In 1945 Fussell had been a 20-year-old infantry second . Therefore, Fussell's argument is twofold: 1) that more Americans would die without the bomb; and 2) that Japanese civilians would be killed in large numbers during the planned invasion, meaning the bomb was instrumental in limiting the loss of human life. With this in mind, they would have continued to drag out the war, which shows that dropping the bombs sped up the war which lessened the casualties. I find this canting nonsense. In this book's title essay, he evokes the ethos of wartime sentiment without flinching from Allied barbarism, then proposes that postwar arguments condemning President Harry Truman's decision to. What was required, said the Marine Corps journal The Leatherneck in May 1945, was a gigantic task of extermination. The Japanese constituted a pestilence, and the only appropriate treatment was annihilation. Some of the marines landing on Iwo Jima had Rodent Exterminator written on their helmet covers, and on one American flagship the naval commander had erected a large sign enjoining all to KILL JAPS! I yelled for medics, because subconsciously I wanted to live. on Paul Fussell Thank God for the AtomBomb, Follow David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing on WordPress.com, Paul Fussell Thank God for the AtomBomb, The Winning Ways of a Losing Strategy: Educationalizing Social Problems in theUS. 2) Considering Fussell's discussion of the treatment of Japanese skulls during World War II, as well as all the other atrocities of World War II (the Holocaust, the Japanese invasions . Textual evidence suggests that Fussell expected most of his readers to think that the American decision to drop the two atom bombs on Japan, landing in the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima during World War II, was ethically wrong. Analyzes how fussell pointed out that those that opposed the dropping of the atom bomb were not of those men going into war and actually fighting. And indeed the bombs were . I was simply miserable. And of course the brutality was not just on one side. Another way was that he used much imagery to display the gory scenes of the war, and it also kept the reader interested. Bottom Line Thank God for the Atom Bomb is my second collection of Paul Fussell essays. Do not let the title or the first few selections lead . I was a twenty-one-year-old second lieutenant of infantry leading a rifle platoon. Momotaro was a well-known Japanese folk tale, which focused on the Japanese being superior to the white imperialists. I believe that the idea of the atomic bomb as something the people would be thankful for is very challenging and yet Fussell, in my opinion, was able to gather all the main ideas behind his argument along with statistics and gave the people a new perspective for the ending of World War II. . . 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. We would have been murdered in the biggest massacre of the war. They would have annihilated the lot of us., The Dutchman Laurens van der Post had been a prisoner of the Japanese for three and a half years. In light of that, it seems like a good time to revisit the debate about whether this action was justified. People have argued over the years if the atomic bombing was justified or not, and multiple points can be made on both arguments, yet I take it that the bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not justified. with quiet disbelief coupled with an indescribable sense of relief. These troops who cried and cheered with relief or who sat stunned by the weight of their experience are very different from the high-minded, guilt- ridden GIs were told about by J. Glenn Gray in his sensitive book The Warriors. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. "Thank God for the Atom Bomb" is an essay written by Paul Fussell, a historian and World War II veteran. He thinks the A-bombs were unnecessary and unjustified because the war was ending anyway. Sitting in stunned silence, we remembered our dead. On the tragic day of August 6, 1945, US Air Force deployed the first atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. [Every Japanese] soldier, civilian, woman, and child would fight to the death with whatever weapons they had, ride, grenade, or bamboo spear. These bombs were thought to end the war between Japan and America before other countries could get involved. In general, the principle is, the farther from the scene of horror the easier the talk. Customer Book Reviews. Everybody in Japan was willing to die to for the war effort. Russian troops had moved into Hungary and Romania, and [the U.S.] thought it would be very difficult Although still officially fit for combat, in the German war I had already been wounded in the back and the leg badly enough to be adjudged, after the war, 40 percent disabled. . Indeed when the bombs were dropped he was going on eight months old, in danger only of falling out of his pram. Having read the two I count myself a fan of Paul Fussell. Explains that paul fussell's thank god for the atom bomb is one of many essays written in favor of the bomb that aided the ending of world war 2. We have used it to shorten the agony of young Americans.. Fussell had written a guide to poetic form and an equally fine critical life of Samuel Johnson when, in 1975, he broke out as an intellectual celebrity with The Great War and Modern Memory, which. The "we had no choice but to use the bomb" argument is most strongly presented in Paul Fussell's (in)famous essay, "Thank God for the Atom Bomb.". But whats at stake in an infantry assault is so entirely unthinkable to those without the experience of one, or several, or many, even if they possess very wide-ranging imaginations and warm sympathies, that experience is crucial in this case. In his classic essay "Thank God for the Atom Bomb," Paul Fussell (World War II vet and National Book Award-winner) observes, "Allied (Pacific) casualties were running to over 7,000 per week." After Nagasaki, "captured American fliers were executed (heads chopped off); the U.S. submarine Bonefish was sunk (all aboard drowned); the destroyer . The stupidity, parochialism, and greed in the international mismanagement of the whole nuclear challenge should not tempt us to misimagine the circumstances of the bombs first use. Nor should our well-justified fears and suspicions occasioned by the capture of the nuclear-power trade by the inept and the mendacious (who have fucked up the works at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, etc.) The dramatic postwar Japanese success at hustling and merchandising and tourism has (happily, in many ways) effaced for most people important elements of the assault context in which [the dropping . ) Why does Fussell "thank God" for the atom bomb? That is, few of those destinedto be blown to pieces if the main Japanese islands had been invaded went on to become our most effective men of letters or impressive ethical theorists or professors of contemporary history or of international law. Americans started saying Once a Jap, Always a Jap (Martin 23). . 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.) Fussell writes that the bombs were necessary to end the war and that they were not intended to punish the Japanese. Fussell is angry. On July 14, 1945, General Marshall sadly informed the Combined Chiefs of Staffhe was not trying to scare the Japanesethat its now clear . When the news of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki came, he asks us to believe, manyan American soldier felt shocked and ashamed. Shocked, OK, but why ashamed? Truman was not being sly or coy whenhe insisted that the bomb was only another weapon. History, as Eliots Gerontion notes. Why does Fussell "thank God" for the atom bomb? The headline of this column is lifted from a 1981 essay by the late Paul Fussell, the cultural critic and war memoirist. Someone, please. As Samuel Johnson said of thesmothering of Desdemona, the innocent in another tragedy, It is not to be endured. Nor, it should be noticed, is an infantrymans account of having his arm blown off in the Arno Valley in Italy in 1944: I wanted to die and die fast. (Pg.26) We all know that all war is cruel. The Japanese folk tale was found in magazines, cartoons, and films and had several versions of the story for all ages. The Japanese were determined to win this fight; they would mobilize every Japanese person to suceed. In the Pacific the situation grew so public and scandalous that in September 1942, the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet issued this order: No part of the enemys body may be used as a souvenir. This is the basis of his argument, that those who did not experience . 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. The experience is common to those in the marines and the infantry and even the line navy, to those, in short, who fought the Second World War mindful always that their mission was, as they were repeatedly assured, to close with the enemy and destroy him. Destroy, notice: not hurt, frighten, drive away, or capture. . This post is a stunning essay by Paul Fussell published in The New Republic in 1981. The combat soldier, he says. The Japanese pre-invasion patriotic song, One Hundred Million Souls for the Emperor, says Sledge, meant just that. Universal national kamikaze was the point. Why not blow them all up, with satchel charges or with something stronger? As a result, Truman ordered the atomic bomb, a deadly revolution in nuclear science, to be dropped on the towns of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Summary Of Thank God For The Atom Bomb By Paul Fussell 499 Words | 2 Pages. I looked to theleft of me and saw the bloody mess that was once my left arm; its fingers and palm were turned upward, like a flower looking to the sun for its strength. 209-230. During this period Japanese people living in both Japan and the United States of America were seen as less that human. Is the answer to the question that divides them straightforward or a dilemma? Assignment Help. ) I will let God be the Judge of that. In Scotch, Teacher's is the great experience." The entire Japanese problem has been magnified out of its true proportion largely due to the physical characteristics of the people (Martin 31). 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