Huh, I knew there wasn’t the sort of plan you’d naively expect where the US gov/military command observes the response of the Japanese gov/military to one of their cities being destroyed by unthinkable godlike powers and then decides what to do next. I didn’t know that president Truman literally didn’t know about/have implicit preemptive control over the 2nd bombing.
Dan Carlin recently did a Hardcore History Addendum show about Truman called Atomic Accountability. It was an interview with Alex Wellerstein who brings into question how much Truman actually knew about the location of the first bomb being dropped. Truman (possibly) thought that rulling out Kyoto (which was number one on the list), meant he was ruling out cities as targets, and didn’t know Hiroshima was a city. This seems wild, until you factor in how all the information is being fed to him, how long he’d known about the nuclear program and what the competing military interests were. Worth a listen if you’re into the topic as it’s a new perspective.
Thanks, I hadn’t seen this. I agree Truman thought Hiroshima was mostly a military base. IIRC you can see him make basic factual errors to that effect in an early draft of a speech.
Huh, I knew there wasn’t the sort of plan you’d naively expect where the US gov/military command observes the response of the Japanese gov/military to one of their cities being destroyed by unthinkable godlike powers and then decides what to do next. I didn’t know that president Truman literally didn’t know about/have implicit preemptive control over the 2nd bombing.
Dan Carlin recently did a Hardcore History Addendum show about Truman called Atomic Accountability. It was an interview with Alex Wellerstein who brings into question how much Truman actually knew about the location of the first bomb being dropped. Truman (possibly) thought that rulling out Kyoto (which was number one on the list), meant he was ruling out cities as targets, and didn’t know Hiroshima was a city. This seems wild, until you factor in how all the information is being fed to him, how long he’d known about the nuclear program and what the competing military interests were. Worth a listen if you’re into the topic as it’s a new perspective.
The book in which Alex Wellerstein really makes the case was also released yesterday, buy it here!
Thanks, I hadn’t seen this.
I agree Truman thought Hiroshima was mostly a military base. IIRC you can see him make basic factual errors to that effect in an early draft of a speech.