If there was a misfire the weapon would be difficult for the Japanese to recover, which would not be the case if Tokyo was targeted. With Japan close to capitulation, Truman asserted presidential control and ordered a halt to atomic bombings. [59]. What was the reaction of the Soviet Union to the atomic bombings of In his 1948 memoirs (further amplified in his 1963 memoirs), Eisenhower claimed that he had expressed the hope [to Stimson] that we would never have to use such a thing against an enemy because I disliked seeing the United States take the lead in introducing into war something as horrible and destructive as this new weapon was described to be. That language may reflect the underlying thinking behind Eisenhowers statement during the dinner party, but whether Eisenhower used such language when speaking with Stimson has been a matter of controversy. An importanton-line collection focuses on the air-raids of Japanese cities and bases, providing valuable context for the atomic attacks. [80], Despite Trumans claim that he made the most terrible decision at Potsdam, he assigned himself more responsibility than the historical record supports. The Japanese Surrender in World War II. Was the Hiroshima atomic bomb a measure to intimidate - Russian Best The 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 is an occasion for sober reflection. On August 9, 1945, another bomber was in route to Japan, only this time they were heading for Nagasaki with Fat Man, another atomic bomb. After Suzuki gave the war party--Umeda, Toyoda, and Anami--an opportunity to present their arguments against accepting the Byrnes Note, he asked the emperor to speak. A flash, stronger than the sun itself, followed by a fiery explosion within seconds completely annihilated the city. The museum has justfinished a massive renovation of the museum and its exhibitions, the first major renovation in more than 20 years and the largest since the museum opened its doors in 1957. On this date 74 years ago, the US dropped the first of two atomic bombs on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing more than 70,000 people instantly. [13]. Brown Papers, box 10, folder 12, Byrnes, James F.: Potsdam, Minutes, July-August 1945, Walter Brown, who served as special assistant to Secretary of State Byrnes, kept a diary which provided considerable detail on the Potsdam conference and the growing concerns about Soviet policy among top U.S. officials. [37], RG 165, Army Operations OPD Executive File #17, Item 13 (copy courtesy of J. Samuel Walker), The day after the Togo message was reported, Army intelligence chief Weckerling proposed several possible explanations of the Japanese diplomatic initiative. How familiar was President Truman with the concepts that led target planners chose major cities as targets? For casualty figures and the experience of people on the ground, see Frank, 264-268 and 285-286, among many other sources. This report included an intercept of a message from Sato reporting that it was impossible to see Molotov and that unless the Togo had a concrete and definite plan for terminating the war he saw no point in attempting to meet with him. Two days later an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing an estimated . The bombings have always been presented to young Americans in . That the Soviets had made no responses to Sato's request for a meeting was understood as a bad sign; Yonai realized that the government had to prepare for the possibility that Moscow might not help. Nor does it include any of the interviews, documents prepared after the events, and post-World War II correspondence, etc. [9], RG 77, Correspondence ("Top Secret") of the Manhattan Engineer District, 1942-1946, file 25M. After the first minute of dropping "Fat Man," 39,000 men, women and children were killed. World War II was fought by millions of people in all corners of the world. Independence, MO 64050 The US and Japan suffered major casualties, and the American people and the president were getting tired of it. Record Group 107, Office of the Secretary of War, Formerly Top Secret Correspondence of Secretary of War Stimson (Safe File), July 1940-September 1945, box 12, S-1, Tacitly dissenting from the Targeting Committees recommendations, Army Chief of Staff George Marshall argued for initial nuclear use against a clear-cut military target such as a large naval installation. If that did not work, manufacturing areas could be targeted, but only after warning their inhabitants. Wartime alliance tensions - Reasons for the Cold War - BBC Besides discussing programmatic matters (e.g., status of gaseous diffusion plants, heavy water production for reactors, and staffing at Las Alamos), the participants agreed that the first use could be Japanese naval forces concentrated at Truk Harbor, an atoll in the Caroline Islands. They caused terrible human losses and destruction at the time and more deaths and sickness in the years ahead from the radiation effects. The traditional argument was that Stalin was angry because Truman did not tell him about the Atomic Bomb. Bernstein (1995), 144. Three days later, the U.S. dropped a plutonium bomb . As this August marks the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we are once again urged to reflect on the political role of the weapon that inaugurated the Nuclear Age. President Truman, who ordered the bomb, defended it as a way to bring about surrender and save U.S. military lives that would have been lost in a ground invasion of Japan. Nevertheless, Anami argued, We are still left with some power to fight. Suzuki, who was working quietly with the peace party, declared that the Allied terms were acceptable because they gave a dim hope in the dark of preserving the emperor. For years debate has raged over whether the US was right to drop two atomic bombs on Japan during the final weeks of the Second World War. editors,Toward a Livable World: Leo Szilard and the Crusade for Nuclear Arms Control(Cambridge: MIT Press, 1987), xxx-xxv; Sherwin, 210-215. On August 6, a B-29 nicknamed the 'Enola Gay ' dropped a single bomb containing 64 kilograms of highly enriched uranium over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Receptive to pressure from Stimson, Truman recorded his decision to take Japans old capital (Kyoto) off the atomic bomb target list. [26], Record Group 107, Office of the Secretary of War, Formerly Top Secret Correspondence of Secretary of War Stimson (Safe File), July 1940-September 1945, box 8, Japan (After December 7/41), A former ambassador to Japan, Joseph Grews extensive knowledge of Japanese politics and culture informed his stance toward the concept of unconditional surrender. Alperovitz, 281-282. According to Herbert Bix, for months Hirohito had believed that the outlook for a negotiated peace could be improved if Japan fought and won one last decisive battle, thus, he delayed surrender, continuing to procrastinate until the bomb was dropped and the Soviets attacked.[52]. 5, This review of Japanese capabilities and intentions portrays an economy and society under tremendous strain; nevertheless, the ground component of the Japanese armed forces remains Japans greatest military asset. Alperovitz sees statements in this estimate about the impact of Soviet entry into the war and the possibility of a conditional surrender involving survival of the emperor as an institution as more evidence that the policymakers saw alternatives to nuclear weapons use. Also relevant to Japanese thinking about surrender, the author speculated, was the Soviet attack on their forces after a declaration of war. Bernstein, introduction,Toward a Livable World, xxxvii-xxxviii. Barton J. Bernstein has suggested that Trumans comment about all those kids showed his belated recognition that the bomb caused mass casualties and that the target was not purely a military one.[64]. The US went forward with their actions so they can prevent a mass loss of their population from any actions japan might present. How much Power does a President actually have? [20]. 2023 The Wilson Center. Some years after Trumans death, a hand-written diary that he kept during the Potsdam conference surfaced in his personal papers. Arguing that continuing the war would reduce the nation to ashes, his words about bearing the unbearable and sadness over wartime losses and suffering prefigured the language that Hirohito would use in his public announcement the next day. According to the official US version of history, an A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, and another on Nagasaki three days later, to force Japan to surrender. For a useful discussion of the firebombing of Tokyo and the atomic bombings, see Alex Wellerstein, Tokyo vs. Hiroshima,Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog,22 September 2014. What did senior officials know about the effects of atomic bombs before they were first used. Both cities were leveled from the bombs and this, in turn, forced Japan to surrender to the United States. If the United States had been more flexible about the demand for unconditional surrender by explicitly or implicitly guaranteeing a constitutional monarchy would Japan have surrendered earlier than it did? The Japanese Search for Soviet Mediation, VII. For convenience, Barton Bernsteins rendition is provided here but linked here are the scanned versions of Trumans handwriting on the National Archives website (for 15-30 July). If the Japanese decided to keep fighting, G-2 opined that Atomic bombs will not have a decisive effect in the next 30 days. Richard Frank has pointed out that this and other documents indicate that high level military figures remained unsure as to how close Japan really was to surrender. In any event, historians have used information from the diary to support various interpretations. For an important study of how contemporary officials and scientists looked at the atomic bomb prior to first use in Japan, see Michael D. Gordin,Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007). Japan was already a day late in responding to the Byrnes Note and Hirohito agreed to move quickly. [50], In the Potsdam Declaration the governments of China, Great Britain, and the United States) demanded the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces. that participants in the debate have brought to bear in framing their arguments. On the other hand much of the confirmed evidence Alperovitz presented was baffling. The explosion over Hiroshima wiped out 95 percent of the city and killed 80,000 people. Seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. The third con was it created anger. Which of the following was least likely a reason for Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb? The Soviet invasion was.[58], Clemson University Libraries, Special Collections, Clemson, SC; Mss 243, Walter J. The conventional justification for the atomic bombings is that they prevented the invasion of Japan, thus saving countless lives on both sides. If Putin goes nuclear, Biden has a stark menu of options - NBC News Explain your answer. Barton J. Bernstein, Introduction to Helen S. Hawkins et al. According to David Holloway, it seems likely that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima the day before that impelled [Stalin] to speed up Soviet entry into the war and secure the gains promised at Yalta.[59]. Nevertheless, his diary suggests that military hard-liners were very much in charge and that Prime Minister Suzuki was talking tough against surrender, by evoking last ditch moments in Japanese history and warning of the danger that subordinate commanders might not obey surrender orders. As Alperovitz notes, the Davies papers include variant diary entries and it is difficult to know which are the most accurate. Milestones: 1945-1952 - Office of the Historian His estimate of 250,000 U.S. soldiers spared far exceeded that made by General Marshall in June 1945, which was in the range of 31,000 (comparable to the Battle of Luzon) [See Document 26].
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