functions, the number of register industries, the named register industries and registrars to connect directly to get the services they need. >> barry string ling discusses ans for the u.s. to give oversight. the plan has generated opposition. he is interviewed by the senior editor for telecommunications report. >> the noolings want to protect internet freedom and i think all of us do whether you are a democratic or republican whether you're in the administration or congress, we all have that as our goal, i think people need to understand we might hurt internet freedom if we renege on our commitment to complete this transaction now that community as said they are ready for it.

>> american university history kuznick teaches a class on the american bomb. he argues there are other ways that could have been used to end the war in the pacific instead of dropping the atomic bombs. this class is about an hour and 15 minutes. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] that is in nuclear reactors,

that is in hospitals, in universities. esearch centers. about the spread of these materials and the pobet of dirty bombs and terrorists getting a hold of this, to begin with, that is a small part of the nuclear material that is out there. most of the nuclear material is in the weapons programs and this gathering is not going to be dealing with weapons issues. obama made a speech in prague. in 2009, he said we need nuclear abolition. he said the united states has got to lead that effort because the united states is the only country that has ever used nuclear weapons and warfare

against another country. and that's where we want to begin today. on the one hand there is a certain hypocrisy in what is going on but the story begins really back in 1945. it has progressed to the pointed now, how many countries have nuclear weapons? how many countries have nuclear weapons now? nine, exactly. nine countries have nuclear weapons today. how many are there in the world today? give or take a few hundred. how many nuclear weapons are in the world today? you guys know a lot about climate change and global warming. i'm going argue that the primary threat to our existence is still the threat of nuclear annihilation. how many nuclear weapons in the world today? just a little under 16,000.

how many nuclear weapons at the peak? anybody know? 1970's, there were approximately 70,000 nuclear weapons in world. and there was always one sign at the atomic bomb museum in hiroshima. it said by the mid 1980's, the world had accumulated the equivalent of 1.47 million hiroshima bombs. that's pretty insane. right? one bomb is enough to wipe out a city. why do we need 1.47 million of those bombs? that's what the cold war was about in large part. in fact, the united states in the 1950's actually held ongressional hearings to discuss the possibility of building one bomb that would be 700,000 times as big as a bomb

that wiped out hiroshima. one bomb alone. 100 megatons. 700,000 times as big it is a hiroshima bomb. this is the kind of insanity that world embarked on and that we have pulled back a little bit from but certainly not far nough. that was series of agreements. obama is the one who called for nuclear abolition. he has not sharply reduced the number of bombs. in fact, obama has called for the modernizeation of america's nuclear arsenal. modernizeation of america's nuclear weapons that will cost $1 trillion over the next three decades. while we talk about how insane donald strutch for saying this week that he would like -- south

korea and japan should develop their own nuclear bombs so they can take care of themselves and the u.s. can remove its troops. everybody says that is really insane to encourage nuclear proliferation but the obama administration is encouraging that saying we need our nuclear weapons. we need modern size them. how can we argue that others like north korea or iran or south korea or japan should not have its own nuclear weapons and the right wingers in those countries would like to get nuclear weapons, but the story i want to tell today is really the beginning of this. it is the decision to drop the adomic bomb in 1945. and there are basically -- atomic bomb in 1945. there are basically three narratives that govern how we this. first it is the triumphantened

or heroic narrative. that one argues that the united states was the good guys in world war ii. it was a good war. war to beat fascism and japanese militarism. the united states dropped the bomb. what is the main reason we are taught usually in this country? what's the justification of dropping the bomb? we had already invaded okinawa. the united states, the formula for winning the war in the pacific was what? it was a combination of a block aid, strategic bombing and the u.s. invasion. the belief was it would cost a lot of lives.

the highest estimate was 46,000. the president harry truman said in his memoir that chief of staff george marshall told him that a half million men would have been lost in an invasion. the secretary of war said he believed that a million men, a million casualties which means maybe 200,000 or 250,000 dead. president george h.w. bush praised truman's tough calculating decision saying it saved millions of american lives. the numbers have grown over the years. truman's own estimates started with thousands and ended up with half mall. the justification, we're the good guys. we dropped the bomb in order to avoid an invasion where so many americans would be killed. this was the heroic narrative. the tragic narrative argues that

the atomic bombs were not necessary. that the japanese were already defeated and trying to find a way toned the war. surrender. the united states dropped the bomb unnecessarily and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent victims, mostly women and children. it was a tragedy. for those that were killed for those that survived, have been suffering the results of the bombings for the rest of their lives. that is the tragic narrative. i added the third narrative which i call the apock lip tick narrative. it says that dropping bombs unnecessarily is a war crime and seriously should be condemn. but what truman did was even worse. he knowingly began a process that threatened the future exist overpbes all life on the planet. killing people is a war crime but to threaten all of humanity

with extinction which i say truman knowingly did at a time when there was no military just fixation even worse. what that represents is the worst imaginable crime that can be committed and that we have been lucky to survive ever since. and the threat of nuclear annihilation exists with us today which is why i think it is so important for you to understand this. because the there are three ndamental myths of world one -- world war ii. that the americans won the war in europe. the soviets won the war in europe with some united states and british help. i want to boil boun what i usually do is a 12-hour legislature into 75 minutes which of course is not going to happen, but we'll try. the second myth of world war ii is that the cold war started during world war ii because the

soviet aggression and the soviet plan to conquer the world and the third myth is that the atomic bombs ended the world and they are just and humane and we saved lives by doing so. that is the one i want to tackle today. so the story begins really in ecember of 1938. when two german scientists -- let me backtrack a little bit. five star admirals and generals who received their fifth star during the war are on record saying the atomic bombs were unnecessary, morally reprehensible or both. six of america's five star admirals and generals. that's point number one. the second point to defy what you were taught in school about the atomic bombs at the end of

the war in the national museum of the u.s. navy, the official u.s. navy museum, it says now in there their exhibit, it says the at destruction by bombings hiroshima and nagasaki made little impact on the japanese military. however the sover yet invasion of man churey on august 9 changed -- manchuria changed their mind. it was not atomic bombs and the fact that truman and his advisors new beforehand that there were other ways to end the war that could have possibly ended the war sooner. according to mac arthur, it could have ended the war much sooner. starts start in the beginning. starts in 1938 when two

german physicists split the uranium atom. word of that came at a conference in january of 1939. the renowned danish physicist brought back word that the germans had split the uranium atom. even smart graduate students began to draw diagrams for the poket of making an atomic bomb. it was clear from the very beginning. the people in united states were most concerned about that possibility were the scientists. there were a lot of leading scientists who escaped from nazi occupied europe and came to the united states. they were terrified. what they were afraid of was -- would be iven able to develop the atomic bomb and bbb able to take over the

world. they tried to alert the american authority. they were not listening. there were seven very brilliant hundred guerins and two of them figured -- hungaryians and two of them figured out a strategy to try to do something about it. li and eugene got a car and decided that they were going to approach the most famous sinet history in america at the time. who was the most famous scientist in america in 1939? albert einstein. he was vacationing in long island. they drove out to the island. nobody knew where he lived. they found a kid who could tell them where einstein lived. he had been working on a theory and he was so out to have loop that he didn't know the germans split the uranium atom. immediately li explained what happened. einstein understood and agreed to send a letter. he wrote a letter to president

roosevelt urging the united states to begin serious bomb research as a dernt againstier germans. the bomb from the very beginning was thought of not as a weapon of war for united states but as a deterrent to stop the germans from using their own nuclear ops. the letter was delivered by xander sachs. roosevelt said i understand, you just don't want to see the germans blow up the world. it was the beginning of a nuclear research program. einstein later apologized. he said i have one great regret in my life. that's that i wrote the letter to president roosevelt beginning the atomic bomb proggets. it began very slowly as the early meetings were like swimming in sir um. -- syrup.

until the end of 1941, the beginning of 1942. what was the project called in the united states? the manhattan project. yes. it began with some scientists at the university of chicago met lab. early research went on there. they developed the first atomic -- tested the first nuclear chain reaction. in the abandoned -- underneath the football stadium there, university of chicago. i'll going to be speaking on this topic at the university at the beginning of may. they start -- compton was in charge to have met lab in chicago. he authorized a group headed by robert oppenheimer. a name you might know. he is sometimes considered the

father of the atomic bomb. he organized a group of luminaries and they went out to berkeley. these were the leading hysicists. a lot of the top physicists in the and they were going to wrestle with the problems. they went out to berkeley to start to think about this. they were in for a bit of a shock because they calculated that it is possible that if there was a nuclear explosion, atomic bomb, it could ignite all the hydrogen in the seas or all the nitrogen in atmosphere and set the entire world on fire. they were shocked. they were terrified. they looked in horror at the black board, the calculations. oppenheimer said stop immediately. went off to michigan and laid out the possibility. compton said stop the project immediately. it is better to live in slavery

to the nazis than to bring down the final curtain on mankind which makes a lot of sense one would think. they went back there and redid the formulas and realized they had made a mistake with the math and the chances of blowing up the entire world were only three in a million. they said it was worth it, we'll take the risk for flee a million and proceeded with the project in 1942. the project continues in july of 1944, july 16, 1945. the u.s. tests the bomb. where was the first bomb test? new mexico. it was called the trinity test. kilatons in 18,000 destructive capability. the scientist who were there couldn't believe it flt in fact

it got so bright they believed they had set the atmosphere on ire. >> they tested it and -- completely deteriorated -- >> you could still go there. it is open i think one day a year on july 16, if you want to go there. yeah, when they talk about it, they talk about all the frogs are out there croaking and cop lating the night before and the scientists were there measuring everything and all of a sudden, all the life there, the frogs and the rattle snakes and everything was wiped out there. they were shocked but how powerful it was. they always used the term doomsday to describe it. this was july 16, 1945. let me give you a little bit of background to put that in context. to understand the decision to drop the bomb, there are a

couple of things you have got to know about. the first is who was president of the united states from 1932-1945. franklin delano roosevelt, arguably america's greatest president. and who was vice president from 1941 to 1945? who was vice president of the united states from 1941-1945. truman? any other guesses? hoover? o. 1941-1945. you know jack, because you have had more classes with me. you better know. yes, henry wilder. how many of you can say two sentences about him? that's not accidental. -- henry wallace has been largely wiped out of the history

books and it is a crime that that has been the case. let me give you a background on henry wallace. he came from a distinguished farm family from iowa. his father was secretary of agriculture under harding and coolidge. he was actually a republican but when roosevelt began the new deal, he wanted wallace in the cabinet as secretary of agriculture. he was a great secretary of agriculture. in 1940 roosevelt was going to run for a third term. he decided, he knew we were on the verge of a war and he wanted a leading proprogressive on the ticket as vice president. wallace was the leading anti-fascist in the united states. but the party bosses didn't want wallace on the ticket. roosevelt actually wrote a letter to the democratic convention in 1940 turning down the presidential nomination.

you see how desperate all of these people are to get it. he turned it down in this letter. we already have one money dominated crupt party in the united states, the republicans. if the democrats are not going to stand for liberal values and socialies justice, we have no reason existing. i'm not going to be the presidential candidate for such a party. eleanor roosevelt went to the floor of the convention and told them he was serious and they gave him wallace on the ticket as vice president but they were going to exact their revenge in four years. wallace becomes vice president. he was a visionary as he had always been. speech saying his the 20th century must be the american century. the united states should dominate the world militarily, economically, politically. wallace as vice president

refuted that. he said the 20th century must be the century of the common man. he said we need a worldwide people's revolution in the tradition of the american revolution, the french revolution, the lat american revolutions and the russian revolution that would end clonism and get rid of poverty and spread science and technology around the planet and he also said that america's fascists are people that think that wall street comes first and the nation comes second. now we call them democrats and republicans. but in those days, wallace labeled them america's fascistses. he had a very radical agenda and there were a lot of people who hated pim. by 1944 when he was up for renomination as vice president, a lot of people were opposed to him. he southern segregationists.

a misonly history in. misogynist. the wall street interests. the business interests. he was the leading spokesperson for the unions at that time. he had a lot of enemies. that was coup, edwin polly called it polly's coup. the leader wan the campaign to try -- ran the campaign to try to get wallace off the ticket in 1944. i love the detail how they did it. but wallace was the second most popular person in the country behind roosevelt so the day the democratic party convention started july 20, 1944, eltering evening in chicago, they released a poll asking voters who they wanted on the ticket as vice president.

2% said they wanted harry truman. 65% said they wanted wallace back as vice president. given our democracy of course, you know, trump is threatening riots if he doesn't get the nomination, how could they get wallace off the ticket if he had 65% popular support? the problem was that the party bosses controlled the convention. the first night of the convention, they have the whole thing against the wallas for truman. the first night of the convention, wallace made a speech for roosevelt. the place went wild. spontaneous eruption led bied a y stevenson and hubert humphrey. claude pepper realized if he could get to the microphone, he allowed the nomination that night. he would be back on the ticket and be vice president again in 1944.

pepper fought his way through the crowd. got within five feet of the podium before jackson, under orders of the party bosses led by mayor frank kelly of chicago. said i have a motion to adjourn. all in favor say aye. the motion carried. meeting adjourned. well, pepper was literally five feet from the microphone. had he gotten five more feet to the microphone, he would have gotten wallace's name and nomination. wallace would have been back on the ticket as vice president. i argue that all of history could have been different. there would have been no atomic bombs used in world war ii. there likely would have been no cold war. that same period which we lived with the threat of annihilation could have been avoided and we could have had a very, very different kind of history. but unfortunately wallace did not get the nomination on the third ballot, the votes kicked

in for truman. the payoffs were made. the postmaster generalships kicked into position. truman was on the ticket as vice president. that's the first major turning point in this history. the second major turning point ccurs on april 12, 1945. hat happens april 12 12, 1945? hat happened that day? f.d.r. died, april 12, 1945. the trip to ya'lla in february took too much out of him and roosevelt pass -- to yalta in february took too much out of him and roosevelt passed away. what that meant was truman was over at sam raburn's office at

the capitol and had gotten a new supply of whiskey and was there to play poker with his friends and said we have a message, before you have a drink or deal a hand, call up immediately. he said hurry up. don't talk to anybody. truman knew something was up. he rushes over and is greeted on the second floor by eleanor roosevelt. she was a big woman. from youman was a little man. eleanor says to him, harry, the president's dead and the room starts to spin. truman had this recurring nightmare that the secret service would knock on his demoor the middle of the night and tell him that the president was dead. now it happened. he said i'm so sorry, is there anything i can do for you and eleanor says is there anything we can do for you? you're the one in trouble now. it wasn't only truman that was going to be in trouble. all of us were going to be in

trouble. the world was in trouble. truman had been vice president only 82 days. during that time he met with roosevelt only twice. they never discussed anything of substance. he didn't know any of the antagonism with the british. now he is going to be making the most monumental decisions in history and it is unfortunate. briefly let me give you a little bit of background on harry truman. truman was born in 1884 in missouri. his father, john truman was a little guy, but he was a tough guy and his nickname was peanuts, john peanuts truman. he was an unsuccessful farmer. he would go around picking fights with guys who were a foot taller than him to show how tough he was. he really wanted a macho son. that was harry's brotherian.

harry was diagnosed as a child with flat eyeballs. they called it hyper mr. kuznick: he said i was afraid to do rough-and-tumble stuff because i was afraid my eyes would pop out. he becomes the kid that everybody else picks on? . sisi, for eyes, every day when the gang would chase him home from school, he would run home from school, crying. his mother would meet him at the door and say, harry, don't worry. you were meant to be a girl anyway. we know this from truman's own memoirs. truman writes about this.

he would always talk about these feminine attributes that he had. he would later be the guy who would stand up to churchill, and , bossore significantly the russians around, show how tough he was, show how macho he was, make his father proud. truman was not very successful. where did harry truman go to college? harvard? yell? columbia? yale? columbia? college,d not go to not because he was smart enough, but his family did not have any money and he did not have any advantages so he went into business.

the business is all failed. he was very unsuccessful. until the age of 40, he fought in world war i, maybe not quite 40 yet. he fought in world war i and succeeded and commanded troops and feltback successful for the first time in his life. he then got picked up by the , the machinechine that ran kansas city was run by boss pendergast. they ticked truman up, and truman was a respectable member of the machine that ran kansas city. he was relatively honest and a corrupt, urban machine. in 1933, he says to his daughter, tomorrow i will be 50 , 49 years old, for all

the good i've done, they can take away the 40. i might as well be nine years old. he had a meeting with boss pendergast and his lieutenant in missouri and was going to tell them he was leaving the machine and going back to the farm. pendergast says we want to run you for the senate. truman says, run for the senate? what do i know about the world. i know how to build roads and kansas city. pendergast says we will get you elected and give you people to tell you what to do. he runs and gets elected to the senate and 1934. most of the other senators shun him, call him a senator from pendergrast. in 1940's, running for reelection, roosevelt is not backing him, pendergast is in federal prison and kansas city, the pendergast machine has fallen apart, he's coming in

third in the primary, so then he cuts a deal with the heads of , andachine in st. louis they get him narrowly reelected and he is back in the senate. as senator during the second term, he does a little bit better and heads an important investigation of the defense industry and develops a national reputation. have a, he does not popular reputation, and he does not really have any support. he had 2% support in the polls, but gets the nomination and gets back on the ticket as vice president, and when roosevelt dies, he becomes president of the united states. his first day and the office, he goes to the capital to talk to the congressmen, the reporters find him outside and said, how are you doing? boys, if you pray, pray for me now.

--on't know if any of you thei feel as if the moon, stars, and all the planets at full and army. they said, good luck, mr. president. he says i wish you did not have to call me that. he tells everybody to come see him and tells them it's a big mistake. i am not big enough, smart enough, and i should not be president. actlly they told him to like president because the country would lose faith otherwise, so truman puts on this façade. the situation you have to remember is that truman's vice president for 82 days. during that time, nobody had enough respect for him, held him in high enough regard, to tell him the united states was building an atomic tom. truman does not find out until after he is sworn in on president on the night of april 12. the next day, jimmy burns goes

up to see him. jimmy burns is a very important figure. senator fromormer south carolina and a former supreme court judge. he was one of truman's few allies when truman was in the senate. truman says to him, jimmy, i don't know anything about what is going on. fill me in on everything. and burns told you about the world, the threat of the communist. what happens is that a lot of people who briefed him about the the hard-linehere anti-communists. burns also tells him that the united states is building a weapon great enough to destroy the whole world. truman writes that in his memoirs. , trumaneginning

understands that the atomic bomb is not a bigger bomb, a more powerful bomb. it is a weapon great enough to destroy the whole world. on april 25, he gets a fuller briefing. this is from secretary of war simpson. do we have a secretary of war today? because we don't fight anymore wars, right? what is the secretary of war called now? secretary of defense, a euphemism, a more palatable word than secretary of war. so simpson was secretary of war at the time, and he and leslie -- does that name mean anything to you anymore? he was the military head of the manhattan project.

he is the brigadier general in charge of the manhattan project. about,y brief truman they give him a full briefing on the atomic bomb. they basically tell him that we will haveonths a weapon that can wipe out an entire city. how we use it and what we do with it will determine the future of mankind. truman later records that simpson said to him that even if we have this weapon, maybe we should not use it the cousin could end of life on the planet. truman later says i agreed with him when he said that, maybe we should not use it because it can end the life on the planted. -- the planet. that's the second time he acknowledged the apocalypse attentional. the third time is on july 25 when he gets a full report on the trinity test at alamogordo, then truman writes that we have

discover the most terrible bomb in history. fire disruption prophecy in the euphrates valley era after noah and his arc. k. so truman had this in his mind as he was contemplating this throughout. he says other interesting things on other occasions that show more than what he was thinking along those lines. why did we use the bomb? why did we develop the bomb and use it? because we think that, we see it as a deterrent, then we later see it as a way intentionally, at least officially, to avoid an invasion. what was happening then in terms of the war? getthere any other way to the japanese to surrender

without use of the bomb? i'm going to argue that there were two other ways. is anybody familiar enough with this material to know what else could have been done? how could they have ended the war? to make sense out of this situation, the japanese after 1944, the in july japanese recognize that they were militarily defeated, that they could not win the war of the tillery -- war met july 1944 and they begin to think of how to get out of the war. the japanese navy was decimated at that port -- point. the air force badly damaged, the army tied down, the food supplies beginning to shrink, the transportation system is already a shambles are beginning

to be in that direction, and so , the japanesetes understood that they could not win the war. however, there is a new government at that port and they decide that -- that point and they decide that we have to wait until we have one more major victory, then we can get better surrender terms from the united states. the problem was that they never get another victory from that point on. february 1945, the former prime minister writes a memo to in which hehito says that i regret to inform you that defeat is inevitable. that we have say to be careful that there will be a common is revolution

accompanying defeat inside japan. revolutiont accompany defeat inside japan. of 1945, the japanese are acknowledging their defeat. if the japanese knew that they could not win militarily, why did they not surrender? why didn't they just surrender and stop the bloodshed? student: culturally they are not -- termsznick: what were the that the united states was demanding? what kind of surrender terms was the united states demanding? this takes place at the meeting in casablanca, you guys have heard about that one? it was a famous meeting between

roosevelt, churchill, and inphrey bogart in casablanca -- bogartich they wasn't there -- at which they decide, which is the demand? unconditional surrender. what is unconditional surrender mean? for the japanese? why are the jeopardy so post to unconditional surrender? u.s.nt: worried of the annexing them essentially. mr. kuznick: annexing them? one of the concerns was the u.s. disarming them, conducting war crimes trials, those are concerns. student: elimination of the monarchy. elimination of the monarchy. to the japanese, the emperor was the equivalent of a god. ,s general douglas macarthur

they issue a background report that the945 that says execution of the emperor to them is like the crucifixion of htrist to us, all would fig to die. they realized the main stumbling block to japanese surrender was the demand for unconditional surrender, which meant to them that the emperor would be tried as a war criminal. however, roosevelt and churchill had adopted that in january 1943. onre was a lot of pressure truman to change that demand. in fact, almost everyone -- secretary of war simpson, you go through the list of them, almost all of them supported changing the surrender terms to speed up

the end of war. atarishington post had an -- had an editorial calling for this. the only ones who could convince truman not to do that with jimmy burns, and he said people hate the emperor and you will be politically crucified if you let the japanese keep the emperor, so burns prevails on him. burns is a key figure, as i said. in fact, burns -- truman says to appoint youan't secretary of state now, but want you to be my main advisor and as soon as we finish the united nations negotiations, i will point you to secretary of state. and burns does get appointed to secretary of state and july 1945. refused to change the surrender terms, even at the -- potsdam.ots dam

1945,es place in july when truman meets stalin and churchill for the first time in potsdam, germany. again at that meeting, secretary of war simpson implores truman to change the surrender terms, 76 truman says to his frail rolled secretary of war, if you don't like it, white and she pack your bags and go home. changes toesisted the surrender terms even though all the experts around him urged him to do so. so that is number one. the second consideration in terms of ways to into the war -- end the war was the plans for the soviet union to invade. urgingstates had then the soviets to join the pacific war for years. stalin kept saying that we have to first win the war in europe,

then we will worry about japan. at yalta and february 1945, stalin finally agreed and said we will come into the pacific war three months after the end of the war in europe. -- the war ine it europe ends around may 8, may 9, that means the soviets promised to invade japan on august 9. new what wasates going on inside japan. the united states -- how do we know what is going on inside japan? how do we know what the japanese leaders are thinking? we have broken the japanese codes. we were intercepting their cables. japanese decide at a meeting of the war cabinet on may 16-18, the japanese

say that the invasion of japan by the soviet union will deal a deathblow to the empire. that once the soviet union it will be a, deathblow to the empire. they said we have to do everything we can to avoid a soviet invasion of japan. they also decide then and there , at that point they begin to discuss it, that maybe we can get better surrender terms if we get the soviet union to negotiate on our behalf. and so they decide to approach the soviet union to get them better surrender terms. in return, they will get the soviet union certain concessions. they did not know they had already had made a deal with the soviets to enter the war for certain concessions. basically the soviets were going

to get everything they lost to japan and the 1904-1905 war. a lot of this was very important to them to get all of that back. japanese are looking for help in the soviets to get better surrender terms, and on june 2 and third, june 3 and fourth, the former japanese meets with the soviet ambassador and tokyo to discuss the possibility of ending the war. the soviet ambassador writes back to the soviet union saying, the japanese are desperate to end the war. it was becoming clear to them. american leaders knew that too. japanese cables said things

like, unconditional surrender is the only obstacle to peace. if they recognize the emperor and let us keep the emperor, the war can into tomorrow. the americans knew that. truman intercepted the cable asking for peace. telegram froma the japanese emperor asking for peace. truman and everybody around him said the japanese seem desperate to surrender. the japanese were desperate to surrender, why would the united states not just let them surrender? why did the united states go on to use the bomb? why one thing to understand an evil person this terrible things, but how do we make sense out of, harry truman is not an evil person doing terrible things, using the bomb when he knew there were under ways to -- other ways to end the war.

the soviet invasion was about to occur, changes in surrender terms would make a huge difference. how do we make sense of truman's behavior? in order to do so, let me put this in a moral context. 1945, there were two major factors that were influencing the more context. the first was american attitudes towards the japanese. the americans hated the japanese. in fact, according to alan s, no flow and all of american history has been so detested as were the japanese. why did the americans hate the japanese so much? the british embassy reported back to london and said that the universal extermination is sentiment in the united states, they want to exterminate the vermin.

, theook at the statements images that were used of the japanese were apes, monkeys, cockroaches, vermin. the japanese in our thinking were subhuman. time magazine said the japanese ,re ignorant and unreasoning perhaps they are human, but nothing indicates it. pile, apile -- ernie leading correspondent said that are enemies were at least treated as human beings. here i get the sense that everybody thinks of the japanese as subhuman, as beneath humanity. where did that come from? some of it is old-fashioned racism, but not all of it. stories there were

constantly about japanese atrocities. the but hand death march -- but battan death march, and what they subjected the american to wear and filipinos astounding, tied them to trees for bayonet practice, castrated them, buried them alive, cut off their heads. , actuallybout isis the image we had of the japanese in world war ii makes isis look tame by comparison. so clearly there was a lot of racial animus towards the japanese, but some of it was not just racism, but based on stories of japanese atrocities.

up -- what else did we do to the japanese? 110,000 toeen 120,000 japanese americans and concentration cap's. did we put the italians in, germans in? no. this was highly discriminatory treatment of the japanese at the time. i would love to have more time to tell you about it, but at least we know that are read -- leaders were not racist, right? would we expect harry truman to be racist? harry truman was deeply racist. in fact, when his journal came wrote an op-ed for the l.a. times because it was so filled with rachel -- ews,al epithets about j

japanese, blacks, that i thought it was worth exposing it. earlierrote a letter that he proposes to beth. she did not want to have any part of him for a long time. he proposes to beth in this letter, and what he said was pretty remarkable. man is as think one good as another as long as he is honest are decent and not a -- or china men. chinese and chaps, so do i, it is race prejudice i guess, but i was strongly of the opinion of yellow men and asia and white men in europe and america. this is early harry truman. is that going to influences thinking? he always refers to african-americans as -- they said truman never used any other word to describe american

-- african-american. he was full of prejudice good one thing we have to factor in his racism. the second thing we have to factor in is the fact that the united states bombing policy and asia was what we call strategic bombing. ted cruz got a little bit of flak recently when he called for carpet bombing of civilians in syria. that is against the law. it is a war crime, and should be. well the united states policy and asia was what we call strategic bombing, which meant indiscriminate urban bombing. in europe, we took great care until late in the war to avoid bombing civilians. we had strategic nodal points to in japan from the very beginning we would ride after civilian populations to try to burn down what we call japan's paper city. when the former head of u.s. bombing policy and japan refused

to stop bombing civilians, he was ousted and replaced by general curtis lemay. the bombing of tokyo was the first massive bombing of an urban population on that scale. flesh was so burnt overpowering that the pilots were throwing up in their planes. people worst spontaneously inflamed, the canals were fire, andhe city's on that was the beginning. the united states went on to firebomb 100 japanese cities, .ver 100 japanese cities

by summer 1945, we ran out of important military targets. it was astounding. togot so bad that according an aide to macarthur, he said the u.s. bombing was one of the most ruthless and barbaric killings of noncombatants in all history. so the united states, the u.s. organized a group to assess the effects of the bombing, and they said stop bombing civilians, go after transportation, key industries, alexa said he, go

after the key nodal points in the communications, that is what will speed up the end of the war. the united states continued its bombing policy. even for those who fought in this bombing, it was pretty horrific. physicist was part of the tiger force of 300 bombers that was involved in the bombing of japan. this continuing slaughter of defenseless japanese even more sickening than the slaughter of well defended germans, but still i did not quit. by that time, i had been at war so long that i could hardly remember peace. hadiving poet headboards -- words to describe that emptiness of soul that would allow me to go on killing without hatred and remorse. shakespeare understood it and gave mcbeth the words, i am in

blood stepped in so that should is as no more returning tedious as going over. so we kept on this bombing policy through the end of the war. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016]