This summer’s blockbuster hit “Oppenheimer” promises to popularize a pivotal moment in world history, the decision to use the atomic bomb in World War II. Despite it’s grueling, challenging length and the Physics 101 recitation, “Oppenheimer” is sure to become the unofficial version of the Manhattan Project for a mass audience. The problem is not what was in the at-times-thunderous film, but rather what was unfortunately omitted from this filmic extravaganza by British director Christopher Nolen.
To begin, there is controversy about the number of American lives that would have been lost without the use of the atomic bomb in Japan. The original estimate claimed that one million American lives would be lost if we proceeded with the planned Operation Downfall. That number was later cut in half to 500,000. Since then the number has been revised downwardly. It remains a fact though that 80% of Americans – at that time – favored using the atomic bomb on Japan.
More importantly, some very critical facts were left out of the discussion of the July 1945 Potsdam Conference in a suburb of Berlin between the “Big Three.” Following the defeat of Germany, and now shifting focus to the war in the Pacific, Truman and Stalin worked out a strategy to defeat the Japanese and end the war. The Soviet Red Army would invade
— source counterpunch.org | Glenn Alcalay | Jul 31, 2023