OPPENHEIMER: The Decision to Drop the Bomb (1965)

Outside of this era, no one can argue that this is the nuclear age of the ever-present threat of instantaneous total annihilation. We got here, how did it all start? He was born in another time, in a world like this. 1945 Wars had always been until the year 8.15 On the morning of August 6, 1945, when a single plane carrying a song ushered in the era we now live in, the

decision

to

drop

an atomic

bomb

on the city of Hiroshima was perhaps the

decision

most important of our time, the controversy at Stern has continued. with increasing intensity since then how the decision was made why it was made the instant destruction of Hiroshima of 70,000 Japanese men, women and children in the spring of 1945 could be avoided it was known that an atomic

bomb

would be made all that was left was to decide whether to use it and how this is the story of the 135 days of that decision on the first day April 12, 1945 we interrupt this program with a special bulletin a press association has announced that President Roosevelt has died the president died of a brain hemorrhage Everything What we know is that the president died in Warm Springs, Georgia.

He has been president for 12 years longer than any other man. He is the only president many have known now, on this April afternoon with the United States at war around the world. He suddenly he left. now someone else must make life and death decisions the vice president is almost unknown he has been in office less than three months overshadowed by the dominant figure of the president he is now president the coincidental leader of the largest military coalition in history in 709 Prime Minister Harry S. Truman takes the oath of office he never wanted to hold assumes responsibilities for which he has not had time to be prepared or informed says the moon, the stars and all the planets simply fell on me says pray for me he says his cabinet no one can fill the void left, he says he will try to continue Roosevelt's policies when the cabinet leaves, one man is left behind, the 78-year-old Secretary of War, Henry L.

Simpson, tired but willing to iron, with a secret that must now be told. the new president a moment is described by his friend and biographer McGeorge Bundy Truman recounts that conversation in this language Stimson told me that he wanted me to know about an important project that was underway a project that sought the development of a new explosive of almost incredible power destructive that was all he felt free to say and his statement left me baffled, it was the first information that reached me about the atomic bomb, but he did not give me details, the Pentagon, the project to build the atomic bomb, received the code . name District of Manhattan is being built under the direction of a recently promoted Brigadier General of the Corps of Engineers his name is Leslie Groves reports only to the Chief of Staff of the Army George Marshall Secretary of War Stimson and the president a few doors away from the future strategy The war is being planned.

Few of the planners have been told the secret of the bomb. Secretary of State Statinius and the men in the State Department who plan the postwar policy of the United States do not know the secret on Capitol Hill. The congressmen who have appropriated two billion dollars for the borough of Manhattan do not know what the money is spent on in laboratories across the country there are men who know the secret scientists are deeply concerned about the implications of the force they are about to unleash on the world one is Leo Zillard, who urged Einstein to tell Roosevelt that the United States should try to make an atomic bomb.

He recorded his views on the bomb before he died. His wife read them and this is what she said in the spring of 45. It was clear that the war against Germany would end soon and then I began to wonder what the purpose of continuing the development of the bomb is, how the bomb would be used when we get there to home. At first we were very motivated to produce a bomb because we feared that the Germans would get ahead of us and the only way to prevent them from

drop

ping bombs on us was to have bombs in Readiness ourselves, but now with the war it was not clear what we were working for and because to which Seacoast says there was no intermediate level in government to which we could have turned for careful consideration of these issues.

The only man we were sure we had the right to communicate with was the president. He knew several people who could have contacted Roosevelt, but I don't know anyone off the cuff. who could have reached torment Truman simply did not move in the same service as Harry Truman comes to speak for the first time in a joint session of Congress he has many things on his mind that take priority over the atomic bomb he is still forming his administration He is still learning his job. Pressing issues around the world demand your attention. The most important of these is the global war that the United States is fighting.

I call on all Americans to help me keep our nation united in defense of the ideals that have been so eloquently proclaimed by Franklin. Roosevelt our demand has been and remains unconditional surrender for the next 11 days the president has no time to think about a secret weapon that may or may not work while he speaks three million American SIGs are in Europe fighting their way through Germany and beyond the The strategy of the war lies in the problem of what to do with Germany after the war, how to restore Europe, how to deal with the Soviet Union, on the other side of the world, in the Pacific, on the islands and atolls of choral which the Japanese fanatically resist.

America's dead and wounded on the beaches of the jungles are increasing oh right now far from the war hidden in the hills of eastern Tennessee in a place not even on a map called Oak Ridge under strict security restrictions there is a plant which uses twice as much electricity since the city of Memphis uses enormous amounts of raw materials has cost almost a billion dollars but does not seem to produce anything the fact is that behind the security wall Oak Ridge is slowly and painfully manufacturing uranium-235 the explosive material for the atomic palm April 25, 1945. When the conference to organize the United Nations begins, State Department policy planners have not yet been informed about the bomb, the president has not yet been informed, worried about this Secretary of War.

Stimson arranges to see the president that Mr. Simpson brought with him to In that memorandum of the meeting that he kept among his records and which tells very clearly the way in which he then viewed the matter, he noted that while the United States was on the head in the development of a weapon, it would not remain at the head indefinitely, it certainly would not preserve a monopoly forever. and that the nation that would reach first would be the Soviet Union pointed out that the weapon and its use were not simply an immediate military issue but a political issue since this new Force threatened the very existence of civilization.

Truman did not like to read long reports and this report was not bad considering the size of the project is about 24 pages and he constantly interrupted his reading to say well I don't like reading articles and Mr. Stimson responded well, I can't tell you. this in more concise language. This is a great project. The president indicated that he felt it was sensible and that there was no reason to make any change in our course of action. The three begin. The Red Army is advancing rapidly. street through the burning ruins of Berlin the Nazis announced that Hitler is dead the war in Europe is ending but even as the last bitter battle is fought the problems of post-war Europe the war in the Pacific now begins to occupy the minds of the leading politicians Stimson meets again secretly with the president his then assistant John McCloy describes his state of mind of course he was very involved in the mechanical production of the bomb the physical problems that were related to that but I think more deeply That was also involved with the heavy responsibilities and great imponderables that were connected with the bomb in its use, the secretary recommended the establishment of a special committee called the interim committee to consider all aspects of the matter and in particular the immediate and pressing issue of the relationship of In this new weapon for the war against Japan, membership was worked on until we got what we thought would be a very good committee, and we even went so far as to say that, of course, the President should be allowed if he wanted . choose a man for it and of course he could bother and choose all his own people, but he even chose the man we wanted there, which was Mr.

Burns, James F. Burns, former Supreme Court Justice, former Harry Truman's rival for the vice presidency. He will soon become his secretary of state and his most influential advisor when Simpson sees the president at the Pentagon. General Groves meets with General Marshall. I thought it was time to start planning the actual military operation. He, uh, I said he thought he would do it. I would like him to designate two officers in the General Staff Operations Division with whom he could speak and help them begin to make their plans. To my surprise, General Marshall said after thinking for a moment and said: Is there any reason why he can do it?

Don't do it yourself, my answer was no, sir, and those were the instructions I had and the only instructions I had on formulating war plans. Then I talked to General Arnold, the head of the Air Force, and I told him that I wanted some advice from some of his officers, General Norstott, who was then the chief of staff of the 20th Air Force, who was a great bombardment command under the direct control of General Arnold and was assigned to assist me in that way. I appointed an objectives committee to survey the field so that we had the correct objectives in Japan and so that everything was ready at the time we needed to be ready May 8 in Europe after four and a half years of war 20 million dead Germany surrenders Unconditionally the same bloody battles have to be repeated on all the Japanese islands, this is the question that US military planners must now answer as they reflect on this takeoff of the B-29s from a remote airfield in the Utah desert.

On board they are chosen. The crews are part of a secret air unit designated the 509th Composite Group they have not been told what their mission is day after day they practice learning how to drop a bomb May 9, 1945 the war in Europe is over the nations of Europe lie in ruins thousands are hungry without clothes homeless the United States and the Soviet Union The Union begins to fight over the future of Germany and Eastern Europe Winston Churchill calls for a meeting of the big three before American troops are sent to the Pacific Washington in response to Churchill the president tentatively agrees to a meeting on July 1 Secretary Stimson urges to delay his diary Thus, the president has promised to meet with Stalin and Churchill on July 1 and at that time these issues will become burning ; it may be necessary to discuss with Russia its relations with Manchuria, Port Arthur and other northern Chinese ports over any In such a tangled web of problems, this secret would be dominant and yet there was a problem, as the diary entry goes on to say, in the fact that by July 1 we would not know in all likelihood whether the weapon was a weapon or not. success the secretary noted that it seemed terrible to gamble with so much at stake in diplomacy without having the master plan in hand May 9 the first meeting of the interim committee Stimson is the president George Harrison his deputy Gordon arneson recording secretary some of the members No They had heard of this project in the borough of Manhattan, they knew nothing about the development of the atomic bomb, so much of the meeting was devoted to a technical briefing led by Mr.

Harrison and General Groves. Another question that came up at this meeting was how long it would last. Would it take the Soviet Union to produce an atomic weapon? Estimates ranged from three to four years, as suggested by Dr. Bush, Dr. Conant, and 20 years, as suggested by General Groves. Mr. Burns considered this point to be very important and would have a very important effect. about how we deal with the Soviet Union on this issue: whether we should try to incorporate them at an early stage, whether we should overcome them, what our position should be later in another conference room.

General Groves meets with his Target Committee to discuss his situation. The assignment, of course, I gave definite instructions to the targeting committee about what we wanted, we wanted, for example, the first city to be bombed, we wanted it to be large enough that the effects of the bomb would wear off and that I didn't do it. be a small place in a desert whose effect you wouldn't know what it would be May 25 The Joint Chiefs of Staff meet to talk about plans for thewar against Japan, the next step to take after the Okinawa campaign, the Navy defends the blockade of the invasion of Japan On the coast of China, the Air Force wants to force Japan to surrender with its fire attacks.

General Marshall is in favor of the invasion of the Japanese islands. Admiral Nimitz and General McArthur agree. Chief of Staff Admiral Lay agrees, but says the invasion could cost up to a million American lives. the decision of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is to recommend to the president the Olympic operation against Kyoshu in November Corona against Honshu in spring The Joint Chiefs of Staff does not consider the atomic bomb they do not know if it will work or how effective it will be meanwhile Japan is being destroyed by conventional weapons a record 400 b-29s attacked Japan with incendiary bombs the Japanese are being burned in their cities from one end of the Homeland to the other Behind the walls of the Imperial Palace the leaders are divided over how to face the coming disaster Mark was the advisor to the emperor's Keto Lauren private seal in at least one city, and sometimes two became Ash's deity.

I don't know how many cities there are in Japan, but I realized that they would all be razed in time for winter. approach tens of millions of people would die like a dog from hunger and exposure and I told them how can we continue the war in such conditions secretary to the minister of war anami, we were hoping that we could face a strong fight against the American landing forces and this Victory would induce the Americans to propose an end to the war. We were under no illusions that this coup could wipe out American forces, but we are hopeful that this would give us a negotiating advantage to ask for. best turns in peace treaty cabinet secretary sakumizo therefore if anyone ever dared to utter a word about a ceasefire or something like that they would be arrested by the military police if they were a government official , they would have fired him from his position so that no one could openly speak or say anything like that Washington the president delays the meeting of the Big Three this is Simpson's idea he wants to have the bomb ready before the president meets with Stalin later behind the Pentagon Stimson sends for General Groves asked me if I had selected In the objectives chat I replied that yes, the objectives were.

He already had that report and hoped to deliver it to General Marshall the next morning for his consideration and approval. Mr. Stimpson then said: Well, his report is finished, right? Well, I haven't gone over it yet, Mr. Stimson, I want to make sure I have it right and he said well, he said I'd like to see it and I said well, it's on the other side of the river and it would take a long time to get it, he said. I have all day and I know how fast your office operates there is a phone on this desk you pick it up and call your office to have that report brought in and when I protested a little I thought it was something General Marshall should relay first Mr.

Stimpson He said this is one time I will be the final Deciding Authority, no one is going to tell me what to do about it, he said about this matter, I am the Kingpin and you could do it too. Well, bring that report here. Well, in the meantime, he asked me what cities I was planning to bomb or what targets. I informed him and told him that Kyoto was the preferred target as the first because it was of such size that he would have no doubts about the effects of the bomb, he immediately said: "Well, I don't want the Kyoto bomb" and continued telling me about his story, It is the cultural center of Japan, the ancient ancient capital and many reasons why. he didn't want to see it bombed uh when the report came and I gave it to him and he actually made up his mind as soon as he heard the word Kyoto, there's no doubt about it after he got the report.

He read it and then he walked to the door that separated his office from General Marshalls, opened it and said General Marshall, if you're not busy, I wish you had come in and then the secretary really betrayed me because, without any explanation, he said: General Marshall uh Marshall uh John says, he just brought me your report on the proposed objectives, he says I don't like it. Kyoto is removed from the target list. The second target on the list is Hiroshima. Headlines on May 31 report fire attacks in Japan. left endless the Japanese dead are now six figures Air Force General Lemay says we are taking the Japanese back to the caves in this atmosphere the interim committee meets to recommend to the president how to use the atomic bomb chaired by Secretary Henry Stemson of minutes Gordon Arneson the The question arose as to what our position should be with respect to the Soviet Union.

Dr. Oppenheimer thought we should mention these developments in general terms to the Soviet Union and wait for further discussions that might lead to cooperation in the field. Scientific panel chief Robert Oppenheimer Stimpson was clearly thinking along these lines and although General Marshall and General Groves, who were not members of the committee, were in one sense or another military and although they had a somewhat different sense of urgency and priority, they did not They had it in that sense. The meeting addressed these questions in a very different way than that proposed by the panel in this regard.

General Marshall said as a sort of passing thought. I don't put it any higher than that, which might be a good idea to invite. The Soviet Union would send observers to the tested Alamogordo. This suggestion was not accepted by anyone else and was quickly approved by Mr. Burns. At this stage Mr Burns felt strongly that we should not share any information with the Soviet Union nor should we make any immediate proposals. For them, James Burns, the president's representative on the interim committee. I can't speak for others, but it was always in the back of my mind that it was important that we end the war before the Russians arrived.

The meeting continues behind. Other points are made behind closed doors, former Harvard president Conant, we were operating in a climate and our opinion and any agency almost took for granted a tremendous destruction of civilian lives and civilian homes and cities, and I think the horror of war. That was underway and the horror of the war that military planners expected to continue for a long time was so great that it was more or less taken for granted that if a new weapon could end this agony it should be used at any time. A weapon that would end the war and save lives to save a million casualties among American children was justified at lunchtime.

Mr. Burns asked Dr. Lawrence to re-raise the question that had previously been raised merely in passing, namely, that the weapon should not be used against the Japanese in the war, but that there should be a surprising but harmless demonstration of this weapon in the hope that the Japanese could be persuaded to sue for peace, along with this demonstration of course was the possibility that the weapon would have to be used. Later, if the Japanese were not sufficiently impressed, this idea was discussed at some length. Dr. Oppenheimer, for example, said that he doubted that any demonstration could be devised startling enough to convince the Japanese that they should throw in the sponge.

Remember none of us had done it then. Have we ever seen a bomber, we had no idea what could be done, what kind of effect it would have if we attempted a demonstration over a Japanese territory, the plane could be shot down, American prisoners of war could be taken to the area's president. demonstration would have had to take the responsibility of telling the world that we have this atomic bomb and how terrible it was. That would be the specific statement that would have happened to the wall. "My God, he just knows," someone finally said, unless these are like that.

The weapon is used with Maximum Impact, it can be very difficult for anyone to see much difference between it and the firebombing attacks that were happening at that same time in Tokyo on June 1, the headlines say that the parade burned down, stopped the slaughter, a unanimous recommendation is made. say from our point of view what the consequences would have been if we had advised against the use of this weapon because it was so new and so focused on its effect and if our advice had been followed by the president who made the final decision. What would this mean and From our point of view would it have meant continuing the devastation of Japan by conventional methods?

It would have meant that we were led to believe that the invasion of Japan and the continuation for months of a terrible war that would cause nothing. only American casualties but a huge loss of life um in the Japanese says wow, these would have been the consequences I don't say under those conditions uh a person might not make the decision to use a weapon that we believed would shorten the war the recommendation of the interim committee was a recommendation only that the ultimate responsibility for making a recommendation to the president himself rested with Mr. Simpson, he never tried to hide that when the committee adjourns, a member of a scientific panel has a question, says Arthur Compton, head of the Chicago project.

What will I tell Zillard and the other scientists? He was told he could mention to the committee that he was eager to hear the scientists' opinions. He asked various groups to prepare articles. This took place on June 2nd among the groups who were asked to write. The documents were one that became known as the Frank Committee. The Front Committee has its report ready to be sent to Washington within a few days. One of the signatories is Glenn Seaborg, who 18 years later will become president of the Atomic Energy Commission. Some of the main conclusions of that report were that there were no lasting secrets about nuclear power or nuclear weapons that other nations would obtain nuclear weapons in the not-too-distant future after the war and therefore international control of some kind was imperative. , but perhaps the most publicized conclusion that has been reached was the suggestion that the nuclear weapon not be launched directly on Japan, but rather that it be first demonstrated in some uninhabited area.

The report was supposed to go first to Compton, who was leaving on a business trip to Washington, and Frank was so anxious. to see that it was actually delivered to the highest possible person, Stimson, who volunteered for a company on this trip, but November correctly was only a game top birth available climbing a top birth just to take the report personally to to Washington they came to the Pentagon in July and on June 12 they expect to see the secretary, he was not available Nora was the vice president George Harrison I received them I spoke with them about the reports I received copies of the report as well as a letter A that covered In the letter that the Dr.

Compton said that he thought that these recommendations did not take sufficient account of the fact that a technical demonstration could mean a considerable prolongation of the war and that a second failure to use the weapon in all its fury could make it very difficult. for the world to understand what it was really facing and without understanding what it was, destiny might not make the effort that was really necessary to see if we could achieve effective international control. I received the report and the letter from Compton to Harrison as quickly as possible. as was available, he said that this report should really be examined and commented on by the scientific panel before the interim committee is asked to express its views, so he called Dr.

Compton in Los Alamos and said he wanted to know What did the scientific panel think about it? this proposal and that the interim committee intended to postpone discussion of the report until it had the opinions of the scientific panel in hand. On June 18, as crowds applaud the supreme commander of the European War, the nation's leaders once again consider the problems of the unfinished war. In the Pacific, as Eisenhower walks down Pennsylvania Avenue at the White House, a decision is being made, Secretary Stimson and the Joint Chiefs of Staff meet with the president and tell him there is no alternative to invading Japan.

They estimate that the war will end in the fall of 1946. The atomic bomb is mentioned but it has not yet been tested. Nobody knows what a delay in the invasion plans will do. It is not considered. The president agrees that he has no alternative. He orders the General Staff. Set to move forward with the machinery for the first stage of the invasion beginning to move. The invasion will take place here on D-Day of Kyushu on November 1st. In Japan, on a similar map, the Lieutenant General is examining the same problem. Those of us in the second Department, G2 had to consider whether American forces would attempt southern Kyushu or the Kanto Plains, our conclusion was that if the Americans landed in southern Kyushu, our current forces would be sufficient to fight the Americans as soon as owachi,commander of the suicidal naval forces in Kyushu, I deployed my forces around numerous Along the coast there were around 600 Shinyo-type ships under my command and they were stationed along the coast hidden in small ports and other strategic points for the defending.

On the island there were around 100 Titan-type human torpedoes ready for action. We were absolutely sure that with these forces. we could meet and sink at least 200 American transports on June 21 interim committee panels respond to questions posed by front report I remember we first answered the question what do scientists think by saying they think a variety of things this is natural This is not a completely trivial question. Secondly, we said that we did not believe that we had before us the kind of information or the kind of knowledge or behind us the kind of experience that would really qualify us to face this decision.

He said that there seemed to be two big points of view among scientists and no doubt there would be among others if people knew about this, on the one hand they hoped that this instrument would never be used in war and therefore they hope that we would not start using it on the other On the other hand, they hoped or other people hoped that it would end this war, save countless lives, put an end to it and to the ship tray that had been running for many years and that had been marked by atrocities, concentration camps, murderous raids on cities of Rotterdam, Dresden and Tokyo itself and that, in general, we were inclined to think that if it was necessary to end the war and we had the possibility of doing so, we thought it was the right thing to do, that is not the case.

We said that a test is not feasible but we said that we did not believe that we could recommend one that would induce surrender. Upon hearing this report from the panel, the interim committee decided that they would reaffirm their previous decision that the weapon should be used against the Japanese as soon as possible, that it would be used without warning and that it should be used against a war industry complex surrounded by houses or other buildings more susceptible to damage, while the interim committee confirms its recommendation to use the atomic bomb in Japan the battle for Okinawa ends in three months 98,000 Japanese have died there have been 80,000 American casualties they are preparing against Japan on standby is the mysterious group composed 509 it has no bombs it does not carry out raids the crews do not know the time of Now their mission is only six weeks away, but now in Washington some are reconsidering that mission one is under control.

Secretary of the Navy and acting Committee member Ralph Bard, several people in the military, scientists, and several people close to the situation began to doubt the wisdom of dropping this bomb without some kind of warning to the Japanese. very strongly we should have a specific warning we should tell them exactly what this word Adam Bomb connotes so many things that this would be of deep meaning it seemed to me not only that it was a sin to use a good word it should be It is used most often to kill non-combatants , but that if such a weapon could be made it would be better not to use it in a war that was ending so that we could preserve for ourselves the knowledge of its construction and its use in the event that we might one day need it to preserve our government and our security, it definitely seemed to me that the Japanese were ready to surrender, they were getting weaker and weaker, they were surrounded by the Navy, they couldn't get any imports and they couldn't export anything and naturally as time went on and the war developed in our favor, it was quite logical for Hope and to expect that with the right kind of warning that the Japanese would have given, the decision worried him and he still hoped that it would be possible to put together some kind of technical demonstration that it was worth trying and I hoped that would be the decision.

Harrison received this memorandum and duly passed it on to the Secretary of War, I believe. mainly to let the secretary know that The View was no longer unanimous in Los Alamos, New Mexico, among the scientists who will assemble the bomb is also not unanimous Dr. Edward Teller of Chicago for my good friend Leo, wrote to me about the ventilator committee on the suggestion of not using the nuclear bomb in Japan without a prior test, Sillard often made me think things seriously. I didn't always agree with you, but on this occasion I felt that I was right, several people began to argue. that we should not use the bomb militarily because Germany was obviously collapsing and the Japanese were suffering a lot of setbacks, so there was a lot of discussion within the laboratory about the wisdom of using the bombs militarily and some people suggested that we drop a bomb. somewhere not far from Tokyo and Tokyo Bay and some others suggest that we drop them on Mount Fujiyama just to scare the Japanese, you wonder if the Japanese government will then be formed by the bitter division between the party of peace and the party of war.

They have been influenced by a huge nuclear firecracker detonated at high altitude causing little damage and their response is as good as mine I don't know Dr. Teller says Dr. Oppenheimer spoke to him about his protest he told me not to do anything he told me that silhouette was using the influence of a scientist inappropriately that neither I nor the Earth nor I nor most of the people in Los Angeles and enough information to make a decision or to influence a decision because we certainly couldn't have done it to influence a decision in such an important way and the story was that he had seen Military Intelligence estimates about the course of the war in Japan prepared, of course, without knowledge of the atomic bomb and that these estimates were that the Japanese were not not at all willing to surrender and that they would continue to fight the war despite realizing its ultimate outcome until after we invaded the main islands of Japan in November and that there would probably be a million casualties.

I only know that I was told that an invasion was planned that would be necessary and that it would be terribly costly and it is this information that opmahama told us and it certainly had some effect on me and I began to think that perhaps in these conditions such a hugely drastic step as military use of the bomb would be justified to reduce the total number of casualties and end the war much sooner July 8 one by the cruiser Augusta en route to the Big Three meeting the president now knows that the bomb test is scheduled for the 15th of July. now the wedding begins Japan is in ashes the situation is becoming more desperate every day, but the army and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are still arguing about what to do.

The army agrees to seek peace, but only if the Soviet Union is mediated. He opposed the Soviet Union acting as a mediator, but the army was adamant in asking the Soviet Union to do so. Mr. Togo's view was that it would be totally ineffective to rely on the Soviet Union as a mediator; However, the army refuted this argument by saying that if the Soviet Union became a mediator, that would automatically prevent it from entering the war and suddenly invading Manchuria in Moscow Ambassador Sato is instructed to see that Stalin has fallen has promised to enter the war against Japan in exchange for concessions in Manchuria sees no subtleties goes to the Big Three meeting in Potsdam instead of the Japanese effort to get Stalin to intercede the Japanese diplomatic code is known to have been broken the president knows of the division between Japanese leaders Alamogordo New Mexico at bomb test site Scientists are working under increasing pressure told there should be no more delays President should know test results when he meets with Stalin Meanwhile in Chicago Leo Zillard tries once again to influence the decision Dr.

Zillard in Chicago circulated a petition on which he had about 60 signatures and once again hoped that the weapon would not be used militarily against the Japanese who there It would be a demonstration that perhaps there would be than to use the weapon if the demonstration does not work, but in any case the decision should be made with full awareness of the moral responsibilities involved. This request generated counter-requests that were difficult to judge by these requests exactly what the scientists thought, as a result, the general asked Arthur Compton to make an opinion of Paul, how the Chicago scientists determined what the range of thought was and who I was in favor of this opinion poll covering the entire range from scratch. use for more effective military use to achieve early surrender with minimal loss of American lives the sign on this says that Chicago is surveyed individually there is no discussion afterwards no one can agree on what they have said there has been some controversy about that survey well , The questions were pretty clear or not, but Dr.

Compton felt that 46 percent of the respondents, I think about 150 uh, felt that the weapon should be used militarily and the others disagree, but when the pole arrives at the Pentagon it is already too late. What you interpret makes no difference, the Compton survey arrived in Washington on August 1 and I think it would be only Frank who would say that that time, as far as my impression was concerned, was that, as far as Secretary Stimson, the matter was already decided. and there was no need for further expressions of opinion on the part of the scientists in Chicago or anywhere else in mid-July a car arrives at the test site in the back seat is the plutonium for the bomb the man who receives it is the general Groves, Deputy General Farrell on Friday the 13th the active material which when the bomb was ready I signed a receipt to be able to remove it from the current Belly of the scientists who had when I did it I took it in my hands I felt the glowing heat of this material for the worst moment I began to feel that maybe there was something important in this business almost a whole week that there was some possibility of latent energy in this material is 48 hours before HR at Ground Zero Monday July 15, 1945 Alamogordo New Mexico is D minus one for the test of the world's first atomic device plutonium reaches the highest place where the device was placed it will be hoisted to the top where General Farrell and others hope there was a delay in inserting the ball of active material into a cylindrical hole in The pump simply got stuck and didn't go in.

Dr. Parker, who is in charge of the assembly, said don't leave it alone, it will heat up and go in like a In fact, this heat generated in the active material heated the tube, it expanded enough, so it went in, it was slipped into the tight feeder and then the bomb was covered by a tarp and everyone returned to camp to leave the rest for a while, but when General Goves found out, he went up on the roof and announced that this was too dangerous, that it could be sabotage or something like that and that someone had to watch the bomb until very shortly before the explosion, so three people were selected to do it.

Bainbridge was in charge of the I did the test site myself because I had a major role in assembling the bomb and the captain in charge of the military police guarding the site, so we drove to the tower that contained the bomb and climbed up. to the middle of the platform and sat there with a large spotlight watching. saboteur girls the lucky ones he never came and uh Bean Bridge was on the ground with a phone in his hands ready to alert other people if anyone was getting close to power and finally Captain McKibbon stayed there with a machine gun to defend us if necessary in As the bunkers scientists and generals wait, no one is quite sure that the two-billion-dollar device they call a gadget will work for hundreds of things that could be done wrong, any of which, as far as we knew, could practically pass the test. proof. a failure not because there was anything wrong in the first place, but because we had broken one of the many complicated pieces of machinery we were using, the weather was not good, we wanted a definitive winning direction, so if we had a cloud of radioactive material while It was expected not to pass over any city of any size and this meant it had to be guided, of course it was going in a straight line so we had to find out where that wind was, our worst problem, it was Yellow and we didn't want any clouds will pass over Amarillo and then a storm will bring the radioactive material.

The weather is checked. Preparations continue. Scientists form a group with the power of the device. Fermi suggests it could fly New Mexico as the wait progresses. about the power surges, it was a situation where I didn't want Dr. Oppenheimer to get nervous, uh, at a reasonable time or something like 9:30 I told him that he should go to bed and they would call him at 12. I told him he said, well, you. I can't sleep, can you? I said why yes. I'm going here and Dr. Bush and Conant are going with me and we're going to sleep in a tent over here.

I hadn't slept for quite a while and I saw a grocery store.Campaign. with a continent, so I went in to get some sleep if possible and the wind blew the tent away and the rain soaked me a little, but everyone else around was pretty soaked too, so it didn't make much difference. I remember the apartment. it was covered in mud puddles and a couple of people were lying fast asleep on the floor in the water in the mud someone else had curled up on one of the tables between the oscillographs was trying to take a nap and generally there was none of the electric excitement What you might have expected at this point, it was just an era of complete exhaustion while people waited, certain observations couldn't be made and there was even some danger of Fallout going to the wrong places, but ultimately due to enormous political pressure.

Oppenheimer decided to do the test early in the morning at 45 a.m. m. Jack Herbert gave me his weather report which showed wind directions and speeds at all levels up to about thirty thousand feet, this looks good as far as the safety of the people in the viewing portion at the main camp, there were some clouds , but this was going to improve over time, so the 445th decided to go ahead with testing the eastward shift. It was under lock and key and Bean, who was the only man who had a key, the first switch was right under the tower, he opened the box, my Cuban and I watched him as he closed the switch, the box was locked, not that he distrusted No one but I felt more comfortable with those switches locked and Kevin closed the switches at 5 10 and the countdown began.

General Farrell says there was a certain doubt in everyone's mind that we were reaching the unknown that we didn't know but that could emerge from the sequence. All events were controlled by an automatic timer, except, sir, I have a nice mechanical switch that could stop the test at any time until the actual trigger, at any time I could still react at least if any of the meters and meters indicated that there was something wrong with the test because, of course, it was terribly important to preserve Brown for a second attempt if something went wrong at base camp about five minutes, two or three minutes before the explosion.

We all fell face down on the ground. We walked away with our feet towards the explosion and the orders given were that no one turn to look at the explosion as it counted down until they saw the light. Another switch was closed by McKibben at 45 seconds before Zero Hour and at that moment Don Hornig took Over the stop switch I kept telling myself that if there is a slight flicker of the needle I should activate the switch, my reaction time is of approximately half a second. I can't distract my attention even for a fraction of a second, so my eyes were glued and my hands were just changed and then I could hear the stopwatch counting three two one an incredible flash of flash eliminated everything many many times each other the doors of sunlight in New Mexico in the house on a bright day many miles from the desert we were completely blind you could fall I actually lost my vision for a few seconds when I recovered I turned around and saw a huge fireball of bright yellow rice Through the atmosphere the entire atmosphere in the direction of the bomb was filled with a strange violet light, it was one of the most aesthetically beautiful things I have ever seen on a huge scale.

This cloud was peachy pink and purple and just a tremendous bellows like tremendous smoke. The clouds and colors would unfold from the inside, I mean it would get dark in places and then a new explosion of luminous gas would open up and come out. to the surface, so I think at that moment I stood and looked and completely enthralled we knew the world. it wouldn't be the same few people laughed some people cried most people were silent I remembered the line from the Hindu scriptures the bhagavad-gita Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he must do his duty and to impress him he takes on his many responsibilities .

He forms armed and says now I have become death, the destroyer of worlds. I guess we all thought that in one way or another and then the feeling I think was knowing it for everyone that time I shook Oppenheimer's hand I said now we're all here. children of foreign tests scientists find desert at Ground Zero turned to glass Earth dropped nine feet General Grove's message to American leaders meeting in Potsdam with Stalin and Churchill is sent in code simply to the effect that the baby had born on the pier that the doctor and I think they even said that Dr.

Groves was very happy and that he is a very lustful baby, that you could hear his cries and then they gave the name of Mr. Harrison's country house in Virginia, Warren near Warrenton and his The Flash in his eyes and then they delivered Mr. Stimpson's Country Place on Long Island, it was the news we waited for day after day and it gave us a sense of confidence to defend ourselves in the future bringing the war desired by all men we did not have any celebration but there is no doubt of the great relief we had at 5:10 in the afternoon of July 16, 1945 in the Horse Palace of Sicily the meeting of the three great Stalin begins It says that the Russians will go to war against Japan on August 8.

He does not know, he is not informed about the new letter that the president now has in public. The Big Three are cordial in private, friction increases, arguing over Poland's borders on Eastern Europe. about Germany in times of war The alliance is breaking on the other side of the world unnoticed in the fury of fire. A single B-29 from the 509th Composite Group flies daily sorties over Japan. The bombs they would carry on these missions were the same size. With the same weight and shape as the atomic bomb, they would transmit information under the conditions they were here.

We could foresee them exactly like the conditions they would encounter when they dropped an atomic bomb. I punched him in the moments before he was supposed to approve. In the final order, the president again reviews Alternatives with his advisor, Secretary of War Stimson, to win the war in the shortest time possible and avoid the enormous loss of life that would otherwise confront us. I felt that we must use the Emperor as our instrument to order and compel his people to cease fighting and that to achieve this we must give him and his controlling advisors a compelling reason to accede to our demands, the bombs seemed to me to provide a unique instrument to that purpose and it was, uh, it was important to end the war in a possible way before Russia entered the war, sooner or later it would have come to light in a congressional hearing, at least somewhere else, when we could would have dropped the bomb if we hadn't.

Use it and then knowing American politics, you know as well as I do that there was an election place on the basis of every mother whose child was murdered after such and such a date, uh, the blood is in the president's head that question. What do we want to save our people and also the Japanese and when will the war end or do we want to risk being able to win the war by killing all our young people? Mr. Truman told me that he had thought seriously about The subject for many days he was as reluctant as a man could be to decide and I say let him decide because it was his decision, the final decision was clothed with him, it was a great responsibility for him, but he could not see any alternative and We agree that three B-29s arrive in Kenya from the United States carrying the last components of the bomb to the 509th.

The 509th is now ready for its mission. Now in Potsdam. One last move. John McCloy. One of the big questions was what we were going to do. about the Russians on the bomb and whether we should notify Mr. Stalin about it, they finally decided that we had to be partners, but the question is what would be their attitude, of course, if such a communication is made to a guy like that? circumstances, an ally will immediately come back and ask for information and require more and more information about it and this, of course, created an embarrassing situation because, although it would have been agreed that the Soviet Union would have to say that this weapon existed and that gives perhaps some indication of its general nature.

Of course there was and there could be. I think it is not a question of giving them any real information and insight into the fact that neither the president nor I were eager to get them into the act of war when we heard about this successful test we had doubts about what attitude we should finally take during lunch one day we agreed that the president that afternoon should walk up to Stalin and tell him the words he decided but without going into details and that afternoon, at the conclusion of the conference, Belden Truman approached Stalin with Chip Boren, our interpreter, and told him He said that substantially we want you to know the journalism we have now.

I developed what we call a secret weapon that has tremendous power and that in a few days we hope to use in the war against Japan, knowing well what it is going to do. I watched Mr. Stalin's face carefully, he more or less said, well, okay, just with uh. We'll use it and what's the next agenda item? He disappointed everyone terribly because we were so emotionally upset by this. I have always been of the opinion that Stalin did not understand the importance of the Pentagon statement. final step to send the 509th on its mission, the order was issued on July 25, 1945, it was addressed to Joe foxes who entered the Strategic Air Forces and was signed by General Handy, acting chief of staff, led the Group 509, which was the a special group trained for dropping the atomic bomb would deliver its first bomb as soon as the weather permitted visual bombing approximately after August 3, 1945 and one of the listed targets, namely Hiroshima Kokora niagata and Nagasaki, the order stated that additional bonuses would be issued on the above targets as soon as the project staff had them ready and the additional instructions would refer to targets other than those listed Potsdam one day after the bomb order was issued An ultimatum is delivered to Japan despite the State Department's insistence, it does not specifically tell the Japanese what they can expect if they surrender.

There is still time, but little time, for the Japanese to save themselves from the destruction that the threat July 27 ultimatum reaches Tokyo in Japan one million people have died in fire attacks food fuel clothing or being isolated behind palace walls leaders need to consider the ultimatum does not tell them whether or not they will be allowed to keep to their Emperor if they surrender once again the leaders are deeply divided my personal opinion was that the Potsdam declaration did outline the conditions for unconditional surrender since it offered conditions for peace we should accept the Declaration the dominant feed in the Army was that the decoration should not be accepted and that the decisive battle should be fought on the continent until the bitter end.

Unconditional surrender was a term that was very difficult or rather absolutely impossible for Japan to accept, was there not something better than unconditional surrender? He listens to the Japanese response and interprets it as a rejection. He does not remember the order for the bomb. That is the decision that the future will debate endlessly. The atomic bomb will be used against Japan on August 5. The bad weather of the last three days has cleared the preparations. finals for The bomb was dropped. The bomb had been brought the day before from this assembly building, placed in a pit under the plane, jacked up in Bombay and fixed in place in Palm Bay and they were closed, the players belonged.

I went in there. takeoff the next morning the last routine steps are carried out to drop the bomb they call little boy in Japan it was a briefing in one of the temporary parts of that briefing several people from the crews of the Air Force more than just the bomb they had to carry their chances of power there's a pretty tense meeting for some of the people who were there after they told us to go get a good night's rest uh now how I expected to tell you that you're going Dropping an atomic bomb or a big bomb and then telling you to get a good night's rest is something I never realized, but I think a lot of others took sleeping pills because they were so good and then we started playing poker the night before. most of the time.

In the afternoon at midnight there is a final weather briefing, then religious services, this was normal. Everyone was expected and attended the religious services. We had our midnight dinner, so to speak, and then we gathered all our gear and headed to the plane. We arrive at our place, I guess, an hour before take-off time and it seems to me very similar to at least the television version of a Hollywood mapping. There were many dignitaries there, military, many photographs were taken, many statements were made and we have to fly our planes in Tokyo The divided leaders still argue about howend the war aboard the Augusta at sea the president Wait 245 is taxiing on the center runway Track of three on the other two runways observing findings between neurons that were commonly the attack plane the logo is very heavy the load of the pump the fuel complaining about Tempest the pilot kept the plane on the closed runway from the last two feet of the runway the last moment he lifted the line I set sail I set sail for Japan now I have become death, the destroyer of worlds.

Perhaps this report on the United States government's decision to drop an atomic bomb without warning on a city in Japan can best be summed up in the words of one man. who in the last days lived that decision more closely Henry L Stimson these are his words written in 1946. the face of war is the face of death death is an inevitable part of every order given by a leader in times of war the decision to use atomic energy The bomb was a decision that caused the death of more than one hundred thousand Japanese. No explanation can change that fact, but this deliberate and premeditated decision was our least abhorrent choice.

War in this century has become more and more barbaric, more destructive, more degraded in all its aspects now with liberation. of atomic energy man's ability to destroy himself is almost completely buried the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended a war they also made it very clear that we should never have another war there is no other option hello I'm Michael Beschlas NBC News presidential historian I hope you found this documentary about the decision to drop the bomb as interesting as I did. It's very much a

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work and the nice thing about it is that Chet Huntley on NBC News' team got to talk about it as you've seen. many important witnesses of history who, unfortunately, are no longer there in the 21st century.

The flip side is that this was a very different documentary than we might make in the 2020s and I thought I'd add this quick coda to say why we'd probably add two questions today that Chet Huntley and Company didn't ask. Number one, many scholars now believe that there is a considerable possibility that Harry Truman and the people around him, although justified and dropping the bomb, may also have been interested in the possibility of showing the world that we had a weapon. nuclear and that we alone would be a demonstration to Joseph Stalin over the Soviet Union of how suddenly powerful the United States had become and we would be a great addition to us as we made arrangements for the end of World War II and furthermore, if there was a war cold as that hostility unfolded, the second question that Chen Huntley and the

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NBC News team didn't ask was one we would certainly ask today, and that is if you look at Harry Truman and his advisors: affected by the knowledge that they were talking about launching an atomic weapon in an Asian city, in a Japanese city and not in a European city, race came into play, is there any chance that they would have made a different decision if they had made the decision to launch an atomic weapon? bomb in the European city and note that Truman's newly chosen Secretary of State, James Burns of South Carolina, who appears in the documentary, was one of the most notorious segregationists in the United States, someone who certainly did not feel that the Japanese were equal to the Europeans.

Did that play a role? After all that has been said, what stands out to me is how people of conscience at the time understood that it was not an easy decision, yes, it could hasten the end of the war and prevent an invasion of Japan, but did it do it? open a nuclear era that would one day bring the end of the world, no one said this better in this movie than Jay Robert Oppenheimer if Oppenheimer came back to life today in the 2020s he would be shocked by the extent to which nuclear weapons have spread a Rogue nations and terrorists and others would probably redouble their efforts to make sure there was some way for the Earth not to end up in a nuclear fire.

Today, the specter remains. Thank you all for watching, thank you for watching our YouTube channel, follow today's top stories and breaking news. downloading the NBC News app