Transcript Document 7300230

Chronology of the Decision to Use the Bomb
The official order states:
"The 509 Composite Group, 20th Air Force will deliver
its first special bomb as soon as the weather will
permit visual bombing after about 3 August 1945 on
one of the targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, and
Nagasaki."
Yi-Ren Chen | Hist 5N |
April 11th 2004
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March 25
At the urging of Leo Szilard, Albert Einstein signs a letter of
introduction of Szilard to President Roosevelt. Szilard
wishes to warn Roosevelt of the post-war dangers of a
nuclear arms race if the atomic bomb is used against Japan.
The letter states: “The terms of secrecy under which Dr.
Szilard is working at present do not permit him to give me
information about his work; however, I understand that he
now is greatly concerned about the lack of adequate
contact between scientists who are doing this work and
those members of your Cabinet who are responsible for
formulating policy.” In the memorandum accompanying the
letter, Szilard wrote: “our ‘demonstration’ of atomic bombs
will precipitate a race in the production of these devices
between the United States and Russia and that if we
continue to pursue the present course, our initial advantage
may be lost very quickly in such a race.”
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April 12
Franklin Roosevelt dies, and Harry Truman becomes the
33rd President of the United States.
April 25
Secretary of War Stimson and General Groves brief
President Truman on the bomb. In this briefing, Groves
insists that Japan had always been the target of the bomb’s
use.
April 25
Joint Chief Planners advise Joint Chiefs of Staff that “unless
a definition of unconditional surrender can be given which is
acceptable to the Japanese, there is no alternative to
annihilation and no prospect that the threat of absolute
defeat will bring about capitulation.”
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April 27
The Target Committee meets for the first time to decide
which Japanese cities to target with the atomic bomb. By
the end of May the following cities are selected: Kyoto,
Hiroshima, Kokura and Niigata. [See minutes of the second
meeting of the Target Committee in Related Sites.]
Eventually Kyoto is replaced by Nagasaki and the listed
cities are spared further conventional bombing by the
American Army Air Force.
April 29
In a report entitled Unconditional Surrender, the Joint
Intelligence Committee informs the Joint Chiefs of Staff that
“numbers of informed Japanese, both military and civilian,
already realize the inevitability of absolute defeat.”
May 8
War in Europe ends.
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May 9
The Interim Committee meets for the first time. Its
purpose is “to study and report on the whole problem of
temporary war controls and later publicity, and to survey
and make recommendations on post war research,
development and controls, as well as legislation necessary
to effectuate them.” The Interim Committee appoints a
Scientific Panel, which included Oppenheimer, Lawrence,
Fermi and Compton.
May 25
Leo Szilard visits White House with letter of introduction
from Albert Einstein to warn President Truman of the
dangers atomic weapons pose for the post-War world and
to urge him not to authorize use of atomic weapons against
Japan. Szilard is referred Matthew J. Connelly, Truman’s
appointments secretary, to James Byrnes in Spartanburg,
South Carolina.
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May 28
Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy argues to Secretary of
War Stimson that the term “unconditional surrender” should be
dropped: “Unconditional surrender is a phrase which means loss of
face and I wonder whether we cannot accomplish everything we
want to accomplish in regard to Japan without the use of that
term.”
May 28
In a State Department Memorandum of Conversation, Acting
Secretary of State Joseph Grew describes a meeting with
President Truman that day. Grew writes: “The greatest obstacle to
unconditional surrender by the Japanese is their belief that this
would entail the destruction or permanent removal of the Emperor
and the institution of the Throne. If some indication can now be
given the Japanese that they themselves, when once thoroughly
defeated and rendered impotent to wage war in the future will be
permitted to determine their own future political structure, they
will be afforded a method of saving face without which surrender
will be highly unlikely.”
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May 31
The Interim Committee agrees that “the most desirable
target would be a vital war plant employing a large number
of workers and closely surrounded by workers’ houses.”
Among those agreeing is James Conant, the president of
Harvard University.
May 31
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) reports on receiving
a Japanese peace feeler through a Japanese diplomat
stationed in Portugal. The Japanese diplomat says that the
actual terms are unimportant so long as the term
“unconditional surrender” is not used.
June 1
Interim Committee makes formal decision decides not to
warn the civilian populations of the targeted cities.
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June 11
The Franck Committee on the social and political implications of
the atomic bomb, headed by Nobel Laureate James Franck, issues
a report advising against a surprise atomic bombing of Japan.
The report states, “If we consider international agreement on total
prevention of nuclear warfare as the paramount objective…this
kind of introduction of atomic weapons to the world may easily
destroy all our chances of success.” The report correctly predicts
that dropping an atomic bomb “will mean a flying start toward an
unlimited armaments race.”
June 14
The Franck Committee Report – with its recommendation that
bomb be demonstrated to Japan before being used on civilians –
is taken by Compton to Los Alamos, and copies were given to
Fermi, Lawrence and Oppenheimer. June 16
Compton, Fermi, Lawrence and Oppenheimer conclude: “We can
propose no technical demonstration likely to bring an end to the
war; we see no acceptable alternative to direct military use.”
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June 17
McCloy tells Stimson that “there were no more cities to
bomb, no more carriers to sink or battleships to shell; we
had difficulty finding targets.”
June 18
Admiral Leahy makes diary entry noting, “It is my opinion
at the present time that a surrender of Japan can be
arranged with terms that can be accepted by Japan and
that will make fully satisfactory provision for America’s
defense against future trans-Pacific aggression.” He also
notes that General Marshall believes that an invasion of
Kyushu, the southern-most Japanese island, “will not cost
us in casualties more than 63,000 of the 190,000
combatant troops estimated as necessary for the operation.”
This may be compared to later estimates, after the atomic
bombings, of 500,000 to 1,000,000 American lives saved.
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June 20
A meeting of the Supreme War Direction Council before
Emperor Hirohito is held on the subject of ending the war.
According to the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, “the
Emperor, supported by the premier, foreign minister and
Navy minister, declared for peace; the army minister and
the two chiefs of staff did not concur.”
June 26
Stimson, Forrestal and Grew agree that a clarification of
surrender terms should be issued well before an invasion
and with “ample time to permit a national reaction to set in.”
The three agreed that “Japan is susceptible to reason.”
July 10
At a meeting of the Supreme War Direction Council,
Emperor Hirohito urges haste in moves to mediate the
peace through Russia.
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July 13
Washington intercepts and decodes a cable from Japanese
Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo to his Ambassador in
Moscow that states, “Unconditional surrender is the only
obstacle to peace….”
July 15
President Truman lands at Antwerp on his way to Potsdam
meeting. Byrnes has convinced him to drop Article 12 of
the Potsdam Declaration, which had provided assurance
that the Emperor would be allowed to retain his throne as a
constitutional monarch.
July 16
Trinity test, a plutonium implosion device, takes place at
5:29:45 a.m. mountain war time at Alamogordo, New
Mexico. It is the world’s first atomic detonation.
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July 17
President Truman at Potsdam writes in his diary, “Just spend [sic]
a couple of hours with Stalin…. He’ll be in the Jap War on August
15th. Fini Japs when that comes about.”
July 21
President Truman approves order for atomic bombs to be used
July 23
UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill remarks, “[I]t is quite clear
that the United States do not at the present time desire Russian
participation in the war against Japan.”
July 24
Walter Brown, special assistant to Secretary of State Byrnes,
writes in his journal that Byrnes was now “hoping for time,
believing after atomic bomb Japan will surrender and Russia will
not get in so much on the kill, thereby being in a position to press
claims against China.”
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July 24
Secretary of War Henry Stimson passes on orders for atomic attack.
July 25
General Carl Spatz, commander of the United States Army Strategic Air
Forces, receives the only written order on the use of atomic weapons from
acting Chief of Staff, General Thomas Handy.
July 26
Potsdam Declaration calls upon Japanese government “to proclaim now the
unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces.” The alternative,
the Declaration states, is “prompt and utter destruction.”
July 26
Forrestal secret diary states, “In the past days Sato in Moscow has been
sending the strongest language to the Foreign Office at Tokyo his urgent
advice for Japan to surrender unconditionally. Each time the Foreign
Minister, Togo, responds by saying that they want Sato to arrange for the
Russians to receive Prince Konoye as a special representative of the
Emperor to Moscow. Sato’s persistent reply to these messages was that
this is a futile hope, that there is no possibility of splitting the concert of
action now existing between Great Britain, the United States and Russia.”
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July 28 |
Japan rejects Potsdam Declaration.
August 6
The world's second atomic bomb, Little Boy, a gun-type uranium
bomb, is detonated 1,900 feet above Hiroshima, Japan. It has a
yield of approximately 15 kilotons TNT. Some 90,000 to 100,000
persons are killed immediately; about 145,000 persons will perish
from the bombing by the end of 1945.
August 8
Soviet Union informs Japan that it is entering the war.
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August 9
At 9:44 a.m. Bockscar, a B-29 carrying Fat Man, the world's third
atomic bomb, arrives at its primary target, Kokura. The city is
covered in haze and smoke from an American bombing raid on a
nearby city. Bockscar turns to its secondary target Nagasaki. At
11:02 a.m. the world's third atomic bomb explosion devastates
Nagasaki, the intense heat and blast indiscriminately slaughters
its inhabitants
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August 9
President Truman speaks to the American people via radio
broadcast He states, “The world will note that the first atomic
bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was
because we wished in the first instance to avoid, in so far as
possible, the killing of civilians.” [The official Bombing Survey
Report stated: “Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen as targets
because of their concentration of activities and population.” More
than 95 percent of those killed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were
civilians.]
August 9
Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
August 9
Soviet Union begins its offensive against Japan in Manchuria.
August 14
Japan surrenders.
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Bibliography:
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/teacher/abomb.htm
www.willamette.edu/cla/wviews/hiroshima.html
www.socialstudieshelp.com/Lesson_95_Notes.htm
www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/2010/atomic.htm
History 5N readings, April 12: McGeorge, Berstein, Walzer.
End.