Potsdam and the Decision to Drop the Bomb

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Potsdam and the Decision to Drop the Bomb
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Military USE

• After the battle of Okinawa, Truman sees the
  dropping of the bomb as a way to
• 1. end the war quickly
• 2. save approximately 1 million US soldiers

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Yalta Conference Feb. 1945

• Decisions Made for Post European War with USSR
• Soviet Union will help fight against Japan.
• Soviet Union will oversee Eastern Europe
• Allow Eastern Europe to have free and unfettered
  elections
• Gave much more into Stalins demands

Churchill, FDR, and Stalin at Yalta
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The Potsdam Conference July 1945

• Truman, Stalin, and Churchill met to discuss Post
  War Europe and Japanese Surrender
• Tension over decisions about Post-War Eastern
  Europe
• Allies not as willing to give in to Stalin
• No longer needed him in Japan
• Could throw around their might

Churchill, Truman, and Stalin
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The Potsdam Conference July 1945

• Truman stated that the US had a powerful and
  destructive new weapon, but did not say
  specifically that it was a nuclear bomb.
• Appeared Stalin did not grasp the significance of
  the weapon

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Demand for an Unconditional Surrender
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The Potsdam Declaration

• July 26, 1945 Japan is given an ultimatum, known
  as the Potsdam declaration
• Japan must surrender immediately or face prompt
  and utter destruction.
• Implies that Emperor Hirohito would be removed
  from the throne.
• No mention of Soviet entry in the war or the
  atomic bomb.

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Excerpt from the Potsdam Declaration

• We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim
  now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese
  armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate
  assurances of their good faith in such action.
  The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter
  destruction.

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Japans Response

• Japanese premier wanted to accept, could not
  convince military leaders
• Hint from Tokyo that government might surrender,
  in return that Japan could keep their emperor.
• US insisted on unconditional surrender, ie. No
  emperor, because believed these hints were coming
  from people who did not have power to follow
  through. (May have been right)
• Officially - Japan refuses to surrender and
  announces that it will ignore the Declaration.

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Alternatives to dropping the bomb

• Drop the bomb or
• Massive invasion of Japan, costing approximately
  1 million Allied casualties
• Naval blockade to starve Japan and continued
  fire-bombing
• Demo of new weapon on deserted or scarcely
  populated island to pressure Japan to surrender
• Weaken Allied demands for an unconditional
  surrender
• Simply stop fighting

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Consider this

• "As long as America and England insist on
  unconditional surrender our country has no
  alternative but to see it through in an all-out
  effort for the sake of survival and the honor of
  the homeland."
• - Japanese prime minister Shigenori Togo in
  turning down surrender demand, July 11, 1945.

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In-class notebook

• Rank the options for ending the war in terms of 1
  best way to end the war to 6 include the
  atomic bomb and the alternatives. (You may add a
  seventh option, if you see it as the best way to
  end the war.)

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Fat man (plutonium)
Little boy (uranium)
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Hiroshima August 6, 1945

• Chosen because of its large size, its being "an
  important army depot" and the potential that the
  bomb would cause greater destruction because the
  city was surrounded by hills
• Approximately 140,000 deaths by the end of 1945
• About ½ on the day of the bombing
• Others died from injury or illness due to
  radiation
• The majority dead were civilians

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Nagasaki August 9, 1945

• Nagasaki was one of the largest sea ports in
  southern Japan and was of great wartime
  importance because of its wide-ranging industrial
  activity, including the production of ordnance,
  ships, military equipment, and other war
  materials.
• Bombings prior to the Atomic Bomb caused concern
  and many civilians left for rural areas
• An area about 2.3 miles by 1.9 miles was
  destroyed
• Approximately 80,000 deaths by the end of 1945

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In an August 1945 poll, 85 of Americans felt it
was OK to use the atomic bomb.

• When the bombs dropped and news began to
  circulate that the invasion would not, after
  all, take place, that we would not be obliged to
  run up the beaches near Tokyo assault-firing
  while being mortared and shelled, for all the
  fake manliness of our facades we cried with
  relief and joy. We were going to live. We were
  going to grow up to adulthood after all.
• Paul Fussell, age 21 in 1945