Bob Ackley -> Jeff Snyder wrote:
 BA> Replying to a message of Jeff Snyder to Bob Ackley:

 JS>> I find it outrageous that dropping the first bomb on August 6, 1945
 JS>> wasn't enough for Truman. One would think that that first bomb alone
 JS>> would have been enough to bring the Japanese to their knees. Yet
 JS>> Truman still chose to drop the second bomb on August 9, 1945.

 BA> AFAIK there had been no reaction from the Japanese government immediately
 BA> after the August 6th bombing.  Also AFAIK the only thing of significance
 BA> that
 BA> happened during those three days was that Stalin declared war on Japan.

 JS>> If we add to this the long-held rumor that Truman was more than aware
 JS>> that Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked, it all seems to point to
 JS>> the long-held theory that he purposely allowed them to attack, so
 JS>> that he, and America, could justify dropping the bombs. Those war
 JS>> devils just had to test their devilish toys at all cost...and so they
 JS>> did. I'd hate to be Truman on Judgment Day.

 BA> Since the US didn't *have* nuclear bombs at the beginning of WW II that
 BA> seems
 BA> a bit far fetched.  US scientists didn't even know if such a thing could
 BA> be made
 BA> to work or how to make one at the beginning of the war.  AFAIK the closest
 BA> thing was the 'atomic pile' (an early form of nuclear reactor) that
 BA> Enrico Fermi
 BA> built in Chicago around 1940.

 BA> Also note that even though he was vice president Truman didn't know
 BA> anything
 BA> about the Manhattan Project until after he assumed the presidency in 1945.
 BA> All he knew about the nuclear bomb was that it was a very big bang compared
 BA> with conventional munitions, and that's what he treated it as.  All of the
 BA> aftereffects of nuclear detonations came from post-war research on the
 BA> subject,
 BA> in the summer of 1945 all that was unknown.

 BA> FYI at the post-war atomic tests at Bikini Atoll, military and civilian
 BA> observers
 BA> sat in chairs or stood unprotected on the decks of ships outside the
 BA> expected blast
 BA> effects area - but well within radiation range.  Note that the first
 BA> test used the
 BA> USS Nevada as its aiming point and the bomb exploded 1,000 feet directly
 BA> above
 BA> her afterdeck; the Nevada did *not* sink as a result although her
 BA> superstructure
 BA> was bent up some.

I recall seeing army footage of soldiers watching a test somewhere in the
south western desert, they took no precautions, wore no special clothing.
Most of them survived but had health problems for the rest of their lives.

-- 
L'Chaim,
Mimi

fcpnmimi(at)cox.net

http://www.myspace.com/fcpnmimi

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