Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa

Author:Tsuyoshi Hasegawa [Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: History, Wars & Conflicts, World War II, General
ISBN: 9780674022416
Google: dSePPwAACAAJ
Publisher: HarvardUP
Published: 2006-09-30T20:39:19+00:00

Fat Man Is Dropped on Nagasaki

The second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki at 11:02 A.M. (Japan time) on August 9, killing 35,000 to 40,000 people. Truman announced on the radio: “Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare.”62 Vengeance was a consistent theme in both his statements after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One cannot help sensing, however, that a defensive tone had crept into this second statement.

Earlier, on August 7, Senator Richard Russell of Georgia had sent a telegram to the president, urging him to use more atomic bombs “to finish the job immediately.” Truman disagreed with the Georgia senator. “I know that Japan is a terribly cruel and uncivilized nation in warfare,” the president replied on the very day the Nagasaki bomb was dropped, “but I can’t bring myself to believe that, because they are beasts, we should ourselves act in the same manner. For myself, I certainly regret the necessity of wiping out whole populations because of the ‘pigheadedness’ of the leaders of a nation and, for your information, I am not going to do it unless it is absolutely necessary.” Then the president added: “It is my opinion that after the Russians enter into war the Japanese will very shortly fold up. My object is to save as many American lives as possible but I also have a humane feeling for the women and children in Japan.” According to the diary of Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace, at the cabinet meeting on August 10, Truman announced that he had given an order to stop further atomic bombing without his authorization: “He said the thought of wiping out another 100,000 people was too horrible. He didn’t like the idea of killing . . . ‘all these kids.’” Leahy also noted in his diary that “information from Japan” indicated that 80 percent of the city of Hiroshima had been destroyed and 100,000 people killed.63

It is not difficult to see that an important change had taken place in Truman between the time he celebrated the Hiroshima bomb and the time he wrote this letter. Despite his persistent claim that the atomic bombs were targeted at military installations, he knew that they had also killed “women and children,” and that further use of the atomic bomb would violate “humane feelings.” Truman had read the Magic Diplomatic Summary reporting that the atomic bomb on Hiroshima had killed 100,000 people.64 This information must have had a sobering effect on the president. His order to halt the further use of the bomb without his express order was the first time he exerted his personal authority on decisions about the atomic bomb.

Nevertheless, this does not mean that Truman had completely ruled out further use of the bomb. In a postwar interview he was asked: “Were

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