population of each and hastening Japan's surrender. Dropping the bomb was such a significant and insane thing to do that it seems strangely glossed over in history now: when I was at school I don't remember it being taught at all; we only focused on the nice old-fashioned warfare with Germany. I'm fascinated with what people thought of it at the time, both in Japan and the USA.

I wonder if, had the bomb been developed sooner, would it have been dropped on Germany? It seems to me that the fact that the Japanese weren't white and were very culturally different to the West, led those who dropped the bomb to rationalise that the Japanese were almost a separate species, and this thus made their destruction a more conscionable action. Plus, the thought that defeating Germany was a European concern ( and helped a lot by Russia) perhaps made the USA feel that they wanted the final victory, even as Russia were gearing up to crush Japan as well. I just can't imagine the insanity of the moment the bomb struck: in Japan they lost contact with Hiroshima and thought that there may have been bombing, but assumed it to be no more than damage to communications, so they dispatched an aircraft to the area to see what was going on. When the pilot arrived he found utter devastation, presumably beyond his wildest nightmares. What would you think to see miles and miles of densely-populated land simply wiped out? And what did the Americans think? Did they realise the true extent of what they were going to do? I suppose it was the kind of thing that could only become reality once it had happened - any thought of it beforehand would be masked by the fact that such devastation couldn't truly be imagined, only experienced.

Even more scary is that the only reason that just two bombs were dropped initially is that this was all the USA had manufactured at the time:  they would have had to wait weeks for more bombs to be produced and could only make around three a month. They debated over whether they should continue dropping the occasional bomb as produced, or whether to stockpile them and orchestrate one sustained attack. Luckily, the Japanese got smart and gave up before this happened. It's interesting that every major advancement in war, from arrows, to guns, to tanks, and bombs, has led to a revolution in the way that war is fought, but the atomic bomb has instead led, theoretically, to a regression. Now, countries have the technology to win a war in one fell swoop, but instead use more limited forms of combat to wage battles, always with the spectre of this dreaded final solution hanging over their heads. What if America got fed up again and dropped an atomic bomb on Iran? Would they be able to get away with it? Are they stopped by the fear of what the rest of the world would think, or what people at grassroots would do; or do they have the atomic fear hanging over their heads too, the worry that perhaps Iran or an ally is nuked up and would retaliate? The world seems in such a precarious position. America spends much of its time attempting to stop others being nuclearly armed, but maybe everyone needs their own nuke to keep the fear hanging equally over everybody's heads, and keep warfare back in the mid-twentieth century.