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Lafayette Journal and Courier
8/3/2005
Three days later, on Aug. 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, killing nearly 120,000 residents instantly. A few days later, a second atomic bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, hit Nagasaki, Japan. Though the end of the war came within a month of these bombings, the dates are not as well known or as widely commemorated as D-Day or the day Pearl Harbor was bombed, Purdue University communication instructor Buddy Howell said. He reasons public opinion was too divided over the rights and wrongs of dropping atomic bombs on two cities to definitively memorialize the days. "Sixty years later, questions haunt us still," Howell told a group of about 100 members of the Lafayette Rotary Club during their weekly meeting Tuesday. "Was it the right thing to do? Was there something else Truman could have done? Did he use atomic weapons too soon?" Al Chiscon, retired Purdue professor and Rotarian, said it's hard to decide how to remember or commemorate the days because the events leading to the bombings and subsequent actions were very complicated. Chiscon pointed out that biological warfare was being developed in southern Indiana while the atomic bomb was being developed. "We were capable, if the atomic bomb had not actually worked, of dropping both anthrax and botulism throughout Japan," he said. "Truman did not pick the atomic bomb in splendid isolation. He was given choices, and he picked the atomic bomb as the least of all possible (evils)." Howell encouraged the Rotarians to not only look back on these events, but also to consider how the bombings have been discussed and remembered by world leaders. He pointed specifically to President Ronald Reagan's comments and actions following the 40th anniversary of the bombings. " 'This week millions around the world will mark the 40th anniversary of the first and only uses of nuclear weapons -- events that brought to an end a long and terrible war,' " Howell said, quoting Reagan's official statement released in 1985 and noting that Reagan was the only U.S. president to give an official statement on one of the 10-year anniversaries of the bombings. "Reagan does not get involved in the controversy about whether or not it was a right thing to do. ... He says simply that these events 'brought to an end a long and terrible war.' It was very Lincoln-esque. ... And who cannot rejoice that it 'brought to an end a long and terrible war?' "
What happened: President Harry S. Truman authorized the use of atomic bombs after Japanese officials refused to surrender. On Aug. 6 at 8:16 a.m., an A-bomb nicknamed Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, considered a major military city. Three days later, at 11:02 a.m., a second A-bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki. The effects: More than 220,000 people died as a result of the bombings and the atomic fall-out. Japan surrendered, effectively ending World War II in the Pacific Theater. The United States has not used an atomic bomb as a weapon since World War II.
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