harry s. truman was president when we dropped the bomb on hiroshima.
harry s. truman was president when we dropped the bomb on hiroshima.
who was president when we dropped the bomb on hiroshima?
harry s. truman
on 6 august 1945, the us dropped an atomic bomb on the japanese city of hiroshima in the first nuclear attack in history. in a press release issued after the atomic bombing of hiroshima, president harry s. truman warned japan to surrender or "expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth." three days later, on 9 august, the us dropped another atomic bomb on nagasaki, the last nuclear attack in history. more than 140,000–240,000 people died as a direct result of these two bombings. the necessity of the atomic bombings has long been debated, with detractors claiming that a naval blockade and incendiary bombing campaign had already made invasion, hence the atomic bomb, unnecessary. however, other scholars have argued that the atomic bombings shocked the japanese government into surrender, with the emperor finally indicating his wish to stop the war. another argument in favor of the atomic bombs is that they helped avoid operation downfall, or a prolonged blockade and conventional bombing campaign, any of which would have exacted much higher casualties among japanese civilians. historian richard b. frank wrote that a soviet invasion of japan was never likely because they had insufficient naval capability to mount an amphibious invasion of hokkaidō.
pacific war
in preparation for dropping an atomic bomb on hiroshima, the oppenheimer-led scientific panel of the interim committee decided against a demonstration bomb and against a special leaflet warning. those decisions were implemented because of the uncertainty of a successful detonation and also because of the wish to maximize shock in the leadership. no warning was given to hiroshima that a new and much more destructive bomb was going to be dropped. various sources gave conflicting information about when the last leaflets were dropped on hiroshima prior to the atomic bomb. robert jay lifton wrote that it was july 27, and theodore h. mcnelly wrote that it was july 30. the usaaf history noted that eleven cities were targeted with leaflets on july 27, but hiroshima was not one of them, and there were no leaflet sorties on july 30. leaflet sorties were undertaken on august 1 and august 4. hiroshima may have been leafleted in late july or early august, as survivor accounts talk about a delivery of leaflets a few days before the atomic bomb was dropped. three versions were printed of a leaflet listing 11 or 12 cities targeted for firebombing; a total of 33 cities listed. with the text of this leaflet reading in japanese "...we cannot promise that only these cities will be among those attacked..." hiroshima was not listed.
atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki