[Buddha-l] Re: Greetings from Oviedo

[Dan Lusthaus]

Lance,

As I mentioned in the previous message, the Japanese overtures to Russia in
search of a better deal are well known. It was not an offer of surrender,
however. It was a probing, based on misguided notions held by some in the
Japanese leadership that Russia, having its own imperial history, would be
more understanding. The US repeatedly issued requests, though various
channels, asking for the Japanese surrender, which the Japanese repeatedly
refused, according to some accounts, in very harsh terms.

Given the timing of the Japanese acceptance of the terms of surrender, the
idea that  "It is not clear
that dropping those bombs actually had any impact on the Japanese decision"
seems like little more than unconvincing pleading. That would be a whopper
of a coincidence. The scenario suggesting that the Japanese were in
negotiating mode, hoping that the costliness of a full out invasion -- 
whether in potentia or in actu -- would produce sufficient change of
circumstances that less than unconditional surrender would become possible
seems a more accurate reading of the situation.

Similarly "In other words there can be no reasonable doubt that when the
order to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was given, the U.S.
President knew that Japan was willing to surrender" is reading too much into
the situation. They knew that the Japanese were exploring options, and that
the noose was tightening. The bombs clinched the deal. Again, if the
Japanese were eager to surrender you need to explain why they didn't do so
on Aug. 7th instead of Aug. 10th. You aren't suggesting that between Aug.
6th and Aug 10th the US dept. of Surrender Acceptance was on vacation, are
you? The only ones raising the kind of questions you raise are in the West.
The decisiveness of the bomb in Japan's decision is taken as a basic and
obvious fact by every Japanese I've ever talked to about it. Curious, isn't
that?

"From the Buddhist perspective, it seems to me that it is demonization
or idolization of a race, a religion, a nation or a political
orientation (left, right or centre) which is ultimately unacceptable.
We all have allegiances or loyalties, but if we hold on to them too
firmly and adopt rigid viewpoints based on them (or based on
rejecting them), we become part of the problem instead of part of the
cure."

Nothing to disagree with there.

Dan