The decision by then U.S. President Harry Truman to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 cannot be justified as a "military necessity," a U.S. writer says in an essay published recently in Internet opinion journal TomPaine.common sense, www.tompaine.com
Philip Nobile, in his essay "Hiroshima Debate: Was Harry Truman a War Criminal?," claims to be the first British or U.S. historian to pursue the "tantalizing criminal angle" over the atomic bombings.
He slams the decision by Truman, saying the United States dropped the bombs on nonmilitary targets without telling Japan about the possibility of the weapons' use.
"Anyone familiar with the literature knows that Japan was in wretched shape by the summer of 1945 and that Truman was aware of both (then Emperor) Hirohito's desire to surrender and his secret peace initiative in Moscow," he says.