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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
Among the myriad controversies surrounding the American use of nuclear weapons against Japanese cities in August 1945 is the seemingly simple question of exactly when President Harry S. Truman decided to use the bomb. The closest thing to a presidential directive regarding use was an order dispatched on July 25, 1945 from Acting Army Chief of Staff Thomas T. Handy to General Carl A. Spaatz, commander of the United States Army Strategy Air Forces. The directive, personally approved by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, authorized the delivery of the “first special bomb as soon as weather will permit visual bombing after about 3 August 1945…” The bomb was to be used on one of four target cities (a list that included Niigata and Kokura as well as Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and no further orders were required for the use of additional bombs, which were to be “delivered on the above targets as soon as made ready by the project staff.” But while this directive was almost certainly discussed with the president before its approval, Truman never signed this or any other order with respect to the use of the atomic bomb against Japan. More significantly, the order was itself the product of an extended series of discussions and decisions that in some cases went back months or even years prior to the summer of 1945. While significant as a link in the chain of operations that culminated in the atomic bombings of August 6 and 9, historians must look beyond the July 25 directive to understand exactly when and how Truman committed to the use the bomb.
[1] Acting Chief of Staff Thomas T. Handy to General Carl A. Spaatz, July 25, 1945, Carl A. Spaatz Papers, Library of Congress, box 24, “July, 1945.”
[2] On Stimson and his complicated relationship to the bomb see Sean L. Malloy, Atomic Tragedy: Henry L. Stimson and the Decision to Use the Bomb Against Japan (Ithaca, 2008). Other biographical treatments of Stimson include David Schmitz, Henry L. Stimson: The First Wise Man (Wilmington, Del., 2001); Godfrey Hodgson The Colonel: The Life and Wars of Henry Stimson, 1867-1950 (New York, 1990); Elting Elmore Morison, Turmoil and Tradition: A Study of the Life and Times of Henry L. Stimson (Boston, 1960).
[3] Henry Lewis Stimson Diaries (microfilm edition), Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library (hereafter cited as Stimson Diary), May 28, 1945.
[4] Stimson Diary, February 27, 1945.
[5] Though its focus is split between the USSR, Japan, and the United States, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa's Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan (Cambridge, Mass., 2005) is probably the best single source on the debate within the American government over surrender terms in 1945. Also see Richard B. Frank, Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire (New York, 1999), 214-21.
[6] The original and most influential statement of this orthodox defense of the bomb was Stimson, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” Harper's (February 1947): 97-107. For more contemporary restatements of this position see Robert James Maddox, Weapons for Victory: The Hiroshima Decision (Columbia, Mo., 2004); Robert Newman, Truman and the Hiroshima Cult (East Lansing, Mich., 1995).
[7] Foreign Relations of the United States, The Conferences at Washington, 1941-1942, and Casablanca, 1943, (Washington, D.C.) 837 (hereafter cited as FRUS).
[8] Joint Chiefs of Staff 924/15, April 25, 1945, box 169, section 12, record group 218, National Archives II, College Park, MD.
[9] Herbert Hoover Memorandum, May 15, 1945, Formerly Top Secret Correspondence of Secretary of War Stimson, record group 107, box 8, National Archives II, College Park, MD. (hereafter cited as “Safe File”); Stimson Diary, May 16, 1945.
[10] McCloy, “Memorandum for Colonel Stimson,” May, 28, 1945, “Safe File,” box 8.
[11] Grew, “Memorandum of Conversation with the President,” May 28, 1945, enclosed in Grew to Stimson, February 12, 1947, Henry Lewis Stimson Papers (microfilm ed.), reel 116, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library, (hereafter cited as Stimson Papers).
[12] Joseph Grew to Stimson, February 12, 1947, Stimson Papers, reel 116.
[13] Stimson to Roosevelt, March 15, 1944, Stimson Papers, reel 109.
[14] Stimson Diary, November 18, 1942; David M. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (New York, 1999), 582-83; Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy 1932-1945 (New York, 1979), 364-66.
[15] Stimson Diary, June 14 (“politics of Italy”), July 1(“too much unconditional surrender”), 1943. Also see Stimson to Roosevelt, September 20, 1943, Stimson Diary.
[16] Stimson, “Memorandum for the President: The Conduct of the War with Japan,” enclosed in Stimson to James F. Byrnes, July 16, 1945, Stimson Papers, reel 113.
[17] Others present included the director of the Office of War Information (OWI), Elmer Davis, and Judge Samuel Rosenman, counsel to the president. Stimson Diary, May 29, 1945; Forrestal Diary, May 29, 1945.
[18] Stimson, “Memorandum for the Chief of Staff,” May 30, 1945, “Safe File,” box 8.
[19] Grew Diary, May 29, 1945, reprinted in Grew, Turbulent Era: A Diplomatic Record of Forty Years, 1904-1945 (Cambridge, Mass., 1952), 1434.
[20] Stimson to Joseph Grew, June 19, 1947, Eugene H. Dooman Papers, box 2, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, Calif. (hereafter cited as Dooman Papers).
[21] Grew, Turbulent Era, 1434.
[22] Eugene Dooman to Joseph Grew, June 30, 1947, Dooman Papers, box 2.
[23] February 9, 1947, The Diary of William R. Castle (microfilm of original), Houghton Library, Harvard University.
[24] Herbert Hoover to John C. Laughlin, August 8, 1945, Hebert Hoover Presidential Library, West Branch, Iowa, Post-Presidential Individual File, “O'Laughlin, John C.” On Stimson's last minute efforts at Potsdam to facilitate a Japanese surrender prior to the use of the bomb see Malloy, Atomic Tragedy, 121-32.
[25] Stimson Diary, May 29, 1945.
[26] John J. McCloy, “Memorandum of Conversation with General Marshall May 29, 1945, 11:45 AM,” “Safe File,” box 12.
[27] Stimson Diary, May 29, 1945. For a lengthy discussion of nuclear targeting in World War II, see Sean L. Malloy, “‘The Rules of Civilized Warfare’: Scientists, Soldiers, and American Nuclear Targeting, 1940-1945,” The Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3, 474-512.
[28] Malloy, Atomic Tragedy, 49-65.
[29] “Character and strength of buildings in different parts of the city” and the “Contour of the ground” were the factors that Parsons suggested would be most important in selecting cities for destruction. William Parsons to William Purnell (via Leslie Groves), December 12, 1944, Correspondence (“Top Secret”) of the Manhattan Engineer District, 1942-46, microfilm publication M1109, file 5D, National Archives (hereafter cited as Groves “Top Secret”).
[30] AAF Target Committee members were Brigadier General Lauris R. Norstad, Colonel William P. Fisher, Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Dr. David M. Dennison, and Dr. Robert Stearns. Manhattan Project representatives included Dr. John von Neumann, Dr. R. Bright Wilson, Dr. William Penny, Dr. Norman F. Ramsey, Colonel Lyle E. Seeman, and Major Jack Derry (who wrote the summary notes after each meeting).
[31] Jack Derry, “Notes on Initial Meeting of the Target Committee,” April 27, 1945, Groves “Top Secret,” file 5D.
[32] Derry, “Summary of Target Committee Meetings on 10 and 11 May 1945,” Groves, “Top Secret,” file 5D.
[33] One of the important criteria used by the committee in selecting a target was that it “be capable of being damaged effectively by a blast.” Ibid.
[34] Derry, “Notes on Initial Meeting of the Target Committee.”
[35] Derry, “Minutes of Third Target Committee Meeting – Washington, 28 May 1945,” Groves, “Top Secret,” file 5D.
[36] Stimson to Truman, May 16, 1945, Stimson Diary.
[37] Diary of John J. McCloy, May 21, 1945, John J. McCloy Papers, box DY1, folder 17, Amherst College Library, Amherst, Mass. (hereafter cited as McCloy Diary).
[38] “Objectives,” [outline for draft of presidential address, author unknown but likely either Harvey Bundy or Arthur Page] May 25, 1945, Harrison Bundy Files Relating to the Development of the Atomic Bomb, 1942-46, Records of the Office of the Chief of Engineers, record group 77, microfilm publication M1108, file 74, National Archives (hereafter cited as Harrison-Bundy).
[39] McCloy, “Memorandum of Conversation with General Marshall.”
[40] On June 1, three days after this meeting with Marshall, Stimson summoned Arnold to question the general about “a bombing of Tokyo” that Stimson found objectionable insofar as it had apparently been aimed primarily at civilians and as such represented a breach “of my promise from Lovett that there would be only precision bombing in Japan.” Stimson Diary, June 1, 1945.
[41] McCloy, “Memorandum of Conversation with General Marshall.”
[42] Groves Diary, May 30, 1945, Papers of Leslie R. Groves, box 3, record group 200, National Archives II, College Park, Md. (hereafter cited as Groves Diary).
[43] Leslie Groves, Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project (New York, 1962), 273; Stimson Diary, May 30, 1945. Also see the account in Robert S. Norris, Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan Project's Indispensable Man (South Royalton, Vt., 2002), 386-87.
[44] Groves quoted in Len Giovannitti and Fred Freed, The Decision to Drop the Bomb (New York, 1965), 40-41.
[45] Stimson Diary, May 30, 1945.
[46] Groves, Now It Can Be Told, 275.
[47] Stimson Diary, June 1, 1945; Ira C. Eaker, “Memorandum for the Secretary of War,” June 11, 1945, “Safe File,” box 8.
[48] Groves, “Memorandum to General Norstad,” May 30, 1945 (emphasis in original), Groves “Top Secret,” file 5D (emphasis added).
[49] The Diary of Henry H. Arnold, May 31, 1945, Henry H. Arnold Papers, Manuscripts and Records Division, Library of Congress (hereafter Arnold Diary).
[50] Gordon Arneson, “Notes of the Interim Committee Meeting,” May 31, 1945 (“this project,” “must be controlled”), Harrison-Bundy, file 100; Stimson Diary, May 31, 1945 (“Frankenstein”).
[51] For more on the debate over international control and the Soviet Union see Malloy, Atomic Tragedy, 80-95, 109-14, 131-34, 143-57.
[52] Ernest O. Lawrence to Dr. Karl K. Darrow, 17 August 1945, E. O. Lawrence Papers, box 28, folder 20, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
[53] Arneson, “Notes of the Interim Committee Meeting,” May 31, 1945.
[54] Ibid.
[55] Derry, “Minutes of Third Target Committee Meeting.”
[56] Michael Sherry has reached a similar conclusion regarding Stimson and the bomb. Michael S. Sherry, The Rise of American Air Power: The Creation of Armageddon (New Haven, 1987), 295.
[57] Stimson, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” 105.
[58] The “shock” factor, while not entirely absent in wartime discussions became much more prominent and well defined after the war in post-facto justifications of the bomb's use. For more on shock see, Alperovitz, The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb, 165-66; Michael Gordin, Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War (Princeton, 2007), 39.
[59] Richard Polenberg, ed., In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Ithaca, 2002), 34.
[60] Derry, “Summary of Target Committee Meetings.”
[61] Derry, “Minutes of Third Target Committee Meeting.”
[62] For more see Malloy, Atomic Tragedy, 134-35, 166-69.
[63] Stimson Diary, June 6, 1945.
[64] “Transcript of Conference Held at 11 am, 9 May, 1945 with Stimson, Marshall and a Special Committee of the Senate and House of Representative Which Investigated ‘ATROCITIES’ in Germany,” “Safe File,” box 2.
[65] Stimson Diary, June 6, 1945.
[66] For a version of this argument see Stimson, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” 107.
[67] Stimson, “Memorandum for the President: Proposed Program for Japan,” July 2, 1945, Stimson Diary.
[68] Stimson, “Memorandum for the President: The Conduct of the War with Japan,” enclosed in Stimson to James Byrnes, July 16, 1945, Stimson Papers, reel 113.
[69] Arnold Diary, July 22, 23, 1945; Henry H. Arnold, Global Mission (New York, 1949), 589.
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