Harry S.

Truman
& The Atomic Bomb

Power point created by Robert Martinez edited by Ms. Flaherty

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Primary Content Source: Speaking of History: Vol. II, by Laura Belmonte

In 1939, physicist Albert Einstein

warned President Franklin
Roosevelt that the Nazis were
capable of producing a weapon that
harnessed atomic energy.

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In response, the Roosevelt

administration funded small studies
of the military potential of fission
chain reactions.

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When the United States entered

World War II, these efforts
expanded into the Manhattan
Project, a top-secret program
employing more than 120,000
people.

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American, British, and Canadian

scientists (the Soviets excluded),
collaborated in laboratories in
Chicago, Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Los
Alamos, New Mexico.

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Their challenges included collecting

enough fissionable material to produce a
nuclear explosion and devising a weapon
that could be dropped from an airplane.
How does it work? In a atomic reaction,
atoms are split and crash into each other
creating a chain reaction. Refined
uranium (U-235) is set to crash into more
U-235 and set off that reaction

http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/trinity/jumbo.shtml

On July 16, 1945, scientists at Los Alamos

exploded the first atomic bomb (Trinity
test.)
Robert J. Oppenheimer, the chief scientist
on the Manhattan Project, quoted the
Bhagavad Gita (upon seeing that the
experiment was successful) Now I have
become death, destroyer of worlds.

At that time, the Allies had defeated

Nazi Germany but were locked in
fierce combat against Imperial
Japan.

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Earlier in the year, U.S. forces

sustained heavy casualties in
battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Iwo Jima: Over 26,000 and
Okinawa: 50,000

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Although the Japanese lost over

110,000 soldiers and 80,000
civilians in these clashes, they
continued to fight.

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U.S. military planners predicted

huge losses if American forces
invaded the Japanese home islands.
Predictions vary between 46,000 to
over 1 million possible Allied deaths

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News of the atomic bombs

successful test gave President Harry
S. Truman an alternative.

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On July 25, while he was attending

the Potsdam Conference with Soviet
and British prime ministers, Truman
issued secret orders to use the
bomb if the Japanese failed to
surrender by August 3.

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The Potsdam Declaration warned

Japan that it faced prompt and
utter destruction if it did not
capitulate (end hostilities.) The
Japanese rejected the ultimatum.

Hideki Tojo

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In response, Truman ordered the

military to use atomic weapons.

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On August 6, the B-29 Enola Gay

dropped a uranium bomb on
Hiroshima, instantly killing at least
70,000 people and leveling five
square miles.

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Estimates of Casualties:
Pre-raid Population
Dead
Injured

Hiroshima/Nagasaki
255,000/195,000
66,000/39,000
69,000/24,000

BBC estimates total death tolls Roughly 135,000/50,000

Cause of Immediate Deaths:
Burns
Falling Debris
Other
Flying Glass

Hiroshima/Nagasaki
60%/95%
30%/9%
10%/7%
N/A / 7%

Data from: Yale Law School- The Avalon Project

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On August 9, the United States

dropped a plutonium bomb on
Nagasaki, and 40,000 people
instantly perished.

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For those who survived the Atomic Bombs

explosion, these medical ailments were a
possibility:
-Cataracts/Blindness from looking at the blast
-Leukemia (common in survivors from radiation
poisoning)
-Birth Defects
-High mortality rates in infants (during/before
birth)
-Other cancers (Thyroid, Breast and Lung)
-Radiation Blood Injury (many died from this)destruction of bone marrow, extreme drop in
white blood cells.

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On August 14, Japan finally

surrendered after receiving
assurances that Emperor Hirohito
could retain his throne.

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The decision to use the bomb

remains hotly disputed. Critics offer
several motives, including the
desire to save American lives, antiJapanese racism, and intimidation
of the Soviet Union.

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Let there be no mistake about it. I

regarded the bomb as a military
weapon and never had any doubt
that it should be used.
- President Harry S. Truman

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