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Hiroshima and Spinning the Atom: America, Britain, and Canada Proclaim the Nuclear Age, 6 August 1945

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 71; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1540-6563.2009.00251.x

1540-6563

Peter N. Kirstein,

Twentieth Century Scientific Developments

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes1. V. Bush and J. B. Conant to the Secretary of War, 19 September 1944; Roll 6, File 76, Harrison–Bundy Files Relating to the Development of the Atomic Bomb, 1942–1946, Records of the Office of the Chief of Engineers, Record Group 77; National Archives—Great Lakes Region (Chicago) (hereafter referred to as H–B Files).2. Aide Memoire of Conversation between the President and the Prime Minister at Hyde Park, 18 September 1944; Roll 3, H–B Files.3. Bush–Conant File Relating to the Development of the Atomic Bomb, 1940–1945, National Archives Microfilm Publications Pamphlet Describing M1392 (Washington, DC: National Archives Trust Fund Board, 1990), 1.4. Bush and Conant to the Secretary of War, 1.5. Ibid., 2.6. Ibid., 4.7. United Nations Department of Public Information, The Nuclear Threat to our World, Pamphlet (New York: United Nations Department of Public Information, 1982).8. “Possible Statement by the President,” War Department, 13 February 1945, 3; Roll 6, File 74, H–B Files.9. “Possible Statement by the President,” 1.10. Ibid., 1.11. Ibid., 3.12. Peter N. Kirstein, “False Dissenters: Manhattan Project Scientists and the Use of the Atomic Bomb,” American Diplomacy (2001), University of North Carolina, March 2001, cited at http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2001_03‐06/kirstein_manhattan/kirstein_manhattan.html, accessed 1 February 2009. After the Manhattan Project began its secret pursuit of the atomic bomb on 13 August 1942, Major‐General Leslie R. Groves, an army engineer, became its director and remained so throughout the war.13. Leslie R. Groves to the Chief of Staff (George C. Marshall), 26 March 1945; Roll 1, File 5, Subfile 5b, Correspondence (“Top Secret”) of the Manhattan Engineer District, 1942–1946, Records of the Office of the Chief of Engineers, Record Group 77; National Archives—Great Lakes Region (hereafter referred to as “Top Secret Files”).14. Bush–Conant File, 6.15. Correspondence (“Top Secret”) of the Manhattan Engineer District, 1942–1946, National Archives Microfilm Publications Pamphlet M1109 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Service, 1982), 3; Walter Millis, ed., The Forrestal Diaries (New York: Viking Press, 1951), 54, 560.16. Notes of the Interim Committee Meeting(s), 31 May 1945 and 1 June 1945, cited from Michael B. Stoff, Jonathan F. Fanton, and R. Hal Williams, eds., The Manhattan Project: A Documentary Introduction to the Atomic Age (New York: McGraw‐Hill, Inc., 1991), 117, 127–28; Howard Zinn, Postwar America: 1945–1971 (Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs‐Merrill, 1973), 9–10.17. Groves to George Harrison, 21 June 1945; Roll 6, File 75, H–B Files.18. Groves to the Chief of Staff, 6 August 1945, 1; Roll 1, File 5, Subfile 5b, “Top Secret Files.”19. Groves to the Chief of Staff, 26 March 1945.20. Gar Alperovitz, The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb (New York: Vintage, 1996), 594.21. Peter Bacon Hales, Atomic Spaces: Living on the Manhattan Project (Urbana, IL: U. of Illinois P., 1997), 350.22. William L. Laurence, Men and Atoms: The Discovery, the Uses and the Future of Atomic Energy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1959), 96.23. Laurence, Men and Atoms, 146–48.24. William L. Laurence, Dawn over Zero: The Story of the Atomic Bomb (New York: Knopf, 1946), unnumbered photo caption.25. Bataan Death March, cited at http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/st/~ehimchak/death_march.html, accessed 6 December 2008; Laurence, Dawn, 234.26. Leslie R. Groves, Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project (New York: Harper, 1962), 324; Tom Zoellner, Uranium: War Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World (New York: Viking, 2009), 91.27. Laurence, Men and Atoms, 160.28. Leslie R. Groves, Now It Can Be Told, 326–27.29. “Memo: Discussed with the President,” 25 April 1945; Roll 4, File 64, H–B Files.30. Ibid.31. “Memorandum for General Groves,” from Laurence, “Plans for Future Articles on Manhattan District Project,” 17 May 1945, 3; Roll 1, File 5, Subfile 5A, “Top Secret Files;” “Tentative Draft of Radio Address by President Truman to be Delivered after the Successful Use of the Atomic Bomb over Japan,” from Laurence, 17 May 1945, 17; Roll 1, File 4, “Top Secret Files.”32. Michael D. Gordin, Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2007), 109; Spencer R. Weart, Nuclear Fear: A History of Images (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1988), 98.33. Laurence to Groves, “Plan,” 17 May 1945, 1–2; “Top Secret Files.”34. Mark Selden, “Introduction: The United States, Japan, and the Atomic Bomb,” in The Atomic Bomb Voices from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, eds. Kyoko and Mark Selden (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1989), xxxii–xxxiii.35. “Tentative Draft of Radio Address,” 2 (emphasis added).36. Peter R. Beckman, et al., The Nuclear Predicament: Nuclear Weapons in the Twenty‐First Century, 3rd ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000), 68–69.37. “Tentative Draft of Radio Address,” 2, 4, 17.38. “Tentative Draft of Radio Address,” 3–4, 15. The United Kingdom exploded its first atomic bomb on 3 October 1952, followed by France on 13 February 1960, China on 16 October 1964, and India's “peaceful” test on 18 May 1974. Israel and apartheid South Africa conducted a joint test on 22 September 1977, Pakistan on 28 May 1998, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on 8 October 2006.39. John W. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (New York: Pantheon, 1986), 81.40. Globe and Mail (Toronto), 9 August 1945, 1.41. “Draft of Radio Address,” 7.42. Subsequently, Kokura was selected as the primary target for the second atomic mission on 9 August because, unlike Nagasaki, it was not surrounded by hills that would contain the damage of a nuclear explosion (Thomas F. Farrell, “Report on Overseas Operations—Atomic Bomb,” 27 September 1945, 2; Roll 13, Manhattan Engineer District History, Records of the Defense Nuclear Agency, Record Group 374, National Archives—Great Lakes Region). Cloud‐covered Kokura was spared destruction at the last moment when the B‐29 Bockscar crew could not confirm the required visual sighting of ground zero. Nagasaki was then attacked as the secondary target because the aircraft, which was running out of fuel, nearly crash‐landed on Okinawa (The Beverly Review [Chicago], 16 August 1995, 10).43. “Draft” of Truman statement, 7 June 1945, 1; Roll 6, File 74, H–B Files.44. “Arthur W. Page Biography,” Arthur W. Page Society, cited at http://www.awpagesociety.com/site/about/page_biography/, accessed 28 February 2009.45. Arthur W. Page to Harrison, 18 July 1945; Roll 6, File 74, H–B Files.46. “Draft” of Truman statement, 7 June 1945, 1–3.47. Laurence, Men and Atoms, 51. On the German nuclear program see David C. Cassidy, Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg (New York: W. H. Freeman and Co., 1992); David Irving, The German Atomic Bomb: The History of Nuclear Research in Nazi Germany (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967).48. “Draft” of Truman statement, 7 June 1945, 5.49. “Draft of 23 July 1945,” of Truman statement, 3; Roll 6, File 74, H–B Files. At the Hanford Plant, plutonium was reprocessed from spent irradiated uranium fuel.50. Los Alamos 1943–1945, The Beginning of an Era (Los Alamos, NM: Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1984), 3.51. “Draft of 23 July 1945,” 5.52. “Draft of 23 July 1945,” 5–6.53. “Draft of 30 July 1945,” of Truman statement, 1; Roll 6, File 74, H–B Files.54. Harry S. Truman, Year of Decision, vol. 1 (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1955), 420.55. “Draft of 30 July,” of Truman statement, 1.56. Ibid., 4.57. The Potsdam Conference outside Berlin convened from 17 July to 2 August 1945.58. Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (New York: Touchstone, 1986), 692.59. “Draft of 30 July,” of Truman statement, 4.60. Gar Alperovitz, Atomic Diplomacy: The Use of the Atomic Bomb and the American Confrontation with Soviet Power (New York: Penguin, 1985), 27–28.61. Ronald E. Powaski, March to Armageddon: The United States and the Nuclear Arms Race, 1939 to the Present (New York: Oxford UP, 1987), 24–25.62. “Draft of July 30,” edited version of Truman statement; “Statement by the President of the United States,” 6 August 1945, Roll 6, File 74, H–B Files.63. Oral History Interview with R. Gordon Arneson by Niel M. Johnson, Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, 21 June 1989, http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/arneson.htm.64. Allan M. Winkler, Life Under a Cloud: American Anxiety About the Atom (New York: Oxford UP, 1993), 24.65. Truman, Year of Decision, 334; Peter Wyden, Day One: Before Hiroshima and After (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984), 229; New York Times, 8 August 1945, 1.66. Paul Boyer, By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age (New York: Pantheon, 1985), 3.67. New York Times, 7 August 1945, 4.68. Edward Teller, Memoirs: A Twentieth Century Journey in Science and Politics (Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2001), 214.69. “President's Statement,” n.d., 1; Roll 6, File 73, H–B Files.70. “Draft of 30 July,” of Truman statement, 4.71. “Statement by the President,” 3.72. Hanson W. Baldwin, “The New Face of War,” New York Times, 8 August 1945, 4.73. “Tentative Draft of Radio Address by President Truman,” 17 May 1945, 8–11.74. Truman statement Drafts of 7 June, 6; 23 July, 5; 30 July, 5–6; “Statement by the President,” 3.75. Oral History Interview with Arneson.76. John Morton Blum, ed., The Price of Vision: The Diaries of Henry A. Wallace, l942–1946 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973), 472.77. William A. Consodine to George Harrison, 20 June 1945; Role 6, File 73, H–B Files; Alperovitz, Decision, 171, 596.78. “Statement of the Secretary of War,” n.d., Roll 1, Subfile 5B, “Top Secret Files.”79. Consodine to Harrison, 20 June 1945; “Atomic Fission Bombs” (Stimson Draft), 20 June 1945; Roll 6, File 73, H–B Files; William Sweet, The Nuclear Age: Atomic Energy, Proliferation, and the Arms Race (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Inc., 1988), 36–37.80. Consodine to Harrison, 29 June 1945.81. Ibid.82. Prior to his conditional misgivings about deploying the bomb while working at Metlab, Leo Szilard was a seminal figure in persuading Roosevelt to launch the Manhattan Project; after the war, he disparaged the material triumphalism that Truman expressed here as failing to comprehend the deeper meanings of the atomic age (Peter N. Kirstein, “False Dissenters: Manhattan Project Scientists and the Use of the Atomic Bomb,” American Diplomacy [2001], University of North Carolina, March 2001; Leo Szilard, “President Truman Did Not Understand,” U.S. News & World Report, 15 August 1960, 71; Lawrence S. Wittner, One World or None: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement [Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1993], 8–9).83. “British Suggestions: Mr. Stimson's Statement,” n.d., 1–3, Role 6, File 73, H–B Files.84. “Atomic Fission Bombs,” Stimson Draft, 30 June 1945, 3; Role 6, File 73, H–B Files.85. “Draft of 6 July 1945,” Stimson statement, 3–4; Role 6, File 73, H–B Files.86. Ibid.87. New York Times, 7 August 1945, 4. The White House also released Stimson's statement while he was away from from Washington while visiting his home on Long Island (see Herbert Feis, The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II [Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1966], 123–24).88. New York Times, 7 August 1945, 4.89. Ibid.90. Groves to the Chief of Staff (George C. Marshall), 6 August 1945, 2.91. New York Times, 7 August 1945, 4.92. Groves to the Chief of Staff, 6 August 1945, 1.93. Susan Monroe, “C.D. Howe,” Canada Online, cited at http://canadaonline.about.com/od/canadaww2/p/cdhowe.htm, accessed 7 October 2009.94. Roger Makins to George Harrison, 4 August 1945, Roll 6, File 75, H–B Files. British efforts to clear Howe's statement with the Department of War reflected Canada's more junior status in the tripartite development of the atomic bomb.95. Groves to Harvey H. Bundy, 3 August 1945; Roll 6, Target 4, File 75, H–B Files.96. “Draft Statement By the Hon. C. D. Howe,” n.d., 2–3, Roll 6, Target 4, File 75, H–B Files.97. Ibid.98. Ibid.99. Minister of Supply and Services Canada, “Canada and the Second World War Valour Remembered, 1939–1945,” Veterans Affairs, Canada: Catalog No. V32‐26/1981, cited at http://www.vac‐acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=history/secondwar/Canada2.100. “Draft Statement By the Hon. C. D. Howe,” 3–4.101. Ibid.102. Ibid.103. Ibid., 1–2.104. “A New Force in the World,” Globe and Mail, 7 August 1945, 6.105. In a stunning defeat less than two months following Victory in Europe Day (V‐E Day), Attlee's Labour Party's victory in the 5 July 1945 election drove Prime Minister Churchill's Conservative Party from power.106. Untitled and undated Attlee Draft, Roll 6, File 75, H–B Files; New York Times, 7 August 1945, 8.107. James Sloan, “By God's Mercy It's Our Bomb, Churchill Says,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 7 August 1945, 4. The New York Times and Harrison–Bundy Files' versions do not contain “. . . which might have altered the course of the war.”108. “Statement by the President,” 1.109. New York Times, 7 August 1945, 8.110. “Statement by the President,” 4.111. New York Times, 7 August 1945, 8.112. Ibid.113. Statement by the President, 4.114. “Memorandum for the President,” 11 September 1945; Henry L. Stimson and McGeorge Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1948), 641–48, quoted in William Appleman Williams, ed., The Shaping of American Diplomacy: 1900–1955, vol. 2 (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1956), 955.115. Henry L. Stimson, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” Harper's Magazine, February 1947, 99.Additional informationNotes on contributorsPeter N. KirsteinPeter N. Kirstein is a Professor of History at St. Xavier University and Vice President of the American Association of University Professors, Illinois. He is the author of “Challenges to Academic Freedom since 9/11,” in The Impact of 9/11 and the New Legal Landscape , ed. Matthew J. Morgan (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). The author would like to thank Judith A. Dwyer for granting him a sabbatical to write this article and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.