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In the surprise attack, Japan sunk several ships, destroyed hundreds of planes and ended thousands of lives. The United States, along with other countries, criticized Japanese aggression but shied away from any economic or military punishments. A few weeks later, on September 2, 1945 Japanese representatives signed surrender documents on the USS Missouri, in Tokyo harbor.[71]. Thus, the extent to which the bombings contributed to the end of World War II or the beginning of the Cold War remain live issues. With the devastating battle for Okinawa winding up, Truman and the Joint Chiefs stepped back and considered what it would take to secure Japans surrender. (Copy from U.S. National Archives, RG 77-AEC), A nuclear weapon of the "Fat Man" type, the plutonium implosion-type detonated over Nagasaki. Various personnel and guards are standing around the loading area. The last major battle, the fight for Okinawa, lasted almost three months and took more than 100,000 Japanese and American lives. At 8:15 am Hiroshima time, Little Boy was dropped. The nuclear age had truly begun with the first military use of atomic weapons. To provide a fuller picture of the transition from U.S.-Japanese antagonism to reconciliation, the editor has done what could be done within time and resource constraints to present information on the activities and points of view of Japanese policymakers and diplomats. During a conversation with Joseph E. Davies, a prominent Washington lawyer and former ambassador to the Soviet Union, Truman said that he wanted to delay talks with Stalin and Churchill until July when the first atomic device had been tested. Barton Bernstein and Richard Frank, among others, have argued that Trumans assertion that the atomic targets were military objectives suggested that either he did not understand the power of the new weapons or had simply deceived himself about the nature of the targets. This set of documents concerns the work of the Uranium Committee of the National Academy of Sciences, an exploratory project that was the lead-up to the actual production effort undertaken by the Manhattan Project. Reminding Stimson about the objections of some Manhattan project scientists to military use of the bomb, Harrison summarized the basic arguments of the Franck report. The weapon is in the pit covered with canvas. On the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the National Security Archive updates its 2005 publication of the most comprehensive on-line collection of declassified U.S. government documents on the first use of the atomic bomb and the end of the war in the Pacific. The entries for 8 and 9 August, prepared in light of the bombing of Hiroshima, include discussion of the British contribution to the Manhattan Project, Harriman (his nibs) report on his meeting with Molotov about the Soviet declaration of war, and speculation about the impact of the bombing of Hiroshima on the Soviet decision. 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. [35]. Still unaware of radiation effects, Truman emphasized the explosive yield. 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. [20]. Alperovitz, 281-282. 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? With direct access to the documents, readers may develop their own answers to the questions raised above. Leaflets dropped on cities in Japan warning civilians about the atomic bomb, dropped c. August 6, 1945. Responding to this threat, the United States placed an embargo on scrap metal, oil, and aviation fuel heading to Japan and froze Japanese assets in the United States. 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. [16]. National Archives Identifier 535795] 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. See Malloy, A Very Pleasant Way to Die, 541-542. In August 1945 the USA detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (Photo from U.S. National Archives, RG 77-AEC), An overview of the destruction of Hiroshima [undated, circa August-September 1945]. In the belly of the bomber was Little Boy, an atomic bomb. The discussion of area bombing may have reminded him that Japanese civilians remained at risk from U.S. bombing operations. Although they have been public for 30 years, new translations of these sources are now freely accessible on the Wilson Centers Digital Archive. This includes a number of formerly top secret summaries of intercepted Japanese diplomatic communications, which enable interested readers to form their own judgments about the direction of Japanese diplomacy in the weeks before the atomic bombings. [76]. The cost of invasion, they knew, would be high. [30]. Three days later, it dropped another on Nagasaki. Bernstein (1995), 144. As noted, some documents relating to the origins of the Manhattan Project have been included in addition to entries from the Robert P. Meiklejohn diaries and translations of a few Soviet documents, among other items. 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. How the Hiroshima Bombing Ended WWIIAnd Started the Cold War - HISTORY The U.S. documents cited here will be familiar to many knowledgeable readers on the Hiroshima-Nagasaki controversy and the history of the Manhattan Project. Malloy (2008), 49-50. At the time of the first report, various methods for producing a chain reaction were envisioned and money was being budgeted to try them out. Another column was striking south from the Soviet border toward Hailar. 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? atomic bomb dropped to intimidate russia 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. Upon becoming president, Harry Truman learned of the Manhattan Project, a secret scientific effort to create an atomic bomb. [55] On 22 July Marshall asked Deputy Chief of Staff Thomas Handy to prepare a draft; General Groves wrote one which went to Potsdam for Marshalls approval. The intention was to force Japan to surrender, thus avoiding a long war in the Pacific. Most of these individuals were bureaucrats, which also explains the lack of scientific terms and technical observations on the effects of radiation. The Japanese Surrender in World War II. In a long and impassioned message, the latter argued why Japan must accept defeat: it is meaningless to prove ones devotion [to the Emperor] by wrecking the State. Togo rejected Satos advice that Japan could accept unconditional surrender with one qualification: the preservation of the Imperial House. Probably unable or unwilling to take a soft position in an official cable, Togo declared that the whole country will pit itself against the enemy in accordance with the Imperial Will as long as the enemy demands unconditional surrender., Naval Historical Center, Operational Archives, James Forrestal Diaries, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal was a regular recipient of Magic intercept reports; this substantial entry reviews the dramatic Sato-Togo exchanges covered in the 22 July Magic summary (although Forrestal misdated Satos cable as first of July instead of the 21st). When the atomic bomb was dropped, I felt: "This is terrible." Immediately thereafter, it was reported Soviet Russia entered the war. Wartime alliance tensions - Reasons for the Cold War - BBC In 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why did Document B: Thank God for the Atomic Bomb My division, like most of the ones transferred from Europe was . [26]. For the inception of the Soviet nuclear program and the role of espionage in facilitating it, see Holloway,Stalin and the Bomb(New Haven, Yale University Press, 1994). Information from the late John Taylor, National Archives. To keep his pledge at Yalta to enter the war against Japan and to secure the territorial concessions promised at the conference (e.g., Soviet annexation of the Kuriles and southern Sakhalin and a Soviet naval base at Port Arthur, etc.) ], Documents 1A-C: Report of the Uranium Committee, National Archives, Records of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Record Group 227 (hereinafter RG 227), Bush-Conant papers microfilm collection, Roll 1, Target 2, Folder 1, "S-1 Historical File, Section A (1940-1941).". Note: The second page of the diary entry includes a newspaper clipping of the Associated Presss transmission of the Byrnes note. But it was the opposite, Truman caused the Cold War the moment he dropped the atomic bomb. On the August 6, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, by the United States.