When the final siren sounded that morning, Tibbets and his crew had already dropped the bomb, and in less than a minute, the bomb detonated, killing 80,000 people and injuring 35,000 more. The false alarms lured some into a false sense of security others remained on edge. Residents of the southern Japanese city had already been awakened by multiple air-raid sirens that morning, all of which turned out to be false alarms. The crew of 12, under the command of pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets, were charged with carrying the 9,700 pound uranium-based bomb, called “Little Boy,” to its target, a target they had only learned about hours earlier.Īfter a nearly 7 hour journey, the Enola Gay reached the city of Hiroshima. In the early morning hours of August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay took off from the island of Tinian and set its course for Japan. We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan's power to make war. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We won the race of discovery against the Germans. That is why we felt compelled to undertake the long and uncertain and costly labor of discovery and production. And we knew the disaster which would come to this Nation, and to all peace-loving nations, to all civilization, if they had found it first. We know now how close they were to finding it. But we knew that our enemies were on the search for it. Its production and its use were not lightly undertaken by this Government. I realize the tragic significance of the atomic bomb. I urge Japanese civilians to leave industrial cities immediately, and save themselves from destruction. If Japan does not surrender, bombs will have to be dropped on her war industries and, unfortunately, thousands of civilian lives will be lost. But that attack is only a warning of things to come. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians. The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. Robert Oppenheimer’s concerns over nuclear power and warĪrchival Audio - President Truman’s Radio Report to the Nation Japan’s unconditional surrender and the end of World War II.Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk and the crew of the Enola Gay.The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Truman Library and the Museum’s digital collections team. This episode was possible thanks to assistance from the Harry S. With travel prohibited due to the Covid-19 pandemic, producers have continued to conduct historical interviews, do research, and record and edit episodes from their homes. Birnbaum, was recorded remotely with historian Richard B. Kristen Burton and written by executive producer Gemma R. This week’s episode, hosted by the Museum’s Dr. What became clear to Truman and his administration was that there was no good and clean solution to end the war with Japan rather, no matter what path the United States chose, there was going to be more bloodshed and more countless people would die before there was peace. A full-scale invasion of Asia would result in not just the deaths of Allied troops, but potentially hundreds of thousands of innocent Asian noncombatants as well. Operation Olympic, a planned invasion of Kyushu set to take place in November, was anticipated to cost hundreds of thousands of lives. No other event is as inextricably linked to Truman’s legacy as his decision to use the atomic bombs, and 75 years later, there is still debate among historians over whether it was truly the best option left to end World War II. Speaking to the American people via radio, Truman described the bomb as “harnessing of the basic power of the universe,” and swore that “we shall completely destroy Japan’s power to make war.” Though Truman hoped to avoid as many civilian casualties as possible, the loss of innocent lives was inevitable, and tens of thousands would die upon impact, with tens of thousands more dying from radiation poisoning and other longer-term effects. In the hours after Truman drops the bomb on Hiroshima, news reports begin to surface of “a city vanished.” Truman never regretted the decision, seeing the bomb as the quickest way to bring an end to the bloodiest war in history.
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