E. B. Sledge’s Views on Dropping the A-Bomb

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Table of Contents

Introduction
The life of US Marine, E.B. Sledge
Hiroshima and Nagasaki – a good end?
Conclusion
References

Introduction

It is not an easy task to outline the rights and the wrongs in a war. There will always be points of difference based on the situation and the position in which the speaker/writer is. Every murderer has a murder; in other words, the reasons for war are always well articulated, irrespective of the person responsible for such articulation. In the case of E.B. Sledge, there were a lot of conflicting emotions that crossed his mind, during the course of the war. For a person who lived out his career as a US Marine, in close proximity with the horrors of the battlefield, the justification of the atom bomb being dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima does not call for any form of debate, as far as he is concerned. For a man who was numbed by the scores of the soldier dead and dying before him, this only served to be a respite, more so a permanent one, from a horrendous military exercise. There are no fanciful descriptions of the war, nor is there a romanticizing of the situation in Japan. There is a pointed effort to present to the reader the reality of war in all its starkness and raw horror.

The life of US Marine, E.B. Sledge

In a desperate move to be inducted into the US Marine Corps, E.B. Sledge gave up an academic program and joined others like him. No amount of training and orientation would prepare him for the war that was being fought in Okinawa and Peleliu. It was a certain esprit de corps that kept these Marines together, fighting a common enemy and coming to terms with their own fears and inadequacies.

All his experiences on these battlefields have been chronicled in great gory detail. One such instance is of a fellow Marine stealing gold teeth from a Japanese soldier who is on the verge of death. Knowing full well that the soldier is still alive, a Marine plunges a knife to extract a gold tooth. Sled and a few other Marines shout out for him to stop, which he reluctantly does. The Japanese soldier is shot dead to relieve him of his pain, while the Marine expresses his displeasure for the humane gesture of Sledge and the other Marines (Sledge 120).

His career as a Marine required him to follow orders implicitly even if it meant having to dig a trench right through the corpse of a Japanese soldier! His description of the invasion and occupation of Okinawa leaves no doubt in the mind of the reader about the kind of motivation that was used to get soldiers like Sledge into the spirit of war. His view of the enemy, their strategies and warfare, the harshness of the terrain, and a lot more, make you feel like you are part of the World War II landscape.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki – a good end?

There is nothing just about war – this would be a cry from most pacifists who believe that justifications cannot be even contemplated when one talks of war. However, in the case of a war veteran like E.B. Sledge, there is a burning desire to bring the war to an end after being a past of carnage and bloodshed, which after a time, seems almost pointless. Like E.B. Sledge there are those like Paul Fussel who believe that only experience can make you take sides on how and when war should end. It is relatively easy to sit thousands of miles away from the war front debating on the ethical correctness of dropping the A-bomb compared to the likes of Sledge who want the carnage to end. People who have spent considerable hours on the battlefield and are intensely aware of the horrors of an invasion (whichever side they may be on) are in favor of a quick end to all suffering. The dropping of the A-bomb was therefore both “horrible and welcome” to Fussel, Sledge, and a host of other soldiers who looked forward to a reduction in the fast escalating losses on both sides.

Conclusion

To say that E.B. Sledge approved the dropping of the atom bomb would be a simplistic statement to make, devoid of any contextual and circumstantial support, that would make him out to be an ogre – something he is not. Knowing full well the scale of destruction that would have ensued, had the end not come when it did with the dropping of the A-bomb, soldiers like Sledge were thankful for the speedy end to the war. The only way to prevent further loss of lives on both sides was to bring the war to a dramatic close.

Much has been written about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the justness of the A-bomb, and descriptions of the psyche of Japanese and American soldiers, had the bomb not been dropped. Though post-mortems are rarely of much use, there is no doubt that it is necessary to have various perspectives on such past issues in order to be able to comprehend the severity and complexities of present-day terrorism and genocide. As Victor Hanson, a Senior Fellow at Stanford University rightly puts it, “The truth, as we are reminded so often in this present conflict, is that usually in war there are no good alternatives, and leaders must select between a very bad and even worse choice. Hiroshima was the most awful option imaginable, but the other scenarios would have probably turned out even worse.” (2005). Sled could not have agreed more!

References

Sledge, E.B. With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa. Ballantine Books. New York. 2007. p. 120.

Fussel, P. Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays. Summit Books. 1988.

Hanson, V.D. “60 Years later considering Hiroshima” National Review. 2005. Web.

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E. B. Sledge’s Views on Dropping the A-Bomb

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