So they were expecting a bloodbath, of course much worse for the Japanese because these were civilians armed with sticks. Russian expansionism was certainly on his mind, but he wanted the war over for humanitarian reasons. I take responsibility. But the legacy of his decision that day in has passed down generations. One day Daniel, who has worked in journalism and public relations, got a phone call from Masahiro Sasaki, the brother of Sadako Sasaki, who survived Hiroshima but, aged 12, was diagnosed with leukaemia and told she had a year to live.
Based on a Japanese legend that folding a thousand origami cranes allows the granting of a wish, Sasaki started folding, wishing for a world without nuclear weapons. She died before she had folded Her brother Masahiro and his son met Daniel in New York, showed him the last crane that Sadako folded before she died and invited him to Japan. How did he feel in Japan? There is one survivor in Hiroshima who calls it the sad layer of the soil.
I was too, several times. By the end of , the atom bomb was estimated to have killed , people in Hiroshima, where a museum contains scorched school uniforms, a lunchbox of carbonized food and a pocket watch stopped at 8. Truman authorized the attack on Hiroshima. The U. B bomber aircraft, the Enola Gay, dropped the nuclear bomb, codenamed "Little Boy," on August 6, American scientists working on the Manhattan Project had successfully tested a working atomic bomb in July of , after the surrender of Nazi Germany in May.
Truman had tasked a committee of advisers , chaired by Secretary of War Henry Stimson, to deliberate whether to use the atomic bomb on Japan. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, told CNN: "At the time, there was a wide consensus in support of the decision to strike among the members of the committee.
Stimson was very adamant that the bomb be used. Charles Maier, a professor of history at Harvard University, said that while it was possible for Truman to have made another decision, he said "It would have been hard to justify to the American public why he prolonged the war when this weapon was available. Maier, who teaches a course on World War II, said Japan was not ready to surrender unconditionally and there was a concern that a weapons demonstration would have not done the job.
Such a demonstration would have detonated a nuclear weapon in a non-inhabited but observable area to compel Japan to surrender, an approach that was favored by a group of scientists and Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy, according to Rushay.
He added that Truman and his military advisers feared a "very costly invasion" of Japan. Maier said, "Suicide attacks are fairly common today, [but] at the time, the Japanese use of suicidal Kamikaze attacks had made a strong psychological impact on U. Maier said some historians have speculated that the possibility of the Soviet Union's entry into the war helped spur the decision to bring the war to a quick end by using the bomb.
Rushay said that Hiroshima was one of four potential targets and that Truman left it up to the military to decide which city to strike. Hiroshima was chosen as a target because of its military importance. Nagasaki was bombed a few days later.
What was the result? At least 70, people were killed in the initial blast, while approximately 70, more died from radiation exposure. Japan unconditionally agreed to accept the terms of surrender on August What do the critics say? The utter devastation caused by the bombing has led many to criticize the decision. Eisenhower criticized the use of the atomic bombs, saying they weren't necessary to force the surrender of Japan.
Maier said that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings "did move the Japanese Emperor to intervene with a divided military and advocate for surrender.
In , the City Council of Hiroshima passed a resolution condemning Truman for refusing to express remorse for using atomic bombs and for continuing to advocate their use in an emergency situation. The resolution said the city's residents "consider it their sublime duty to be a cornerstone of world peace and no nation of the world should ever be permitted to repeat the error of using of nuclear weapons.
The resolution called the ex-president's stance a "gross defilement committed on the people of Hiroshima and their fallen victims. Photos: Drawings show haunting memories of Hiroshima. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum has collected thousands of drawings made by survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. The drawings document survivors' memories surrounding that horrible day.
In this rendering, Hideo Kimura shows burned and screaming classmates. Some were trapped under heavy gates and houses. Others were in the river, holding onto a stone embankment.
This drawing by survivor Akira Onogi shows a woman pinned under a pillar from her collapsed house as deadly flames approach. Next to the woman, a sobbing girl pleads for help from neighbors. The neighbors couldn't move the pillar.
Chisako Sasaki drew this image of a girl at a window on the second floor of a burning house. Sasaki remembers the girl crying for help. Mitsuko Taguchi is haunted by this scene, depicted in her drawing, of a dead mother and child who had fallen while trying to outrun flames. Her eyes were open wide. I cannot forget that shocking sight. We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city.
We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. It was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction that the ultimatum of July 26 was issued at Potsdam.
Their leaders promptly rejected that ultimatum. If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth. Behind this air attack will follow sea and land forces in such numbers and power as they have not yet seen and with the fighting skill of which they are already well aware.
The Secretary of War, who has kept in personal touch with all phases of the project, will immediately make public a statement giving further details. Although the workers at the sites have been making materials to be used in producing the greatest destructive forces in history they have not themselves been in danger beyond that of many other occupations, for the utmost care has been taken of their safety.
The fact that we can release atomic energy ushers in a new era in man's understanding of nature's forces. Atomic energy may in the future supplement the power that now comes from coal, oil, and falling water, but at present it cannot be produced on a basis to compete with them commercially. Before that comes there must be a long period of intensive research. It has never been the habit of the scientists of this country or the policy of this Government to withhold from the world scientific knowledge.
Normally, therefore, everything about the work with atomic energy would be made public. But under present circumstances it is not intended to divulge the technical processes of production or all the military applications, pending further examination of possible methods of protecting us and the rest of the world from the danger of sudden destruction.
I shall recommend that the Congress of the United States consider promptly the establishment of an appropriate commission to control the production and use of atomic power within the United States.
I shall give further consideration and make further recommendations to the Congress as to how atomic power can become a powerful and forceful influence towards the maintenance of world peace. Browse our collection of oral histories with workers, families, service members, and more about their experiences in the Manhattan Project. Sense of Place. Skip to main content. Truman Statement on Hiroshima.
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