The way a war was fought changed forever in August of 1945 when the United States
detonated the world's first atomic bombs on top of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
But despite the massive damage, the Japanese had still not surrendered a week later.
While Japan's conditional capitulation was a promising sign, it was not enough for
President Harry S. Truman and his cabinet, and unbeknownst to the general public,
the president had dozens of potential bombs at his disposal.
While it might appear that dropping two atomic bombs on top of Japan was always the plan,
historical evidence shows that in the closing months of World War 2,
the Manhattan Project scientists were building as many atomic bombs as they could.
American officials, scientists,
and military leaders pondered whether or not dropping more bombs was necessary,
but hours before Japan's surrender, the responsibility lay solely on one man...
Trinity In
1942, after years of intensive research,
US President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the initiation of the Manhattan Project,
a massive, top-secret endeavor to build the first atomic bombs in the world.
Under the leadership of Major General Leslie R. Groves Jr., Manhattan employed thousands
of Americans at hundreds of sites and facilities throughout the country.
Soon, the American war planners began assessing how to take advantage of such a potentially
effective weapon now in their hands. While initial plans called for the atomic
bomb to be allocated against Germany, it had become evident at that point in the war that
the Nazi regime would be defeated without the need for nuclear power. As such, the attention
turned to Japan, and Major General Groves formed a committee to draw up a list of targets.
With a team composed of scientists and critical military members,
the committee gave thoughtful consideration to how the weapon would be used for the first time.
In their initial meeting in April of 1945, merely a week before Germany's surrender, the group
discussed potential candidates and concluded they had to be: [QUOTE] "Large urban areas of
not less than 3 miles in diameter existing in the larger populated areas . . . between
the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Nagasaki . . . [and] should have high strategic value."
After careful consideration, the committee narrowed down 17 possible cities, including
Tokyo Bay, Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Yamata, Kokura, Nagasaki, and Sasebo.
Then, on July 16, 1945, the first prototype was detonated in the New Mexico desert as
part of the Trinity nuclear test. The trial was an undeniable success,
as its payoff was several times more potent than all estimates predicted by the scientists.
Even so, Major General Groves told J. Robert Oppenheimer, the mastermind behind the
Manhattan Project, that it would probably take more than two bombs to stop Japan…
Allied Power
President Harry S. Truman, who had taken over after Franklin D. Roosevelt's passing,
learned of the technological breakthrough one day after the Trinity test.
The news came only moments before the Potsdam Conference, the gathering in
which Allied leadership, including Truman, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, and United
Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill, would meet to determine their next steps.
Until then, Truman had been relatively disinterested in the topic of nuclear weapons,
but he soon realized he now had this new impressive technology that he could use to
end the war with Japan once and for all while also sending a message to the Soviet Union.
In his memoirs, Truman recalled that upon the announcement of the nuclear bomb: [QUOTE] "There
was unanimous, automatic, unquestioned agreement around our table [...] Never
did I hear the slightest suggestion that we do otherwise." Even Stalin expressed
his wish for President Truman to make good use of the new weapon against the Japanese.
The target list was then finalized via encrypted communications between Secretary
of War Henry Stimson in Potsdam, and Groves, in Washington D.C.
Hiroshima was the first target chosen,
but the Major General decided that each site had to have viable backups in case of complications.
With Kyoto out of the question due to its cultural significance, the Americans turned
to other options such as Kokura and Nagasaki. The latter was the port city on the Japanese
island of Kyushu and was home to two munitions factories, which served the Allied purpose.
Ten days after the Trinity test, and with a final target order approved by all the parties involved,
the United States, Great Britain, and China issued a joint declaration calling for the surrender
of Japan and promising prompt destruction in case the ultimatum was rejected. Because the
Soviet Union had never technically declared war on Japan, Russia did not participate.
A directive was then sent to the commander of the Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific Theater
stating that the 20th Air Force would deliver the first of many potential nuclear bombs.
The Beginning of the End
On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay B-29 Superfortress bomber took off from an
airbase on Tinian island, and shortly after 8:00am, the city of Hiroshima came into sight.
Fifteen minutes later, Little Boy, a uranium bomb with an estimated 12 kilotons of TNT, detonated
with all its mighty force, making the city erupt in a maelstrom of fire and destruction.
News about the run on Hiroshima was immediately released to the press, and a radio announcement
was broadcasted to the Imperial high command. After sending a scientific team to investigate,
a top Japanese nuclear physicist confirmed that the damage was caused by an atomic bomb.
While the Japanese verified the devastating incident,
the next bombing mission was already underway.
On the morning of August 9, 1945, the Fat Man bomb exploded on top of Nagasaki.
By then, the Japanese were unsure if more atomic attacks would be coming,
but neither the second atomic bomb nor the Soviet invasion of Japan in August
was enough to push the nation into unconditional surrender. Instead, the officials only offered
a conditional surrender to the Americans, preserving the role and power of the emperor.
Working Around The Clock
On August 10, following Japan's offer of conditional surrender,
President Truman and his cabinet closely scrutinized the situation.
That same day, Groves sent a letter to Chief of Staff General George Marshall,
reporting that the next nuclear bomb would be ready earlier than expected, as scientists in
New Mexico were working around the clock. Archival records from the time show a third
bomb was indeed being assembled on the same island from where the other two
aircraft took off and that the main plutonium core was about to be shipped from America.
While some aircrew witnesses claimed the words ‘Tokyo Joe’ were chalked on the bomb's casing,
the weapon was reportedly meant to hit Kokura and was named Fat Boy.
A transcript of a top-level call between two military leaders on August 13 revealed
further details about the third shot. It also confirmed that a production line of
about 12 additional atomic bombs was underway for additional strikes against other targets.
According to the transcript, the third bomb would be ready for deployment on
August 19, while the others would be available by September and October.
Nobody But Me
President Truman made it clear that only he could authorize the detonation of the
third bomb over Imperial Japan. No one else had the authority.
Some believed he was worried that another nuclear bomb would disrupt the Allied efforts
to end the war instead of speeding them along. And according to one cabinet member's diaries,
President Truman expressed his desire to stop the carnage during a morning meeting.
Even so, Japan's initial surrender offer was not enough. Only unconditional surrender would do.
Several days of waiting followed, and speculation in both the American
press and military was rampant about what would happen next.
Major General Groves called Oppenheimer's office in New Mexico on August 11 and instructed him
not to ship the next core to Tinian and to wait. However, he also told the scientist to report on
his progress on a new weapon design that would significantly quicken the production rate.
That same day, Major General Curtis LeMay, architect of the Pacific firebombing campaigns,
urgently requested to install nuclear weapon assembly facilities at Okinawa.
Even with the atomic bomb line on hold, many leaders of the Army Air Forces continued to
theorize about the next targets, and there was a lot of talk about Tokyo.
The Bombs That Never Were
On August 13, Secretary of War Henry Stimson recommended that the shipments
to Tinian should resume at once. The following day, with top army
planners still considering Tokyo as the most likely next target, Groves was told
that a definitive decision about the third atomic bomb would be made within 24 hours.
That afternoon, President Truman met with a British ambassador and told him
that because the Japanese were so unwilling to surrender, he now had no choice but to issue
an order to bomb Tokyo within days. Fortunately, it never came to that,
as Imperial Japan announced its decision to unconditionally surrender that same day.
Almost 80 years later, historians around the globe continue to argue about the reasons
behind the change of heart, claiming that the Soviet declaration of war, headstrong internal
Japanese forces, and the massive effects of atomic bombs all likely played a part.
Despite never being deployed, the bombs that were never dropped were a definitive
part of the American strategy to put an end to World War 2,
and the third bomb was closer to being used on Tokyo than most realize or want to admit…
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