Episode 111 - Rain of Ruin, Part 4

History of Japan

Isaac Meyer

Japan, History, Japanese

4.8 • 744 Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2015

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we'll be covering the Orthodox position on the atomic bomb: the defense of the bomb as necessary in the face of Japanese unwillingness to surrender. We'll look at the original impetus for putting forth a systemic defense of the bomb as well as the basic arguments often used to defend its use.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week's episode is brought to you by Audible.
0:03.6	Audible has over 180,000 titles to choose from, all compatible with iPhone, Android,
0:10.5	Kindle, or your MP3 player of choice.
0:13.9	For listeners of the show, Audible is offering a free 30-day trial membership, complete with credit
0:19.4	for a free audiobook of your choice.
0:21.9	You can cancel any time and keep the free book, or keep going with one of Audible subscription
0:26.9	offers. Go to audibletrial.com slash Japan to claim your offer.
0:32.6	This week, I'm going to recommend Hiroshima by John Hersey.
0:37.1	Arguably the most important piece of World War II journalism ever written, at least on the Pacific side,
0:43.3	Hersy's candid account of the horrors of nuclear war, sparked a debate that continues to this day
0:49.3	and which we will be discussing over the coming weeks.
0:52.3	It's a classic of American journalism, and, well,
0:55.7	difficult to read, to put it mildly, it's absolutely worth your time. Go to audibletrial.com
1:01.7	slash Japan to claim your copy. Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast.
1:25.2	Episode 111, Rain of Ruin, Part 4. It was early 1947, and the Truman administration
1:33.4	had a problem. Well, in truth, they had many problems. The rosy honeymoon days of the early
1:39.2	Truman presidency were long past, and the press was stepping up critiques of presidential policy.
1:45.6	Abroad, the Cold War was moving into high gear. It was becoming increasingly obvious that
1:50.7	Joseph Stalin had no intention of honoring the democratic ideals he'd pledged to hold himself to
1:56.2	in Eastern Europe, and in Asia, the nationalist Chinese were somehow managing to lose the Chinese civil
2:02.0	war to the communists, despite outnumbering and outgunning their foes by a substantial margin.
2:08.4	So all told, not exactly happy days for the administration.
	...

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