Japan's Reaction to the Attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

For John, BLUF:  We hear about how the Allied nations, in WWII, cracked German and Japanese communications codes.  Less known is that they were listening on us.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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(Special Post for August 15 - Part 1) Japan's General Staff Office Knew About Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombing in Advance and Did Nothing, According to 2011 NHK Documentary

From EXSKF, 17 August 2013 (five years ago).

Here is the lede plus three:

There is an NHK documentary that was aired two years ago on August 6, 2011, on the anniversary day of Hiroshima atomic bombing.  I was unaware of this documentary until I saw a tweet a few days ago that had the link to a blogpost by Councilman Koichi Ohyama of Minamisoma City, Fukushima on September 25, 2012.

Mr. Ohyama's post from one year ago quotes the NHK documentary's announcement from two years ago, which says that the top officers of Japanese imperial army knew in advance the impending US attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and did not do anything.

Atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been described (at least in Japan) as "beyond expectation" (just like the Fukushima nuclear accident) and "surprise attacks" with no pre-warning by the US, who used to dump leaflets in Japanese from the planes to warn civilians of impending attacks.

But NHK says the top military officers in imperial Japan knew, and did nothing.  The military essentially was the government during the war.

This is an interesting two part story.  The Second Part can be clicked on at the end of Part One.

It is interesting to see how denial prevented the Japanese leadership from reacting to the attacks by the SILVER PLATE B-29s.

The other interesting thing to learn is that the Japanese were doing a pretty good job of tracking Allied communications and drawing useful conclusions.  This is a caution for the future, or for the present.  One should be careful in believing that one's communications are secure.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff