Fact check WW2 Warning leaflets

by flwrchld77

Just wondering if this actually happened. Post doesn't seem right to me.

Photo describes two leaflets dropped on Japan to warn the people.

https://imgur.com/a/cBtii

silverappleyard

u/restricteddata has posted about this numerous times, such as this thread. The linked post to his blog covers the subject in depth.

restricteddata

The post is highly misleading (and is probably my least-favorite atomic bomb myth on the Internet).

On the left is a generic LeMay leaflet. They were indeed dropped on many cities, saying that they might be destroyed soon. They have nothing to do with the atomic bombs though — they have a list of cities on the front of them. No atomic-bombed cities are on any of those lists. (It should be noted that they were part of a psychological warfare campaign, meant to cripple Japanese industry, not save lives. But this is a separate issue.) No warning was given about any impending atomic bomb attacks, nor were Hiroshima, Nagasaki, or any of the other possible target cities specifically mentioned. This is not a surprising or even interesting fact — the entire point was for the atomic bomb to be a surprise, and the cities were chosen to showcase its destructive power.

On the right are indeed warnings about the atomic bomb. But these were not actually dropped on cities until after the attack on Nagasaki. Nagasaki, unhelpfully, got warning leaflets a day after it was bombed.

You don't have to take my word on the latter — read the once-classified report by the guy who was involved in making and dropping them: Lt. Col. J.F. Moynahan, "History Psychological Warfare, Manhattan Project" (23 May 1946). It explains, in some detail, that the atomic-bomb warning leaflets were not even started to be created until after Hiroshima, and were revised after Russia entered the war (which happened just before the Nagasaki strike), and that: " distribution was not coordinated with the Nagasaki strike causing Nagasaki to receive its quota of leaflets the day after it was hit."

If people want to justify the atomic bombings one way or another, that is on them, but they shouldn't justify it with an outright misconception or myth. The cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not warned about the atomic bombing prior to the atomic bombs being used. This was deliberate.