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If the radiance of a thousand suns
Were to burst at once into the sky,
That would be like the splendor of the Mighty One
[Now] I am become Death,
The Shatterer of Worlds

From the Bagavad-Gita, recalled by Robert Oppenheimer at the moment of the explosion of the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945.

"The bomb is the natural product of the kind of society we have created. It is as easy, normal and unforced expression of the American Way of Life as electric iceboxes, banana splits and hyrdomatic-drive automobiles."

From Dwight McDonald, Politics (August, 1945).

1.  Background to August 6, 1945

Three decades of war and revolution.

A scientific revolution in physics.

Weapons Technology, "Total War" and the Idea of Mass Destruction.

• Commanding Officer: General Leslie Groves
• Chief Scientist: Robert Oppenheimer
• Place: University of Chicago; Oak Ridge, TN (TVA); Hanford, WA;  Los Alamos, NM;  Almagordo, NM.
• Cost: 2 billion dollars
• The Test: July 16, 1945 - detonation of first bomb

• The men who commissioned and developed the bomb, political leaders, military men, and scientists alike, shared a common idea.  Call it "The Assumption."  The assumption was that the bomb was a military weapon, that it was essentially no different from any other military weapon and that the nation was at war and should use any and every means to win that war as quickly as possible.

4. The Course of WWII

•  Europe: VE Day, May 8, 1945.

• Pacific:  Midway; island-hopping campaign; naval blockade; aerial bombardment; debate within Japanese Government over continuing the war

5. Some Misgivings and Second Thoughts on the part of a few US leaders.

• Diplomats
• Scientists
• Military leaders
• However, most US leaders continued to support "the assumption"(that the bomb should be used and used as soon as possible).

6. Alternatives: A Summary:

• Diplomatic: Change demand for unconditional surrender
• Military alternative: continue bombing and blockade
• Military alternative: invasion
• Await Russian declaration of war, entry
• Deliver explicit warning
• Demonstrate the bomb's impact on an un-populated test site
• Some combination of the above
• The question of timing

7. The Assumption Prevails. Explaining the Decision (or non decision):

• Harry S. Truman: character and personality
• Domestic Politics
• Wartime haste and secrecy
• Bureaucratic momentum
• Wartime hysteria: racism, revenge
• WWII & Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Cold War Politics

8. Ground Zero.
 

9. Those Who are Escaped to Tell the Tale.
 

10. Epilogue:
 

LINKS TO SITES  -- the atomic bombing of  Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Guide to Resources).
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