He begins his essay with a verse: "In life, experience is the great teacher. The U.S. government was engagednot in that sort of momentous thing but in ending the war conclusively, as well as irrationally Remembering Pearl Harbor with a vengeance. The Japanese were determined to win this fight; they would mobilize every Japanese person to suceed. There was much sadism and cruelty, undeniably racist, on ours. But thank God that did not happen. The degree to which Americans register shock and extraordinary shame about the Hiroshima bomb correlates closely with lack of information about the Pacific war. The combat soldier, he says. The dramatic postwar Japanese success at hustling and merchandising and tourism has (happily, in many ways) effaced for most people the vicious assault context in which the Hiroshima horror should be viewed. Fussell argues that an infantry assault on Japan would have been deadly and would have resulted in the loss of huge numbers of Allied troops. Paul Fussell appeals to Pathos Reasons that he appeals to pathos is by including the audience in his speech. The author, Kucinich, also adapts an informative tone because he states facts and evidence to support his claim that the bomb was not needed to win the war. One does, doesnt one? To call it a crime against mankind is to miss atleast half its significance; it is also the punishment of a crime. Knowing that unflattering truth by experience, soldiers have every motive for wanting a war stopped, by any means. Is he really saying "Thank God for the atom bomb?" 2) Fussell: "The past, which as always did not know the future, acted in ways that ask to be imagined before they are condemned. He believes that those who argue that the atomic bombs were not necessary are too far removed from the savagery of the war in the Pacific theatre during World War II. Our code of conduct toward the enemy, he notes, differed drastically from that prevailing back at the division CP. (Hes describing gold-tooth extractionfrom still-living Japanese.) The future scholar-critic who writes The History of Canting in the Twentieth Century will find much to study and interpret in the utterances of those who dilate on the special wickedness of the A-bomb-droppers. This book is recommend to any fan of the essay. I find this canting nonsense. Many of those who were on the front lines were not elaborately educated people. "So many bright futures consigned to the ashes of the past.So many dreams lost in the madness that had engulfed us.Except for a few widely scattered shouts of joy,the survivors of the abyss sat hollow-eyed and silent, trying to comprehend a world without war." Paul Fussell, Thank God for the Atom Bomb & Other Essays 6 likes Like All Quotes Fussell's essay is an attempt to debunk the arguments of these critics, who argue that Japan would have surrendered without the Americans' detonation of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. Thank God For The Atom Bomb essays. would be a ghastly bloodletting. On the tragic day of August 6, 1945, US Air Force deployed the first atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Fussell argues that people who consider the decisions wrong lack personal experience of the horrors of war as seen from the infantry perspective, because their class privilege means that they have no relevant personal experience. Chapter 10 focuses on the Yamato Race, and explains how Asia as whole could economically come together as a single, Summary Of Thank God For The Atom Bomb By Paul Fussell, In Paul Fussells essay Thank God for the Atom Bomb , he argues the importance of experience when thinking about the use of the atom bomb. Paul Fussell, "Thank God for the Atom Bomb," in Fussell, Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays (Summit Books, 1988) [22] Who is more convincing - Walzer or Fussell? During the war in Europe Gray was an interrogator in the Army Counterintelligence Corps, and in that capacity he experienced the war at Division level. 3 Pages. In this essay I will describe both sides to the argument then conclude using my final opinion on whether I am for or against the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima. It would shock the American public and the world. His essay "Thank God for the Atom Bomb" tells us why the United States needed to drop the atomic bomb and provides quotes from people with experience from the war to back up his claim. . Rhetorical Questions General Hap Arnold explaines his point of view on why he thinks using atomic bombing in war should be used only in the proper way. Have the . Fussell, a retired University of Pennsylania professor, is editor of The Norton Book of Modern War and the author of many books, among them Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays and the award-winning The Great War and Modern Memory. Planners of the invasion assumed that it would require a full year, to November 1946, for the Japanese to be sufficiently worn down by land-combat attrition to surrender. (LogOut/ 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The dropping of the bombs were necessary and fair due to the refusal of the Japanese to surrender, the millions of lives saved by a quick end to the war, and the warnings given to the Japanese. What role does his own experience of history play in shaping his views as an historian? His essay "Thank God for the Atom Bomb" tells us why the United States needed to drop the atomic bomb and provides quotes from people with experience from the war to back up his claim. World War II not only exacerbated the racial tension within the American people, but also excused the racist actions taken by American government against the Japanese Americans, as the Americans then prided themselves for fighting in the good war. In 1945 Fussell had been a 20-year-old infantry second . TNR's The Book page reposted this "classic" piece by George Kennan on Americans and Russians rather than repost the very famous essay that became the basis for Fussell's Thank God for the . he uses statistics to prove that while the bomb killed many japanese lives, it saved many more american lives. Paul Fussell. Fussell argues vigorously and, to my mind, convincingly that the bombing was crucial in cutting short the war and preventing the much greater loss of life that would have occurred as a result of a full-fledged invasion. Its initial publication intheNew Republic, a liberal magazine that describes itself as "tailored for smart, curious, socially aware readers",suggests that Fussell is writing mainly for an upper middle class, highly educated, and politically liberal audience. All this is not to deny that like the Russian Revolution, the atom-bombing of Japan was a vast historical tragedy, and every passing year magnifies the dilemma into which it has lodged the contemporary world. Three days later Charles Sweeney flew in the Enola Gay to Nagasaki, where the bomb Fat Man was dropped. Accessed 2 Mar. We were going to live. . (Dower 353). And the invasion was going to take place: theres no question about that. From his point of view, as someone who served in the infantry during WWII, the bomb saved thousands of lives that would have been lost if there had been a D-Day style invasion of the Japanese home islands. As I said, I am a peace-loving guy, a pacifist at heart but a realist in real life. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. (New York: Ballentine Books, 1990), 1-22. . During the war there were many times for the Japanese to surrender, but it was never done. Truman was not being sly or coy whenhe insisted that the bomb was only another weapon. History, as Eliots Gerontion notes. Still thankful for the bomb By John Rossi Some years ago, Paul Fussell wrote a controversial essay titled "Thank God for the Atom Bomb." In it, he argued that dropping two nuclear bombs on Japan was necessary to end the war in the Pacific. . This book is recommend to any fan of the essay. In addition to the almost unbearable pictures, the book offers brief moments of memoir not for the weak-stomached: While taking my severely wounded wife out to the river bank . As with theRussian Revolution, there are two sidesthats why its a tragedy instead of a disasterand unless we are, like Bruce Page, simple-mindedly unimaginative and cruel, we will be painfully aware of both sides at once. The war was over, the story goes, and the US just wanted to demonstrate its nuclear capacity to the world. He notes that thousands of allied soldiers died each week, and that the claim that "the Japanese would have surrendered if given time, so the bombings were unethical" ignores the consequences of such patience (4). Paul Fussell. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why have historians chosen it, and is it appropriate?3) What has been the impact of the atomic bomb on U.S. history?4) What function does morality play in historians' views of the past? Others recounted how signs encouraging everyone to KILL JAPS! Herman Wouk suggests this obliviousness of both sides to the fact that the opponents were human beings may perhaps be cited as the key to the many massacres of the Pacific war. They saw all Japanese as monsters an this justifies the dropping of the. In his article, Fussell makes this point in various manners. Why not blow them all up, with satchel charges or with something stronger? knew war, and he knew better than some of his critics then and now what he was doing and why he was doing it. Do not let the title or the first few selections lead . I dont demand that he experience having his ass shot off. When the Enola Gay dropped its package, There were cheers, says John Toland, over the intercom; it meant the end of the war. Down on the ground the reaction of Sledges marine buddies when they heard the news was more solemn and complicated. Fussell is even keener on exposing the euphemisms and illusions of others. All Japanese must become soldiers and die for the Emperor. Sledges First Marine Division was to land close to the Yokosuka Naval Base, one of the most heavily defended sectors of the island. The marines were told, he recalls, that. This event is known as the dropping of the atom bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan, the event that would begin and end the pain and suffering of millions. By that time, one million American casualties was the expected price. I cursed the war, I cursed the people who were responsiblefor it, I cursed God for putting me here to suffer for something I never did or knew anything about. Because wed destroyed civilians? But in one of his effusions he was right, and his observation tends to suggest the experimentaldubiousness of the concept of just wars. War is not a contest with gloves, he perceived. The citizens of Japan had never expected something as extensive as a bomb. His premise is that absent those horrific shocks, Japan would have never surrendered without a bloody invasion. We were going to grow to adulthood after all. ., I was horrified indeed at the sight of a stark naked man standing in the rain with his eyeball in his palm. 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