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Notes and Sources
The Committeemen
1 Groves, L., Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project, Da Capo Press, New York 1962; pp63, 70, 102
2 Oppenheimer, J.R., Letters and Recollections, Kimball-Smith, A. & Weiner, C. (eds), Stanford University Press, Stanford 1980; pp28–29
3 Quoted in Bird, K. & Sherwin, M., American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Alfred A. Knopf, New York 2005, p51; see an alternative translation in Proust, M. & C.K. Scott Moncrieff (trans.), In Search of Lost Time, Centaur, New York 2013
4 Oppenheimer, J.R., Letters and Recollections, pp41, 70, 74, 94, 165
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 For more on Parsons, see: Ham, P., Hiroshima Nagasaki, Thomas Dunne, New York 2014; and Walker, S., Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima, HarperCollins, New York 2005
8 http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/trinity/assembly.shtml
9 Correspondence (“Top Secret”) of the Manhattan Engineer District, 1942–46, NARA RG77, entry 1, roll 1, file 5, subfile 5b – Directives, Memorandums etc., to and from the Chief of Staff, Secretary of War
10 Ibid.
11 Quoted in Sherwin, M., A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and its Legacies, Stanford University Press, Stanford 2003; p62
12 Nichols, K.D., The Road to Trinity, William Morrow and Company, New York 1987; p108
13 Lawren, W., The General and the Bomb, Dodd Mead, New York 1988; p43
14 Norris, R.S., Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan Project’s Indispensable Man, Steerforth Press, Vermont 2002; p135. For a portrait of Groves, see also Kelly, C. (ed.), The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of its Creators, Eyewitnesses and Historians, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York 2007; p118
15 Groves, p4; see also Groueff, S., Manhattan Project: The Untold Story of the Making of the Atomic Bomb, Little, Brown, Boston 1967; p12
16 Quoted in Kelly, p119
17 Correspondence (“Top Secret”) of the Manhattan Engineer District, 1942–46, NARA RG77, entry 1, roll 1, file 2: Production, Operations, Raw Materials and Construction
18 Lawren, p62
19 Target Committee: The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan, Harry S. Truman Student Research File, Truman Library
The Target Committee Meets
20 Quoted in Nichols, p177; see also Sherwin, M., A World Destroyed, and http://www.osti.gov/manhattan-project-history/Events/1945-present/international_control_1.htm
21 Notes on Initial Meeting of Target Committee, May 2, 1945, Top Secret, MED Records, Top Secret Documents, NARA RG77, file no. 5d (copy from microfilm), document 4
22 Quoted in Frank, R., Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, Penguin Books, New York 2001; p254
23 The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan [box 9 of 9], Truman Library, Harry S. Truman Student Research File (b file); See also http://www.dannen.com/decision/targets.html
24 Correspondence (“Top Secret”) of the Manhattan Engineer District, 1942–46, NARA RG77, entry 1, roll 1, subfile 5c – Preparation and Movement of Personnel and Equipment to Tinian
26 Atomic Bomb – War Department, Memo on Hiroshima as “Army City”, President’s Secretary’s File, Historical File, Truman Library, box 193
27 The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan, Truman Library, Harry S. Truman Student Research File (b file)
28 Memorandum from J.R. Oppenheimer to Brigadier General Farrell, May 11, 1945, MED Records, Top Secret Documents, NARA RG77, file no. 5g (copy from microfilm) document 5
29 Quoted in Walker, p90
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid., p94
32 Ibid., p93
33 Correspondence (“Top Secret”) of the Manhattan Engineer District, 1942–46, NARA RG77, entry 1, roll 1, file 5, subfile 5c – Events Preceding and Following the Dropping of the First Atomic Bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Preparation and Movement of Personnel and Equipment to Tinian
34 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Ashworth
35 Kelly, pp323–322
36 Quoted in Malloy, S.L. Atomic Tragedy: Henry L. Stimson and the Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb Against Japan, Cornell University Press, Ithaca 2008; p61
37 Bundy, M., Danger and Survival: Choices About the Bomb in the First Fifty Years, Vintage, New York 1990; p67
38 Quoted in Malloy, p61
39 Documents Pertaining to the Atomic Bomb, The Atomic Bomb Collection, Truman Library, box 2
40 Correspondence (“Top Secret”) of the Manhattan Engineer District, 1942–46, NARA RG77, microfilm publication 1109, roll 3, entry 1, file 25D – “Top Secret” Correspondence, subseries 1
41 Atomic Energy Commission, “Mr Stimson’s ‘Pet City’: The Sparing of Kyoto”, by Otis Cary, Papers of R. Gordon Arneson, Truman Library, box 1
42 Quoted in Sherwin, p230
43 See Groves, Now It Can Be Told
44 Correspondence (“Top Secret”) of the Manhattan Engineer District, 1942–46, NARA RG77, entry 1, roll 1, file 5, subfile 5b – Directives, Memorandums etc., to and from the Chief of Staff, Secretary of War
Henry Stimson’s Committee
45 The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan, Notes of the Interim Committee Meeting, Thursday, May 31, 1945, MED Records, NARA RG77, H-files, box 1, folder 100
46 Quoted in Malloy, p4
47 Ibid., p6
48 Henry Stimson to Harry S. Truman, April 24, 1945, General Documents, The Atomic Bomb Collection, Truman Library
49 Documents Pertaining to the Atomic Bomb, The Atomic Bomb Collection, Truman Library, box 2
50 Quoted in Hasegawa, T., Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2005; p67
51 See Mannard, Joseph G. (1981). American Anti-Catholicism and its Literature. Archived from the original on October 25, 2009. Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Catholicism_in_the_United_States
52 Memorandum from R. Gordon Arneson, Interim Committee Secretary, to Mr. Harrison, June 25, 1945, Med Records; see also Documents Pertaining to the Atomic Bomb, The Atomic Bomb Collection, Truman Library, box 2
53 Documents Pertaining to the Atomic Bomb, The Atomic Bomb Collection, Truman Library, box 2
54 Rhodes, R., The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Simon & Schuster, New York 1986; p643
55 Ibid.
56 The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan, Notes of the Interim Committee Meeting, Thursday, May 31, 1945, MED Records, NARA RG77, H-files, box 1, folder 100
57 Baker, P.R. (ed.), The Atomic Bomb: The Great Decision, Holt Rinehart and Winston, New York 1968; p19
58 The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan, Notes of the Interim Committee Meeting, Thursday, May 31, 1945, MED Records, NARA RG77, H-files, box 1, folder 100
59 Truman, H.S., Memoirs of Harry S. Truman, vol. 1, Year of Decisions, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1986; p297
60 Documents Pertaining to the Atomic Bomb, The Atomic Bomb Collection, Truman Library, box 2
61 Bernstein, B., The Atomic Bomb: The Critical Issues, Little, Brown & Co, Boston 1975; p146
62 Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy, Memorandum of Conversation with General Marshall, May 29, 1945, Office of the Secretary of War, Formerly Top Secret Correspondence of Secretary of War Stimson (‘Safe File’), July 1940-September 1945. NARA RG107, box 12, S-1
63 The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan, Notes of the Interim Committee Meeting, Thursday, May 31, 1945, MED Records, NARA RG77, H-files, box 1, folder 100
64 Ibid.
65 Ibid.
66 Documents Pertaining to the Atomic Bomb, The Atomic Bomb Collection, Tr
uman Library, box 2
The Scientists Do their Duty
67 The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan, Harry S. Truman Student Research File (b file), Truman Library, box 1: Introductory
68 Ibid.
69 The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan, Harry S. Truman Student Research File (b file), Truman Library, box 1: Introductory
70 Documents Pertaining to the Atomic Bomb, The Atomic Bomb Collection, Truman Library, box 2
71 Truman, p296
The Joint Chiefs Meet
72 County Judge File: December 3, 1930 – March 7, 1951, President’s Secretary’s File, Longhand Notes File, 1930–55, Truman Library, box 281
73 Skates, J.R., The Invasion of Japan: Alternative to the Bomb, University of South Carolina, Columbia 1988; p18
74 Quoted in Skates, p25
75 Hastings, M., Nemesis, HarperPerennial, London 2008; p481. Nimitz told King on May 25, 1945 that continued blockade and conventional bombardment were enough to defeat Japan.
76 Minutes of Meeting Held at the White House on Monday, June 18, 1945 at 1530, Records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Central Decimal Files 1942–1945, NARA RG218, box 198; this source for all minutes of the meeting quoted
77 Quoted in Frank, p141
78 Minutes of Meeting Held at the White House on Monday, June 18, 1945 at 1530, Records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Central Decimal Files 1942–1945, NARA RG218, box 198; this source for all minutes of the meeting quoted
79 Hastings, p498
80 Minutes of Meeting Held at the White House on Monday, June 18, 1945 at 1530, Records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Central Decimal Files 1942–1945, NARA RG218, box 198; this source for all minutes of the meeting quoted
81 Quoted in Alperovitz, G., The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb, Vintage, New York 1996; p68
82 Quoted in ibid.
83 Quoted in ibid., p73
84 Minutes of Meeting Held at the White House on Monday, June 18, 1945 at 1530, Records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Central Decimal Files 1942–1945, NARA RG218, box 198. The bomb is probably referred to as “certain other matters” in the minutes.
85 McCullough, D., Truman, Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, New York 1992; p401
86 Quoted in Alperovitz, p73 (there are various versions of his actual words)
87 Quoted in ibid.
88 Quoted in ibid; see also Hasegawa, p105
89 Quoted in Alperovitz, p503
90 Feis, H., The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War Two, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1967; p9
91 See Truman, Memoirs, and histories that defend the bomb on the grounds that it saved up to a million American lives
92 Colonel John Stone to General Arnold, The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan, Harry S. Truman Student Research File (b file), Truman Library
About the Author
Paul Ham is a historian specializing in 20th century conflict and politics. His first book to be published in the USA is Hiroshima Nagasaki, a new history of the atomic bombings (Thomas Dunne 2014; Random House UK 2011; HarperCollins Australia 2010). Paul has also written: 1914: The Year The World Ended (Random House, UK and Australia, 2013–14), Sandakan (Random House, UK and Australia, 2011–12); Vietnam: The Australian War and Kokoda (both published by HarperCollins, 2007 and 2004). Paul has co-written two ABC television documentaries based on his work: Kokoda (2010), a two-part series on the defeat of the Japanese army in Papua in 1942 (short-listed for the New York Documentary prize); and All the Way (2012), about Australia’s difficult alliance with America during the Vietnam War, which he also narrated and presented. Paul is the founding director of Hampress, an independent ebook publisher, and a regular contributor to the Kindle Single range. A former Australia correspondent for The Sunday Times of London (1998–2012), Paul has a masters in economic history from London School of Economics. He lives in Sydney and Paris with his wife and son, and writes full-time.
Copyright Information
Version 1.0
The Target Committee
Copyright © Paul Ham 2014
Cover image by Xou Creative
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First published as a Kindle Single in 2014 by Hampress Pty Ltd (ABN 62 098 047 315)
www.hampress.com