Transcript The Atomic Bomb

Yalta Conference, February, 1945
Churchill, FDR, Stalin
Yalta Conference
Stalin promised to enter the war against Japan 3
months after Germany surrendered.
(Germany surrendered on May 7 –> The S.U.
Would declare war on Japan on August 8)
The three also discussed the postwar organization
of Europe, agreeing upon the re-establishment of
prewar states and the occupation of postwar
Germany.
Manhattan Project
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Einstein and
Oppenheimer working on
developing the Atomic
bomb.
The US spent $2 billion
on developing the bomb.
First bomb tested in
Alamogordo (White
Sands) on July16, 1945.
My part in producing the atomic bomb consisted in a single act: I
signed a letter to President Roosevelt, pressing the need for
experiments on a larger scale in order to explore the possibilities for
the production of an atomic bomb.
I was fully aware of the terrible danger to mankind in case this
attempts succeeded. But the likelihood that the Germans were
working on the same problem with a chance of succeeding forced
me to this step. I could do nothing else although I have always been
a convinced pacifist. To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better
than to commit ordinary murder.
(Albert Einstein, 1952)
"If I had known they were going to do this,
I would have become a shoemaker."
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World
War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Hiroshima: ~140,000
people killed instantly
Nagasaki: ~ 70,000
President Truman:
“we have used it to sharpen the agony of war.”
UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER?
Should Japan be allowed to keep its emperor?
On May 28, 1945, Hoover visited President
Truman and suggested a way to end the Pacific
war quickly: "I am convinced that if you, as
President, will make a shortwave broadcast to the
people of Japan - tell them they can have their
Emperor if they surrender, that it will not mean
unconditional surrender except for the militarists you'll get a peace in Japan - you'll have both wars
over."
POTSDAM
Allies agree to demand unconditional surrender of
Japan, and to dismantle the Japanese empire in
the Pacific.
At Potsdam,
Stalin was informed of the US development of the
Atomic bomb. He pretended indifference. A Soviet
project to develop nuclear weapons had been
underway since 1942-43.
Truman: Sent message to Japan, telling them to
surrender or “face prompt and utter destruction.”
POTSDAM
Conference – Aug. 2, 1945
General MacArthur:
"...the Potsdam declaration in July, demand[ed] that
Japan surrender unconditionally or face 'prompt and utter
destruction.' MacArthur was appalled. He knew that the
Japanese would never renounce their emperor, and that
without him an orderly transition to peace would be
impossible anyhow, because his people would never
submit to Allied occupation unless he ordered it.
Ironically, when the surrender did come, it was
conditional, and the condition was a continuation of the
imperial reign. Had the General's advice been followed,
the resort to atomic weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki
might have been unnecessary."
US History Textbook
… Japanese leaders still talked of winning a
glorious victory.
The Atomic Bomb President Truman made plans
for invading Japan in the autumn. His military
advisers warned him that the invasion might cost
half a million American casualties. In July, Truman
learned that a secret weapon – the atomic bomb –
had been successfully tested in the NM desert. The
new weapon could destroy an entire city. Truman
decided to use it and save American lives.
…At last, on August 14, 1945, the emperor …
announced that the nation would surrender. …
World War II was over at last.
Dwight Eisenhower
"During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had
been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to
him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that
Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was
completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that
our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of
a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer
mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my
belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some
way to surrender with a minimum loss of 'face'. The Secretary
was deeply perturbed by my attitude..."
"...the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't
necessary to hit them with that awful thing."
General Douglas MacArthur
“My staff was unanimous in
believing that Japan was on the
point of collapse and surrender”
General Curtis LeMay (who pioneered
precision bombing of Germany and Japan and
who later headed the Strategic Air Command
and served as Air Force Chief of Staff):
“The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the
end of the war.”
Howard Zinn
“The justification for these atrocities was that this
would end the war quickly, making
unnecessary an invasion of Japan. Such an
invasion would cost a huge number of lives, the
government said – a million, according to
Secretary of State Byrnes; half a million,
Truman claimed was the figure given him by
General George Marshall. …
These estimates of invasion losses were not
realistic, and seem to have been pulled out of
the air to justify [the] bombings.
US Strategic Bombing Survey
Set up by the War Department in 1944 to study results of aerial attacks.
“Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts
and supported by the testimony of the surviving
Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey’s
opinion that certainly prior to 31 December
1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November
1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the
atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if
Russia had not entered the war, and even if no
invasion had been planned or contemplated.
The Japanese code had been broken and the US
was aware that Japan had been trying to
negotiate the terms of surrender with the Soviet
Union. Japan believed the Soviet Union could
help broker peace with the US.
January 20, 1945: Roosevelt received a note
From MacArthur that the Japanese were offering
terms of surrender virtually identical to the ones
eventually accepted by the Americans.
Truman:
“The world will note that the first atomic
bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a
military base. That was because we
wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar
as possible, the killing of civilians.”
Almost all of the casualties were civilians.
US Strategic Bombing Survey:
“Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen as targets
because of their concentration of activities and
population.”