Title: Truman and the Hiroshima cult
First published: 1995
Description: The United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan in 1945 to end World War II as quickly and with as few casualties as possible. That is the compelling and elegantly simple argument Robert Newman puts forward in his controversial new study of World War II's end, Truman and the Hiroshima Cult. Simply stated, Newman argues that Truman made a sensible military decision. As commander in chief, he was concerned with ending a devastating and costly war as quickly as possible and with saving millions of lives.

Yet, Newman goes further in his discussion, seeking the reasons why so much hostility has been generated by what happened in the skies over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August 1945. The source of discontent, he concludes, is a "cult" that has grown up in the United States since the 1960s. It was weaned on the disillusionment spawned by concerns about a military industrial complex, American duplicity and failure in the Vietnam War, and a mistrust of government following Watergate.

The cult has a shrine, a holy day, a distinctive rhetoric of victimization, various items of scripture and, in Japan, support from a powerful Marxist constituency.
Subjects: Moral and ethical aspects, Military policy, Moral and ethical aspects of Atomic bomb, World War, 1939-1945, Atomic bomb, Foreign relations, History, Truman, harry s., 1884-1972, World war, 1939-1945, japan, Atomic bomb, moral and ethical aspects, Hiroshima-shi (japan), history, bombardment, 1945, Nagasaki-shi (japan), bombardment, 1945, United states, military policy, United states, foreign relations, soviet union, Soviet union, foreign relations, united states
Places: Hiroshima-shi, Hiroshima-shi (Japan), Japan, Nagasaki-shi, Nagasaki-shi (Japan), Soviet Union, United States
People: Harry S. Truman (1884-1972)
Time periods: Bombardment, 1945
LC classification: D767.25.N3 N48 1995