[PEN-L:1723] Re: Japan

[Brad De Long <delong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Why shouldn't Hiroshima be a war crime?  Because it was supposed to scare the
>Soviets?  After all, the U.S. knew that the Japanese were trying to surrender.
>

*Some* elements in the Japanese government were trying to surrender. Others
were not. Which would prevail was hard to guess ex ante...

Yesterday I thought that the fact that the weapon was used in the hope that
the Japanese would conclude that the Americans had many more such and hence
surrender immediately--that it really would shorten the war--was enough to
keep it on the "non war crime" side of the line. But as I said, I go back
and forth on this...

Brad DeLong