History's Most Catastrophic Man-made Errors

1. What’s in a Word?

On July 26^th, 1945, the leaders of the US, UK, and the USSR issued the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, also known as the Potsdam Declaration. It was a blunt statement from America, which had successfully tested the atomic bomb ten days earlier, and her allies, calling for Japan’s surrender. The ultimatum warned Japan that if it did not surrender, it would face “prompt and utter destruction“.

The Declaration’s terms were hotly debated within the Japanese government. Subsequently, Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki stated at a press conference that Japanese policy towards the Declaration would be one of “mokusatsu“. It was a Japanese word meaning that he had received the message, and was giving it serious consideration. Unfortunately, Japanese is a subtle language in which the same word could convey a variety of meanings. Another meaning for mokusatsu is to “contemptuously ignore”, and that was the meaning that American translators gave US President Harry Truman. 10 days later, the B-29 bomber Enola Gay flew from Tinian to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Applebaum, Anne – Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine (2017)

Atlantic, The, October 13^th, 2017 – How Stalin Hid Ukraine’s Famine From the World

Awesome Stories – Bitter Harvest: Story of the Holodomor

Barnhart, Michael A. – Japan Prepares For Total War: The Search For Economic Security, 1919-1941 (1987)

Caulaincourt, Armand-Augustin-Louis – With Napoleon in Russia (2005 Translation)

Encyclopedia Britannica – The Great Leap Forward

Encyclopedia Britannica – Ukraine, the Famine of 1932 – 1933

History Collection – Little Mistakes from History With Huge Consequences

Gailey, Harry A. – The War in the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay (1995)

Holodomor Victims Memorial – The History of the Holodomor