. [6], In its discussion of the effects of an atomic weapon, the committee considered both blast and radiological damage. [16], RG 77, MED Records, Top Secret Documents, File no. And the U.S. bombings hastened the Soviet Unions atomic bomb project and have fed a big-power nuclear arms race to this day. Why America Dropped the Bomb - Commentary Magazine Nor does it include any of the interviews, documents prepared after the events, and post-World War II correspondence, etc. "Little Boy" weighed about 9,000 pounds and had a yield approximating 15,000 tons of high explosives. If it was, he believed that the bomb would be the master card in U.S. diplomacy. It occurred to me that a quarter of a million of the flower of our young manhood was worth a couple of Japanese cities, and I still think that they were and are. Despite the bombing of Hiroshima, the Soviet declaration of war, and growing worry about domestic instability, the Japanese cabinet (whose decisions required unanimity) could not form a consensus to accept the Potsdam Declaration. The message that the bombings sent to the world was that whoever possessed those special weapons would prove to be politically superior, thus turning such weapons into the passport to survive and potentially win the Cold War. Nor is it an attempt to substitute for the extraordinary rich literature on the atomic bombings and the end of World War II. The explosion over Hiroshima wiped out 95 percent of the city and killed 80,000 people. [64]. 25,000 more were injured. How much Power does a President actually have? For Trumans recognition of mass civilian casualties, see also hisletter to Senator Richard Russell, 9 August 1945. If that failed to persuade Tokyo, he proposed that the United States disclose the secret of the atomic bomb to secure Japans unconditional surrender. Most of these individuals were bureaucrats, which also explains the lack of scientific terms and technical observations on the effects of radiation. [50]. 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. Barton J. Bernstein has observed that Groves recommendation that troops could move into the immediate explosion area within a half hour demonstrates the prevalent lack of top-level knowledge of the dangers of nuclear weapons effects. Something went wrong. What would happen if Putin unleashed a nuclear strike At this time, several treaties were in place to limit the size of navies in the Pacific Ocean. The weapon is in the pit covered with canvas. On Stimson, see Schaffer (1985), 179-180 and Malloy (2008), 54. In fact, after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, the Japanese military's Information Division, in charge of media control, intended to announce that the bomb was an atomic one. Was the Hiroshima atomic bomb a measure to intimidate - Russian Best 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. The US bombed Japan in 1945 to demonstrate its power to the USSR We wish to believe. Frank, 286-287; Sherwin, 233-237; Bernstein (1995), 150; Maddox, 148. The ensuing war was costly. Atomic Bomb Dbq Essay - 961 Words | Internet Public Library After the first minute of dropping Fat Man, 39,000 men, women and children were killed. See also Malloy, A Very Pleasant Way to Die, 539-540. [40], L.D. As Hull explained, should we not concentrate on targets that will be of greatest assistance to an invasion rather than industry, morale, psychology, etc. Nearer the tactical use, Seaman agreed and they discussed the tactics that could be used for beach landings. That there may be a difference between the two sources becomes evident from some of the entries; for example, in the entry for July 18, 1945 Brown wrote: "Although I knew about the atomic bomb when I wrote these notes, I dared not place it in writing in my book., The degree to which the typed-up version reflects the original is worth investigating. The president, however, wrote in long-hand a text that that might approximate what he said that evening. The point was to keep the bombing mission crew safe; concern about radiation effects had no impact on targeting decisions. 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. According to a Joint Chiefs of Staff report on Japanese target systems, expected results from the bombing campaign included: The absorption of man-hours in repair and relief; the dislocation of labor by casualty; the interruption of public services necessary to production, and above all the destruction of factories engaged in war industry. While Stimson would later raise questions about the bombing of Japanese cities, he was largely disengaged from the details (as he was with atomic targeting). [72]. He wanted to end war in the Pacific without having to invade Japan b. As these cables indicate, reports of unfavorable weather delayed the plan. Cited in Barton J. Bernstein, Truman and the A-Bomb: Targeting Noncombatants, Using the Bomb, and His Defending the "Decision,The Journal of Military History62 (1998), at page 559. Historians have suggested a number of ways in which the atomic bomb might have alienated Stalin- 1. Unit 7 Flashcards | Quizlet Why The United States Dropped The Atomic Bomb - Essay Examples A blog of the History and Public Policy Program. At the end of the meeting, he announced that he would report to Hirohito and ask him to make another Sacred Judgment. By the summer, once production plants would be at work, he proposed that the War Department take over the project. Was there another way to end the war? Targeting Germany was rejected because the Germans were considered more likely to secure knowledge from a defective weapon than the Japanese. Interested in producing the greatest psychological effect, the Committee members agreed that the most desirable target would be a vital war plant employing a large number of workers and closely surrounded by workers houses. Bernstein argues that this target choice represented an uneasy endorsement of terror bombing-the target was not exclusively military or civilian; nevertheless, workers housing would include non-combatant men, women, and children. Hasegawa argues that Truman realized that the Japanese would refuse a demand for unconditional surrender without a proviso on a constitutional monarchy and that he needed Japans refusal to justify the use of the atomic bomb.[47], Clemson University Libraries, Special Collections, Clemson, SC; Mss 243, Walter J. More intercepted messages on the bombing of Hiroshima. They note large scale destruction of the city and damage to buildings (the hospital, gas storage tanks, the Mitsubishi plant, etc.) Early the next day, General Anami committed suicide. Whether this meant that Truman was getting ready for a confrontation with Stalin over Eastern Europe and other matters has also been the subject of debate. The documents can help readers to make up their own minds about long-standing controversies such as whether the first use of atomic weapons was justified, whether President Harry S. Truman had alternatives to atomic attacks for ending the war, and what the impact of the Soviet declaration of war on Japan was. His vivid account shows that senior military officials in the Manhattan Project were no longer dismissive of reports of radiation poisoning. [20], Harrison-Bundy Files relating to the Development of the Atomic Bomb, 1942-1946, microfilm publication M1108 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1980), File 77: "Interim Committee - International Control.". The traditional argument was that Stalin was angry because Truman did not tell him about the Atomic Bomb. and offer details on potential protection (protective clothing against a uranium bomb includes rubber and any kind of insulation against electricity). The Hiroshima operation was originally slated to begin in early August depending on local conditions. According to Merkulov, two fissile materials were being produced: element-49 (plutonium), and U-235; the test device was fueled by plutonium. The Truman Library has published a helpful collection of archival documents, some of which are included in the present collection. The United States Government's decision to attack Russia with the atomic bomb ultimate proved to scare the Russians. Since these issues will be subjects of hot debate for many more years, the Archive has once again refreshed its compilation of declassified U.S. government documents and translated Japanese records that first appeared on these pages in 2005. The embassy teams included GRU members Mikhail Ivanov and German Sergeev in August, and TASS correspondent Anatoliy Varshavskiy, former acting military attach Mikhail Romanov, and Naval apparatus employee Sergey Kikenin in September. However, the Department of the Interior opposed the disclosure of the nature of the weapon. (Photo from U.S. National Archives, RG 77-BT), Ground view of Nagasaki before and after the bombing; radiuses in increments of 1,000 feet from Ground Zero are shown. Togo asked Sato to try to meet with Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov as soon as possible to sound out the Russian attitude on the declaration as well as Japans end-the-war initiative. Until 1949, when the USSR succeeded in testing its own bomb, the Soviet Unions knowledge of the effects of radiation was indeed very poor. By contrast, Richard Frank takes note of the estimates depiction of the Japanese armys terms for peace: for surrender to be acceptable to the Japanese army it would be necessary for the military leaders to believe that it would not entail discrediting the warrior tradition and that it would permit the ultimate resurgence of a military in Japan. That, Frank argues, would have been unacceptable to any Allied policy maker.[33], Record Group 59, Decimal Files 1945-1949, 740.0011 PW (PE)/7-1645. [35]. Robert J. Maddox has cited this document to support his argument that top U.S. officials recognized that Japan was not close to surrender because Japan was trying to stave off defeat. In a close analysis of this document, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, who is also skeptical of claims that the Japanese had decided to surrender, argues that each of the three possibilities proposed by Weckerling contained an element of truth, but none was entirely correct. Moreover, he may not have known that the third bomb was still in the United States and would not be available for use for nearly another week. Why the U.S. Dropped the Atomic Bomb on Japan in WWII Is control of nuclear weapons necessary to maintain peace? After Stalin reviewed in considerable detail, Soviet military gains in the Far East, they discussed the possible impact of the atomic bombing on Japans position (Nagasaki had not yet been attacked) and the dangers and difficulty of an atomic weapons program. Stimson, who later wrote up the meeting in his diary, also prepared a discussion paper, which raised broader policy issues associated with the imminent possession of the most terrible weapon ever known in human history., In a background report prepared for the meeting, Groves provided a detailed overview of the bomb project from the raw materials to processing nuclear fuel to assembling the weapons to plans for using them, which were starting to crystallize.
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