Yes, We Should Have Bombed Japan

Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. director of national intelligence, has produced and released a video that depicts the horrific consequences of the American attack on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. In the spot, Gabbard laments the “haunting sadness” that remains in that city, before insinuating bizarrely that there exists a political faction in the present-day United States that is jonesing to bring about global “nuclear annihilation.”

Gabbard is correct to be appalled by the carnage that was caused by the bomb. War is disgusting, and that extraordinary chapter, which concluded what was undoubtedly the most terrible war in history, provides no exception to the rule. But Gabbard’s implications — that (a) ending World War II with atomic weapons was a mistake, and that (b) there is a contingent of American voters whose enthusiasm for nuclear weapons is the result of a failure to understand that — are flat-out wrong. Our decision to end the Pacific War as we did was not only defensible, it was imperative — and it was imperative precisely because the alternative was the unjustifiable “annihilation” of blameless U.S. citizens.

About the Author

Charles C. W. Cooke

Charles C. W. Cooke is a senior editor at National Review and the host of The Charles C. W. Cooke Podcast.

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Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. director of national intelligence, has produced and released a video that depicts the horrific consequences of the American attack on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. In the spot, Gabbard laments the “haunting sadness” that remains in that city, before insinuating bizarrely that there exists a political faction in the present-day United States that is jonesing to bring about global “nuclear annihilation.”

Gabbard is correct to be appalled by the carnage that was caused by the bomb. War is disgusting, and that extraordinary chapter, which concluded what was undoubtedly the most terrible war in history, provides no exception to the rule. But Gabbard’s implications — that (a) ending World War II with atomic weapons was a mistake, and that (b) there is a contingent of American voters whose enthusiasm for nuclear weapons is the result of a failure to understand that — are flat-out wrong. Our decision to end the Pacific War as we did was not only defensible, it was imperative — and it was imperative precisely because the alternative was the unjustifiable “annihilation” of blameless U.S. citizens.