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Although the evidence of Western imperialists' racist views of Asians is vivid, the analysis in the article is incomplete.
1. It makes the point that the bomb had to be used to justify the expense to Congress and to intimidate the world. A demonstration on a little island would have met those criteria. But the article structures its argument in two steps: one, the bomb had to be used on a country (the latter clause assumed not proved), and two, the target country was Japan for racist reasons.
2. Allied strategy was to finish the war in Europe first. The assumption in 1943 would naturally be that the Allies could not count on the bomb being engineered, built and tested in New Mexico before victory over Germany in Europe.
3. The article fails to address the explanation urged by other analysts: the U.S. rushed to bomb Japan and receive its surrender before the Soviet Union swept through Manchuria and north China and won a surrender from Japan. The SU declared war on Japan on Aug. 8. Its massive attack brought Hirohito to urging Japanese surrender within a few days.
As a corollary, it was too early to dare use the bomb on the Soviet Union, but revealing it was also designed to send a message about postwar power.
In addition, the article is weak on Allied racist attitudes. Not in documenting them, but in explaining how quickly the U.S. turned to a neo-colonial program for Asia: take a stand against formal colonial rule and bring Asian countries into de facto colonial subjugation to the U.S.
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