I was astounded to see Gore Vidal claiming that the Empire of Japan "had been trying to surrender all summer" before the A-bombs were dropped- that the only reason we dropped them was to scare the Soviets. 1. The Japanese home islands were never going to surrender without a long and overwhelmingly bloody invasion. Indeed, despite the Emperor's eventual decision to surrender (and only after TWO atom bombs), there was an attempt within the military to take over and continue fighting. 2. The cold war had not even started yet. The Soviets and we were trying to finish the war against Japan. We encouraged the Soviets to be more aggressive in the Pacific Theater.
If there is evidence to the contrary, I'd like to see it.
Mostly I liked the film and thought it pretty well balanced. But I'm not certain the audience can always accurately determine fact from opinion, the way it was presented.
If there is evidence to the contrary, I'd like to see it.
Mostly I liked the film and thought it pretty well balanced. But I'm not certain the audience can always accurately determine fact from opinion, the way it was presented.