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The Morality Of Devastation

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THE MORALITY OF DEVASTATION

BY: TANNER WATSON
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“[Japanese] soldiers were taught that the Japanese race is superior to all others, and that triumph over the inferior Americans is inevitable” (Dugard and O’Reilly 48).

Killing the Rising Sun covers the atomic bombings from beginning to end, giving some much needed context to why the atomic bombings were not as immoral as many believe today. The authors provide plentiful amounts of information concerning the Pacific theater of World War 2, as well as the evil faced by the United States of America from Japan, who’s “soldiers were taught that the Japanese race is superior to all others, and that triumph over the inferior Americans is inevitable” (Dugard and O’Reilly 48).
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“The O’Reilly Factor became the country’s most watched cable news program” (Bill O'Reilly Biography 5).

Bill O’Reilly was born on September 10, 1949. He is a famous New York Times best-selling author and famous for his non-fiction books covering all kinds of historical figures. However, much of his fame comes from his former hosting of The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News, which was “the country's most watched cable news program” (Bill O'Reilly Biography 6). Martin Dugard is O’Reilly’s co-author, famous for helping write many books in the Killing series.
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“The events leading up to the end of World War II are not that widely known anymore” (Dugard and O’Reilly 1,2).

The book’s intended audience are Americans who have little to no knowledge of the historical details leading up to the atomic bombings. In the beginning of the book, O’Reilly states that comments like those made by Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr., who claimed America was deserving of the 9/11 attacks for its evil, showed a growing ignorance in the American public of its own history. His hope in writing this book was to right that wrong.
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“Japanese [murdered] in the most heinous fashion” (Dugard and O’Reilly 13).

O’Reilly uses logos in his book by providing the context of the enemy that the atomic bombs were dropped on, appealing to the logic and reason of dropping the bomb on Japan. He cites historical and documented events and policies of Japanese atrocities and brutality. American prisoners of war were not held captive, instead they were “[murdered] in the most heinous fashion” (Dugard and O’Reilly 13). This included prisoners being tied around trees and being used for bayonet practice and being emasculated as they lay dying. It is also unlikely that the Japanese would have surrendered without such a devastating show of force, seeing as how soldiers and civilians were taught to follow the samurai code of Bushido, which stipulates “that surrender is a form of dishonor” (Dugard and O’Reilly 12). There was nothing more important in Japanese culture than honor.
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“He would have been killed if MacArthur’s land invasion had come to fruition” (Dugard and O’Reilly 283).

Ethos is presented in the book when O’Reilly informs the reader of his father’s service during the Second World War. He makes it clear that if the atomic bombs were not dropped, his father believed that he “would have been killed if [the invasion of Japan] had come to fruition” (Dugard and O’Reilly 282,283). The experiences of O’Reilly’s father and his relationship to the atomic bomb gives O’Reilly an intimate knowledge of the morality of the atomic bombings.
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“All Japanese men, women, and children will fight to the death” (Dugard and O’Reilly 134).

O’Reilly utilizes pathos when describing the alternative to the atomic bombings. The original plan to defeat Japan was Operation Downfall, a complete invasion of the islands. However, this was far more dangerous, as the Japanese were amassing soldiers on the beaches and ordering citizens to adopt the suicidal Ketsu-Go strategy, which held that “all Japanese men, women, and children will fight to the death” (Dugard and O’Reilly 134). With an estimated one million American deaths if the invasion went head, President Truman believed that his job was to save the lives of young marines and not send them to their deaths. This information appeals to the emotions of the reader, who does not want to be in a timeline where millions of American and Japanese alike died in an invasion, rather than a comparably low 200,000 people in the atomic bombings.
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“Akira will immortalize his sorrow on canvas” (Dugard and O’Reilly 199).

O’Reilly makes use of rhetorical devices through his use of personification. When informing the reader of a Japanese teenager named Akira Onogi, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, O’Reilly takes the time to speak of Akira’s art. After the war, “Akira will immortalize his sorrow on canvas” (Dugard and O’Reilly 199). This comment gives sorrow the human characteristic of life and mortality, and painting the images of Hiroshima give that sorrow more life.
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WORKS CITED

Tanner Watson