July 2023

Stimson: "Why We Used the Atomic Bomb"

Potsdam conference — At the Potsdam Conference in defeated Germany in July 1945, where Truman received word of the success of the Trinity test in New Mexico, the leaders of the so-called Big Three met to discuss the post-war geopolitical map. National Archives and Records Administration

Editor's Note: In February 1947, this essay, attributed to Secretary of War Henry Stimson, was published in Harper's as a defense of the decision to use the bomb. We reprint this with the permission of Harper's.

The Secret Plans to Invade Japan

U.S. Military leaders in conference. L-R: Adm. Ernest King, Chief of Staff Gen. George Marshall, Adm. William Leahy, Air Force Chief, Gen. Hap Arnold. 1942-45. World War 2. (BSLOC_2014_8_115) — *Military leaders plan strategy during World War II: (L to R) Adm. Ernest King, Chief of Staff Gen. George Marshall, Adm. William Leahy, and Air Force Chief, Gen. Hap Arnold. Alamy*

Editor’s Note: David Dean Barrett is a military historian specializing in World War II and is the author of 140 Days to Hiroshima: The Story of Japan’s Last Chance to Avert Armageddon, in which portions of this essay appeared.

Did We Really Need to Drop the Bomb?

American Joe O'Donnell was one of the first photographers to reach Nagasaki after the bomb. — *Joe O’Donnell, one of the first photographers to reach Nagasaki after the bombing, told his story in “A Straight Path Through Hell” in* American Heritage.

Struggling to End the War

*Much of the debate over ending the war centered on the role of Emperor Hirohito, the "living deity," after the war ended. Library of Congress*

As the Allied armies closed in on the German capital in 1945, the complications for ending the war in Europe paled, in comparison with the difficulty of forcing a Japanese surrender. For the Japanese military, the concept was unthinkable, a state of mind confirmed by the hundreds of thousands of Japanese servicemen who had already been killed, rather than giving up a hopeless contest.

Special Issue: Japan and the Atomic Bomb

the bomb goes off at Nagasaki — About fifteen minutes after the detonation of the plutonium bomb over Nagasaki, civilians on a nearby island stand not far from the pyrocumulus cloud, seemingly oblivious to it. Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum

The great popularity of the new movie Oppenheimer reveals the enduring fascination with the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki seventy-eight years ago.

In this issue, we look comprehensively at the use of those weapons and the struggle to end the war in Asia, which many people don't realize caused well over 20,000,000 deaths, mostly of civilians, and more than 100 times the horrific toll of the atomic bombs. (See “Counting All The Dead” here.)