Truman and the Atomic Bomb

Truman and the Atomic Bomb

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman became the 33rd president of the United States in 1945. He was born in Lamar, Missouri in 1884 but grew up in Independence. He was a prosperous farmer in Missouri until he became a captain in the field artillery in France during World War I. Back in the United States, he married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace. He became active in the Democratic Party. He was elected judge of the Jackson County Court in 1922. He became a senator in 1934. During World War II, he was head of the Senate war investigating committee. This committee looked into the waste and corruption situation. It also saved as much as $15 billion. He remained a senator until chosen by Franklin Delano Roosevelt as his vice-presidential running mate for his fourth term in 1944. They won and Truman became the 34th U.S. Vice President. Less than three months later, President Roosevelt succumbed to massive cerebral hemorrhage. Truman was sworn in to succeed him on the same day. On that day, April 12, 1945, he was quoted as saying: "I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me."

Foremost among the things, which fell on his hands, was the dropping of atomic bombs in two Japanese cities in August 1945. The motive was to end World War II. Other international issues were the rebuilding of Europe and Japan; changing American foreign policy; the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council; the recognizing of Israel as a State; response to the Cold War; and involvement in the Korean War. The major domestic issues he confronted during his term were labor unrest, expansion of the GI bill for returning veterans, the proposal for a national health care and four civil rights executive orders. Only days after the first atomic bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the Japanese surrendered. Two months earlier, he witnessed the signing of the charter of the United Nations, aimed at establishing and preserving world peace.

President Truman soon veered away from his predecessor's policies. He presented his 21-point system, which came to be known as the Fair Deal. It proposed the expansion of Social Security, a full employment program, a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act, and public housing and slum clearance. He perceived it as something which:

symbolizes... (his) assumption of the office of the President... (his) own right."

He proved his mettle as a leader in foreign affairs. In 1947, he asked Congress to help Turkey and Greece against the Soviet Union through his Truman Doctrine in 1947. The Marshall Plan was then initiated for massive economic recovery in Western Europe. He provided massive airlift to the people in Western Berlin when the Russians blocked their sectors in 1948. He negotiated for the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military alliance to protect Western nations, in 1949. He also offered assistance to South Korea when it was attacked by the Communist government of North Korea in June 1950. He retired in Kansas City where he died at 88 on December 26, 1972. He was voted by the C-Span Poll, consisting of 58 presidential historians, as the fifth best U.S. president. The top four were Abraham Lincoln, FDR, George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt.

The First Atomic Bombs

The first nuclear fission weapons were made from fissionable materials, uranium tetrafluoride and plutonium nitrate. Both are radioactive and toxic metallic elements. They were brought in from Hanford into a secret laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico in late 1944. Leading physicist Robert Oppenheimer and his fellow chemists gave form to the materials. The produced 1 gun-type uranium bomb, called "Little Boy," and two implosion-type bomb, called "Fat Man." "Little Boy" contained 135 pounds of 90% pure fissionable material, 2 pounds of which were equivalent to 15-16,000 tons of TNT. As the war with Japan proceeded and when a costly allied invasion appeared clearly possible, President Truman approved the use of these nuclear weapons against selected Japanese targets. The U.S. Army Air Force received the orders for enforcement anytime after August 3, 1945. On August 6, "Little Boy" was detonated over Hiroshima. It caused 100,000 immediate and 200,000 eventual deaths on the ground. "Fat Man," on the other hand, contained 12 pounds of Pu-239, of which only 2 pounds underwent fusion. Its strength was equivalent to 22,000 tons of TNT. It was dropped on Nagasaki 3 days later on August 9, causing 70,000 immediate and 140,000 eventual deaths.

The History of the Atomic Bomb and the Manhattan Project

On August 2, 1939, Albert Einstein and many other scientists informed President Roosevelt about Nazi Germany's efforts to build an atomic bomb by purifying uranim-235. In reaction, the U.S. government set up the Manhattan Project to research on the production of a viable atomic bomb. The initial problem was the production of enough "enriched" uranium to sustain a chain reaction. The ideal uranium-235 was quite difficult to extract. What could be finally refined from uranium ore is more than 99% uranium-238, which is useless for an atomic bomb. The solution was the construction of a massive enrichment laboratory at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Harold Urey and his team, including Ernest Lawrence, at Columbia University created an extraction system, which would separate the lighter and desired uranium-235 from the heavier U-238. When this was done, the result - concept behind atomic fission - had to be tested. The Project took six years, brilliant scientists and more than $2 billion. The scientists were Robert

Oppenheimer, David Bohm, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Otto Frisch, Rudolf

Peierls, Felix Bloch, Niels Bohr, Emilio Segre, James Franck, Enrico Fermi,

Klaus Fuchs and Edward Teller. Oppenheimer oversaw the creation of the atomic bomb from conception to completion.

The test was the finale of three years of planning and development by the super secret Manhattan Project, which was to change the world forever. It was headed by General Leslie R. Groves, while Oppenheimer directed the scientific team, which was headquartered at Los Alamos, New Mexico. They chose the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range for the test, code-named "Trinity," on the early morning hours of July 16, 1945. A steel tower that would suspend the bomb, also called "The Gadget," had to be built 100 feet above the ground. Many expressed apprehension over a disastrous reaction in the upper atmosphere and end in the destruction of the earth. Others feared the effects of radioactive fall-outs on the people around the test site or else the entire test would simply fail. Observers, including a medical team, in the surrounding towns monitored the results of the explosion. At 5:29:45 that morning, a white blaze stretched from the Jemez Mountains in northern New Mexico. It turned orange as the atomic fireball shot upwards at 360 feet per second. It turned red and pulsed as it cooled like a mushroom cloud. This mushroom cloud of radioactive vapor formed at 30,000 feet. Below were fragments of jade radioactive glass from the heat of the reaction. The light was so intense that those in faraway areas thought two suns appeared in the skies that morning. Even before the test, a second bomb was already sent to the Pacific to be dropped over the city of Hiroshima.

Motivations, Oppositions and Actions

In May 1945, Nazi Germany already surrendered to the Allies, but Japan continued to fight. AU.S. presidential commission recommended dropping an atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, respectively, to force Japan to surrender. It surrendered on August 14. As a result of the blasts, more than 200,000 died and countless others suffered the effects of radiation from that time to the present. The scientists who invented the atomic bomb themselves opposed the dropping out of fear it would lead to a nuclear arms race. They, instead, recommended turning over the secrets of the bomb to an international agency, which would take responsibility for its use for productive goals only. It could be used to produce energy. They also recommended that the Japanese be warned in detail about the destructive potential of the bomb. However, the Interim Committee, led by Secretary of War Henry Stimson, rejected the recommendations. He, instead, recommended that the bomb be used on Japan.

The rush for an atomic weapon was the response to rumors that Nazi Germany was already producing a similar weapon, which would be used on the Allies. But Nazi Germany had surrendered in May 1945. Russia made good its commitment to join the fight against Japan. it, however, failed to fulfill its commitment to allow free and democratic elections in the Eastern European nations controlled by the Russian army. Some think the expansion of Russian power in Asia motivated the decision of the Interim Committee to drop the bomb. Others also believed racism could have been behind that decision. Japan's attack of Pearl Harbor fostered prejudice against Americans of Japanese descent. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's executive order to contain Japanese-Americans in internment camps could have created mistrust in the Japanese and their descendants in the U.S. Such racial antagonism could have made many Americans feel justified to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.

Earlier Presidential Statement and Other Motivations

The decision to bomb Japan's cities may not be deduced from documents during President Truman's presidency or blamed entirely on President Truman. A respected Boston University attorney, Harvey Bundy, on March 3, 1945, presented to his boss, the Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, the draft of a three-page memorandum by then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt eight weeks before his death. It was to be issued when the atomic bomb was used. It appeared to have been the basis for later statements issued on August 6, 1945 from the White House and the War Department after the bombing of Hiroshima.

President Truman's own decision could have been triggered mainly by Japan's brutal conduct during that War and the American desire to avoid costly invasion. Japanese utter brutality was demonstrated by their attacks against Asians, Pearl Harbor, Bataan in the Philippines and prisons of war. Only a terrible shock from the a-Bomb could jolt them from such acts, which killed so many people and injured a lot more. Moreover, the Truman administration wanted to end the bloody war before November 1, 1945 of Kyushu. It was also on account of casualties and losses during past campaigns in Iwo Jima and Okinawa and imminent casualties and losses in an American invasion of Japan. General George C. Marshall, the then army chief of staff, told President Truman that 250,000 American soldiers' lives would be lost to force Japan's surrender. Dropping the bomb, then, was deemed sufficient to rattle the Japanese and save the 250,000 American lives.

Pathway of Truman's Order, President Truman's Own View and Values

In late July 1945 at Postdam, President Truman sent a 15-word handwritten note for radioing to Secretary of War Stimson. It said, "Reply to your suggestion approved. Release when ready but no sooner than August 2." The order was to issue the Washington draft of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's statement, not to drop the Atomic bomb. There was no signed or initialed note from President Truman to do so, although the cabled Washington statement implied the act. His subjective motivations and values may, however, be inferred from statements he later made on the decision. He acknowledged the terrible cruelty and incivility of Japan in warfare. "I can't bring myself to believe that, because they are beasts, we should ourselves act in the same manner." He also expressed regret for "the necessity of wiping out whole populations because of the 'pigheadedness' of the leaders of a nation." He stressed that his objective was to save as many American lives as possible, but that he also had a "humane feeling for the women and children of Japan." But he further explained that the use of the atomic bomb was exceeded by the disturbing and unwarranted attacks by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor and the brutal murder of prisoners of war. "The only language they seem to understand is the one we have been using to bombard them. When you have to deal with a beast, you have to treat him as a beast. It is most regrettable but nevertheless true." These last statements underlie his justification and responsibility for dropping the dreadful atomic bombs.

Only One Bomb to be Authorized

In July 1945 at Potsdam, Germany, President Truman told British Prime Minister Winston Churchill of his intention to drop only one bomb. His order was to do so on August 3 or later. Further blasts were to be launched only when preparation was completed. He did not specify the number of bombs to be dropped. Bit a second was detonated on Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima. In a memo to Swiss State Minister Max Petitpierre on September 18, 1946, Churchill said that the U.S. did not act according to its plans. He also said that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was present during the same Potsdam Conference. Stalin, however, did not seem to understand the power and impact of the new invention. Churchill likewise told Petitpierre that President Truman did not impress him as a very intelligent of skillful person. The motivation to drop the second bomb on Nagasaki was then a question in many minds. Diaries of a U.S. cabinet member of the time confirmed that President Truman stopped the use of the bomb after Nagasaki. He said it would be horrified to kill another 100,000 people.

To Save American and Japanese Lives

Bombing Japan would cost fewer lives than if America invaded Japan. Dreadful figures were at the base of Truman's decision. Japan boldly ignored the warning of the Allied Powers for its immediate and unconditional surrender. It even officially announced to the world that it would continue fighting. Truman had to make calculations from estimates of possible casualties and to choose between American lives and Japanese lives. The U.S. already lost more than 405,000 of its approximately 16 million militants in World War II. Of the total, 671,278 suffered minor to severe wounds. These tragedies occurred when the U.S. entered the War in December 1941 in Pearl Harbor and the surrender of the Japanese in September 1945. If President Truman did not order the bombing of Japan and an invasion had to be done, another million American lives would have been lost or many more wounded.

US forces earlier planned to assault Kyushu and Honshu, including Tokyo in November 1945. Based on documents, Pacific military leaders predicted that the attacks could lead to 250,000 casualties in Kyushu alone. They belonged to the staff of General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commanded of the Southwest Pacific Command. They predicted an overall conservative casualty of more than a million for the entire operation. These figures were drawn from declassified documents on Operation Downfall on the total conquest of Japan. As President Truman described, Japan was "pigheaded" despite its weakness against the Allied forces. It apparently drew its stubborn resistance from a master plan to defend its home land. The plan, "Ketau-Go," focused on the suicide warrior, its most reliable weapon. For months, the Japanese kept aircraft, fuel and ammunition for the purpose. They were also building airplanes and training more kamikaze pilots. Declassified information said that the Japanese had 12,000 different planes, ready to fly and fight. They also had 40 operational submarines, 23 destroyers, 2 cruises, a big fleet of suicide submarines, human torpedoes and exploding radio-controlled motor boats. Ground troops would be more numerous than invaders. And these ground troops would be better fed, armed and prepared for the clash. So they calculated that casualties and the wounded could be twice or much more if the war continued. Japan lost 1,219,000 lives and almost 300,000 wounded in the War, not counting casualties on suicide missions. From these calculations, it can be gleaned that President Truman's decision probably even saved an additional 2 million Japanese lives if the war continued and the U.S. attacked Japan. And it would have been the bloodiest and costliest battle in world history.

Looking Back: Was the Decision Really Necessary?

As early as the summer of 1945, Japanese leaders were aware that they could not win the War. But they continued fighting in order to secure better surrender terms. President Truman gave Japan a number of options towards quitting the War. The already heavy bombings could intensify. Japan could wait for the Soviet Union to join the Allies. It could allow Japan's Emperor Hirohito to remain on the throne. The last option was for the U.S. To invade Japan. The first three options were unlikely to elicit a Japanese surrender. These options also entailed severe military, political and diplomatic risks. An invasion would cost more American lives and the last option the Americans wanted to take. The creation of the atomic bomb in July 1945 seemed the most preferable option to end the War soonest without the disastrous consequences of the alternatives. The bombing of the two cities finally moved Emperor Hirohito to end the War. The Soviet Union also joined the conflict. These developments all led to the surrender of Japan within a few days. Hence, the bombing of Japan was a necessity, as circumstances called for.