Oliver Stone's "Alternative Perspective" On Hiroshima & Nagasaki

Above, the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Leave it to director Oliver Stone to skew history to fit in with his leftist politics.

First he did it in JFK, in which he tried to make a hero out of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (played by Kevin Costner) and misstated the facts surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Now he his aiming his sights on the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by portraying that the bombings were unnecessary and we could have forced Japan to surrender without them.

According to the Asahi Shimbun's Asia & Japan Watch (AJW):

Last year, Stone produced a TV documentary series, “The Untold History of the United States,” which depicts contemporary U.S. history, ranging from the 1930s to the inauguration of President Barack Obama, from an alternative perspective. 

He wrote the series jointly with Peter Kuznick, 65, associate professor of history at American University. 

The documentary series consists of 10 episodes, one of which is devoted entirely to the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

According to the episode, many officials in the Truman administration were opposed to the idea of dropping nuclear weapons on Japan. The episode also took the position that it was possible to force Japan to surrender without the use of the atomic bomb. Despite the misgivings, the U.S. government used the weapons. 

Revealing the process that led to the decision to drop the bombs, Stone cast doubts on the generally accepted U.S. position that the bombings were necessary to end the war and that they prevented the need to invade mainland Japan with conventional forces and, as a result, saved many lives.

It is interesting that the common catchword for revisionism of history, "alternative perspective," is used in the article. I have no doubt that there may have been some members of the Harry Truman Administration and possibly in the military opposed to using the atomic bomb to end World War II, but if true to form, Stone will likely enlarge those people out of proportion and skew or change facts (and even make up stuff) to revise history to fit with his leftist thesis. Of course, some stupid people will believe the drivel Stone is spewing.

Even back then, General Dwight D. Eisenhower was concerned about revisionism on World War II. He wanted to make sure that everything was well-documented as he said:

“Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”  

It looks like "some bastard" is trying again to revise history in the form of an "alternative perspective" documentary.

To read the full article, go here.