[14]. If you experience a barrier that affects your ability to access content on this page, let us know via ourContact form. The events leading up to the dropping of the first atomic bomb can be traced back to 7 th December 1941, when the Japanese attacked the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour. As part of the war with Japan, the Army Air Force waged a campaign to destroy major industrial centers with incendiary bombs. Yonai made sure that Takagi understood his reasons for bringing the war to an end and why he believed that the atomic bomb and the Soviet declaration of war had made it easier for Japan to surrender. Members of the Supreme War Councilthe Big Six[62]wanted the reply to Potsdam to include at least four conditions (e.g., no occupation, voluntary disarmament); they were willing to fight to the finish. Marshall was not sure whether that was so although Stimson privately believed that the atomic bomb would provide enough to force surrender (see entry for July 23). For some historians, the urban fire-bombing strategy facilitated atomic targeting by creating a new moral context, in which earlier proscriptions against intentional targeting of civilians had eroded. According to Hasegawa, Hirohito had become convinced that the preservation of the monarchy was at stake. [16]. Both Richard Frank and Barton Bernstein have used intelligence reporting and analysis of the major buildup of Japanese forces on southern Kyushu to argue that U.S. military planners were so concerned about this development that by early August 1945 they were reconsidering their invasion plans. Japan was already a day late in responding to the Byrnes Note and Hirohito agreed to move quickly. Targeting Germany was rejected because the Germans were considered more likely to secure knowledge from a defective weapon than the Japanese. At Potsdam, Stimson raised his objections to targeting Japans cultural capital, Kyoto, and Truman supported the secretarys efforts to drop that city from the target list [See Documents 47 and 48]. As indicated by the L.D. General George C. Marshall is the only high-level official whose contemporaneous (pre-Hiroshima) doubts about using the weapons against cities are on record. There were battles and military posts in surprising places. Claypool, 1984) With such motivation to back them, the United States felt justified in dropping the atomic bomb in order to prevent the spread of communism in Europe by intimidating Russia. 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. Naryshkin, then Chairman of the State Duma and Director of the Russian Historical Society, also added that if those responsible for the bombings were not punished "there could be very, very serious consequences.". The war was finally over. The cost of invasion, they knew, would be high. [61]. 100 (copy from microfilm). Another column was striking south from the Soviet border toward Hailar. A few weeks later, on September 2, 1945 Japanese representatives signed surrender documents on the USS Missouri, in Tokyo harbor.[71]. President Franklin Roosevelt called the attack a day which will live in infamy, and the American people were shocked and angered. By 1937 Japan controlled large sections of China and accusations of war crimes against the Chinese people became commonplace. Due to the relations of Russia . The discussion depicted a Japan that, by 1 November, would be close to defeat, with great destruction and economic losses produced by aerial bombing and naval blockade, but not ready to capitulate. The British National Archives, Records of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, FO 800/461. Moscows opening to Japan in 2015 then engendered a shift in Japan-Russia relations, as confirmed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovs visit to Tokyo in April, Prime Minister Shinzo Abes bold visit to Moscow in May and Naryshkins visit to Tokyo in June 2016, right after President Obamas historical visit to Hiroshima at the end of May. Pressure from Secretary of War Stimson had already taken Kyoto off the list of targets for incendiary bombings and he would successfully object to the atomic bombing of that city. The atomic bomb changed STALIN'S attitude. Nor is it an attempt to substitute for the extraordinary rich literature on the atomic bombings and the end of World War II. In keeping with General Groves emphasis on compartmentalization, the Manhattan Project experts on the effects of radiation on human biology were at the MetLab and other offices and had no interaction with the production and targeting units. To the extent that the atomic bombing was critically important to the Japanese decision to surrender would it have been enough to destroy one city? Photo restoration by TX Unlimited, San Francisco, A nuclear weapon of the "Little Boy" type, the uranium gun-type detonated over Hiroshima. Russia is very much in the minds of the people who give any thought to world affairs, and distrust and suspicion of her are very widespread. The timing of the trip to Hiroshima and Nagasaki within 40 days of the bombings illustrates the Soviet race to obtain its own atomic bomb, but the timing of the 2015 re-release of these documents is also significant: it came at a time when US-Russia relations were suffering a major deterioration. [79]. [3]. By the end of November over ten weapons would be available, presumably in the event the war had continued. Independence, MO 64050 [77], Harry S. Truman Library, President's Secretary's Files, Speech Files, 1945-1953, copy on U.S. National Archives Web Site, On 15 December, President Truman spoke about the atomic bombings in his speech at the annual dinner of the Gridiron Club, organized by bureau chiefs and other leading figures of print media organizations. Three days later, it dropped another on Nagasaki. 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? Signed by about 68 Manhattan Project scientists, mainly physicists and biologists (copies with the remaining signatures are in the archival file), the petition did not explicitly reject military use, but raised questions about an arms race that military use could instigate and requested Truman to publicize detailed terms for Japanese surrender. To a great extent the documents selected for this compilation have been declassified for years, even decades; the most recent declassifications were in the 1990s. The National Security Archive is committed to digital accessibility. Would the Soviet declaration of war have been enough to compel Tokyo to admit defeat? The Soviets had notified Japan's Ambassador to Moscow on the night of the eighth that the Soviet Union would be at war with Japan as of August 9th (Butow, pg. Most of these individuals were bureaucrats, which also explains the lack of scientific terms and technical observations on the effects of radiation. Leaflets dropped on cities in Japan warning civilians about the atomic bomb, dropped c. August 6, 1945. A directive (right), written by Leslie Groves , approved by President Truman, and issued by Secretary of War Henry Stimson and General of the . Colonel John Stone, an assistant to commanding General of the Army Air Forces Henry H. Hap Arnold, had just returned from Potsdam and updated his boss on the plans as they had developed. Additional bombs will be delivery on the [targets] as soon as made ready by the project staff., RG 77, MED Records, Top Secret Documents, File no. What was at stake was the definition of the kokutai (national policy). "The US decision to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima was a diplomatic measure calculated to intimidate the USSR in the post-second World War era rather than strictly a military measure designed to force Japan to unconditionallysurrender" Procedure: Use the documents, textbook pages 845-849, and your knowledge of the era to support a position on For Hirohito' surrender speech--the actual broadcastand a translation--seeJapan Times,August2015. Merkulov reported that the United States had scheduled the test of a nuclear device for that same day, although the actual test took place 6 days later. (Photo from U.S. National Archives, RG 306-NT). Conflict in the Pacific began well before the official start of World War II. 2023 The Wilson Center. The First Nuclear Strikes and their Impact, XI. A U.S. War Department photograph of Hiroshima after the atomic bombing, undated. That evening army officers tried to seize the palace and find Hirohitos recording, but the coup failed. [17], Scientists and officers held further discussion of bombing mission requirements, including height of detonation, weather, radiation effects (Oppenheimers memo), plans for possible mission abort, and the various aspects of target selection, including priority cities (a large urban area of more than three miles diameter) and psychological dimension. According to Frank, the actual total of deaths due to the atomic bombs will never be known, but the huge number ranges somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 people. At the Wilson Center, it is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. Why were alternatives not pursued? [19], Joseph E. Davies Papers, Library of Congress, box 17, 21 May 1945, While officials at the Pentagon continued to look closely at the problem of atomic targets, President Truman, like Stimson, was thinking about the diplomatic implications of the bomb. After considerable pressure from Harriman, the Soviets signed off on the reply but not before tensions surfaced over the control of Japan--whether Moscow would have a Supreme Commander there as well. My analysis will provide some historical and political context and offer an initial assessment of these documents. [43]. How is the current debate about immigration in the United States rooted in our nations past? In this short memorandum to Groves deputy, General Farrell, Oppenheimer explained the need for precautions because of the radiological dangers of a nuclear detonation. After the first minute of dropping "Fat Man," 39,000 men, women and children were killed. This marked the beginning of a U.S.-Soviet tug of war over occupation arrangements for Japan. Originally this collection did not include documents on the origins and development of the Manhattan Project, although this updated posting includes some significant records for context. [5] While the editor has a point of view on the issues, to the greatest extent possible he has tried to not let that influence document selection, e.g., by selectively withholding or including documents that may buttress one point of view or the other. 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. 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. [48], This Magic summary includes messages from both Togo and Sato. Russias military intervention in Syria and Putins speech at the 70th UN General Assembly in September 2015 further aggravated the US-Russia bilateral relations. Women and children had been taught how to kill with basic weapons. On the August 6, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, by the United States. Some will want to read declassified primary sources so they can further develop their own thinking about the issues.
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