Truman's Resolve
Facing the prospect of horrendous casualties, how the suddenly newly-installed president took the bull by the horns and ended World War Two and created MacArthur's empire
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“When are you going to test that atomic bomb?” Truman asked. “We are shooting for mid-July,” the secretary of war replied. “Get on it,” Truman pushed. “If it works, I am resolved to use it to end this war and stop shedding our young men’s blood. We’re going to have peace, one way or the other.” Stimson smiled. It certainly can’t be easy for Truman to fill Roosevelt’s shoes, he thought. Roosevelt, from a patrician family, was a mesmerizing orator; Truman from Midwest humble beginnings, is an uninspiring public speaker. But I have to hand it to the new president, he runs a no-sense, organized meeting and he is decisive and resolute, perhaps more so than Roosevelt. Truman’s resolve is admirable. *** I suppose they’ll fold eventually and there will be an occupation—no doubt about that. So the decision I’m faced with is who will command the occupation forces. I’m inclined to appoint Doug MacArthur because he’s the man the Japs fear the most—the man who reconquered the Philippines. It’s a hard decision because I just don’t like the man, even though I’ve never met him. What to do with this prima donna who is hard to control and thinks he personally talks to God and tells the Lord what to do? He’s a play actor and a bunco man! He’s worse than the Cabots and the Lodges. They at least talked to one another before telling God what to do. Mac tells God right off! Then Truman smiled. Ha! That’s what the Japs deserve—to deal with MacArthur, who, as Supreme Commander of the occupation forces will exercise dictatorial powers no American president under our constitution could ever dare hope to have. So I guess I have made my decision. But I’ll have to keep a close eye on him, he decided.
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Having come off vicious battles in Saipan and Peleliu, this volume continues the war with the invasion of the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. The battle for Iwo Jima, coming ever closer to Japan, caused many casualties, the most so far in the Pacific war. But it did not compare to the next battle, the one for Okinawa, where heavy casualties were incurred not only by the troops on the ground but by the sailors on ships, attacked by suicide bombers whose pilot’s sole mission was to crash his bomb-carrying plane into an American ship. With the death of President Roosevelt, Harry Truman faced the momentous decision of dropping the atomic bomb on Japan, wiping out tens of thousands of civilians, or instead invading Japan and face perhaps a million casualties among American forces, given what happened on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Truman drooped the bomb and the Japanese, after much soul searching, surrendered. Enter General Douglas MacArthur, appointed Supreme Commander for the occupation of Japan. He retained the emperor against the howling of those calling for revenge and retribution, ending up with a totally peaceful occupation up to the time the occupations forces left Japan.