Charles Spurgeon: “…nothing can be more abhorrent to the Christian man than wholesale slaughter.”
Hiroshima After the Bomb, 1945; 75th Anniversary, August 6, 2020
I voiced to him* my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives.
—Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower (*to Sec. of War before the dropping of the bomb)
***
The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace. The atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military point of view, in the defeat of Japan.
— Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
***
The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war at all.
— Major General Curtis LeMay
***
The first atomic bomb was an unnecessary experiment … It was a mistake to ever drop it … [the scientists] had this toy and they wanted to try it out, so they dropped it …
— Fleet Admiral William Halsey, Jr.
***
The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender.… in being the first to use it, we…adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.
–Adm. William Leahy, President Truman’s Chief of Staff
***
Shadows of Hiroshima, 1945
{Fake History Hunter on twitter pointed out that this image is an artist’s creation. Actual images of famous shadow pictures from the bombs at link below.}
One voice from that day: “‘Murata-san, the housekeeper, was nearby, crying over and over, “Shu Jesusu, awaremi tamai! Our Lord Jesus, have pity on us!”’
Images left by the blast where people stood. More shadow photos (link)
ZEITGEIST 