Jack Remembers -- Why the Atom Bomb was Dropped

I read every paper I can get my hands on, and every once in a while I read an article that sets me on my ear. This time it was an A. P. article in the Kansas City Star saying Truman’s grandson was in Hiroshima, Japan to attend the Memorial for the people killed by the atomic bomb authorized by his grandfather. The article stated that Susumu Miura, 78 year old Hiroshima native wrote in a Tokyo newspaper that he was enraged when he learned that many Americans still support the decision to drop the atomic bomb.
Yes, Mr. Susumu, we still support President Harry Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We also still remember Pearl Harbor and the Bataan Death March, and your country’s refusal to surrender prior to dropping these bombs.
In July of 1961, former President Harry Truman attended his one and only political rally after his Presidency, in behalf of Larry Gepford at the Muehlbach Hotel in Kansas City. Larry was running against the establishment for Prosecuting Attorney, and had attracted hundreds of young supporters, including myself. However, there were only a few of us in a small meeting room with the former President and the question was asked “Why did you drop the bomb?” Harry Truman answered the question and did not mince words doing so. He said he and the U.S. Commanders were planning the invasion of Japan and knew there would be between 1.7 and 4 million U.S. and Allied casualties, plus an estimated 10 million Japanese deaths. As I remember it, the President did not use the word “Japanese”, but the now politically incorrect “Japs”. He said when he had asked for their surrender, neither Tojo or Emperor Hirohito responded. Then Truman said, “And so I ordered the bomb to be dropped, resulting in Japan’s surrender.”
I have always figured this was the real reason Harry Truman won the 1948 election against Thomas Dewey. The hundreds of thousands of Veterans who did not have to invade Japan thanked Harry by voting Democrat.
Jack can be reached at PO Box 40, Oak Grove, MO 64075 or jackremembers@aol.com. Visit www.jackremembers.com