A-BOMBING OF JAPAN WAS NEEDLESS--Admiral Leahy

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23207, 20 March 1950, Page 5

A-BOMBING OF JAPAN WAS NEEDLESS--Admiral Leahy

(10.45 a.m.) WASHINGTON, March 18. It is a practical certainty that potential enemies some day will attack the United States with atomic bombs, Admiral William Leahy says in a book which is a recording of his memoirs as American envoy to the

Vichy French Government and as Chief of Staff to President Roosevelt and President Truman.

Admiral Leahy said perhaps l there was some hope that its capacity for death and terror among the defenceless may restrain the nations from using the atomic bomb against each other.

He was forced, however, to the reluctant conclusion that unless there was some iron-clad guarantee that the United States must have more and better atomic bombs than any potential enemy. Admiral Leahy says he thinks the atomic bombing of Japan was un necessary because Japan was already on the verge of defeat when the bombs were dropped. He says the bomb was of no material assistance in the war against Japan.

He feels that the scientists and others wanted to use it on Nagasaki and Hiroshima because of the vast sums spent on the atomic project. “Bv being the first nation to use the atomic bomb we have adopted . an ethical standard common to barbarians

of the Dark Ages,” he says. “Wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.”

Admiral Leahy says that President Truman did not like the idea of using atomic bombs but was persuaded it would shorten the war and save American lives.

He says that the scientists told President Roosevelt in the middle of 1944 that they thought they had a bacteriological weapon that would destroy the entire Japanese rice crop. Some United States officials wanted to use the weapon but he urged President Roosevelt to reject the idea because it would violate every Christian ethic and cause Japan to use the same type of weapon.

Mistake in Asking Russia

Admiral Leahy says the United States made a mistake in asking Russia to enter the war against Japan. He says he advised against it but President Roosevelt took the advice of the Army leaders who felt that Japan could not be defeated without Russia’s aid Admiral Leahy indicates his sympathy for Marshal Petain, open contempt for General de Gaulle, praise for President Roosevelt and President Truman. Some admiration for M. Stalin and Mr. Churchill.

He records Mr. Churchill's repeated fruitless efforts to persuade President Roosevelt to agree to an attack on Balkans. He erorcsses the opinion that Mr. Churchill was seeking post-war advantages for Britain in the Balkans. He savs the United States saw the Balkan attack as having only a diversionary value and not contributing to the defeat of Germany.