The Day the World Went Nuclear Read online

  Even though MacArthur wears the five-star rank of general of the army, President Truman has rarely consulted him about the state of the Pacific conflict—unlike George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower, who routinely advise the president on matters of war. While Marshall has long known about the bomb and Eisenhower was made aware of it shortly after the Trinity explosion, MacArthur learned of its existence only one week ago.

  MacArthur was never once asked about the A-bomb’s tactical use in his theater of war. It is a situation, he believes, no different than if the A-bomb had been dropped on Europe without Eisenhower being informed.

  MacArthur knows that would never happen.

  Now, on top of those insults, comes the stunning realization that Harry Truman does not trust Douglas MacArthur.

  On Sunday, August 5, the general received verbal confirmation that the bomb would be dropped the following day. However, this courtesy also contained a key element of misdirection: instead of Hiroshima, the courier from Washington informed the general that ground zero would be a lightly populated industrial district south of Tokyo.

  Someone, somewhere, believes Douglas MacArthur cannot keep a secret.

  Unfortunately, MacArthur’s behavior lends credence to the view that he can’t keep his mouth shut. On the morning of the Hiroshima explosion, still not knowing its true location or whether the mission had been a success, MacArthur called reporters to his office at Manila City Hall and, in off-the-record comments, coyly predicted, “The war may end sooner than we think.”

  The truth is that MacArthur approved of the industrial target. Showcasing the power of the explosion in an area almost completely devoid of civilians made military sense to him. The tragic slaughter of Manila’s residents by the retreating Japanese just a few months ago is still fresh in MacArthur’s memory; even before those senseless killings, the general had been openly opposed to targeting civilians.

  Portrait of General Douglas MacArthur with his signature corncob pipe and sunglasses. [Mary Evans Picture Library]

  At this point in his career, MacArthur’s military training precludes him from publicly criticizing his commander in chief, but for the rest of his life he will privately share his views about August 6, 1945. “MacArthur once spoke eloquently to me about it,” Richard Nixon will one day recount to reporters. (The future president served a year in the Pacific during World War II as a naval officer.) “He thought it a tragedy that the bomb was ever exploded.… MacArthur, you see, was a soldier. He believed in using force only against military targets, and that is why the nuclear thing turned him off.”

  MacArthur’s personal pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Weldon “Dusty” Rhoades, will remember MacArthur’s opinion of the bomb even more vividly, writing in his journal, “General MacArthur definitely is appalled and depressed by this Frankenstein monster.”

  Accurately, MacArthur believes that bombing Hiroshima will not lead to a Japanese surrender. The shame would be overwhelming.

  According to MacArthur, a Japanese surrender will happen only if President Truman allows the emperor to remain in power after the war. “The retention of the institution of the emperor,” he argues, would allow the Japanese nation to seek peace with dignity, knowing that their divine emperor will continue to guide them.

  CHAPTER 41

  UNITED STATES

  August 7, 1945

  BUT MOST AMERICANS SEE the situation far differently.

  “Thank God for the atomic bomb” is a common refrain among American soldiers and sailors, who have been dreading the bloodbath sure to come if American troops invade the beaches of Japan. To many of them, the bombing of civilians is not an issue—it’s payback for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. And if the destruction could lead to peace, U.S. enlisted men almost unanimously believe it is worth it. For the first time since they put on that uniform, these soldiers and sailors can start planning for the distant future. “For all the fake manliness of our facades,” a twenty-one-year-old infantry lieutenant will write, “we cried with relief and joy. We were going to live. We were going to grow up to adulthood.”

  Later, a Gallup poll will report that 85 percent of Americans believe that the use of the atomic bomb is justified. Most of the media also support the decision. Across the country, newspapers trumpet the A-bomb blast in banner headlines. The New York Times reports the event with six front-page stories.

  The Times, however, sounds a rare cautionary note, predicting that the use of the A-bomb will now be justified by other nations in the future. “Yesterday man unleashed the atom to destroy man, and another chapter in human history opened, a chapter in which the weird, the strange, the horrible becomes the trite and the obvious. Yesterday we clinched victory in the Pacific, but we sowed the whirlwind.”

  The analytical piece was written by Hanson Baldwin, military editor of the New York Times. “Americans have become a synonym for destruction. And now we have been the first to introduce a new weapon of unknowable effects which may bring us victory quickly but will sow the seeds of hate more widely than ever.”

  There are others who display trepidation. After observing the explosion from aboard The Great Artiste, Manhattan Project physicist Luis Alvarez begins questioning the morality of using the bomb. In a letter to his son written on the return flight to Tinian, he ponders what he has just seen: “What regrets I have about being a party to killing and maiming thousands of Japanese civilians this morning are tempered with the hope that this terrible weapon we have created may bring the countries of the world together and prevent future wars.”

  David Lawrence, the conservative founder of the United States News, later to become U.S. News & World Report, will pen one of the most damning criticisms of Truman’s decision: “We shall not soon purge ourselves of the feeling of guilt which prevails among us. Military necessity will be our constant cry in answer to criticism, but it will never erase from our minds the simple truth that we, of all civilized nations, though hesitating to use poison gas, did not hesitate to employ the most destructive weapon of all times indiscriminately against men, women and children. What a precedent for the future we have furnished to other nations even less concerned than we with scruples or ideals!”

  CHAPTER 42

  JAPAN

  August 8, 1945

  IN JAPAN, THERE IS simply shock, but no talk of accepting the Potsdam Declaration and surrendering. Instead, as a wave of sixty-nine B-29 bombers attacks Tokyo with conventional bombs, the military broadcasts a series of defiant radio messages from the capital. The people of Japan are directed to remain calm in the face of American bombings and to renew their pledge to continue the fight.

  An August 8 broadcast in English, aimed at North America, accuses the United States of an “atrocity campaign” that will “create the impression that the Japanese are cruel people.” And while Japan has ignored the terms of the Geneva and Hague Conventions throughout the war, it is the United States that the Japanese now accuse of war crimes. “This is made clear by Article 22 of the Hague Convention. Consequently, any attack by such means against open towns and defenseless citizens are unforgivable actions.”

  The broadcast asks: “How will the United States war leaders justify their degradation, not only in the eyes of the other peoples but also in the eyes of the American people? How will these righteous-thinking American people feel about the way their war leaders are perpetuating this crime against man and God?

  “Will they condone the whole thing on the ground that everything is fair in love and war or will they rise in anger and denounce this blot on the honor and tradition and prestige of the American people?”

  In an unusual attempt to win the sympathy of Europeans, another broadcast is transmitted in French. “As a consequence of the use of the new bomb against the town of Hiroshima on August Sixth, most of the town has been completely destroyed and there are numerous dead and wounded among the population.

  “The destructive power of these bombs is indescribable, and the cruel sight resulting from th
e attack is so impressive that one cannot distinguish between men and women killed by the fire. The corpses are too numerous to be counted.

  “The destructive power of this new bomb spreads over a large area. People who were outdoors at the time of the explosion were burned alive by high temperatures while those who were indoors were crushed by falling buildings.”

  CHAPTER 43

  SOVIET UNION

  August 8, 1945

  THE DICTATOR JOSEPH STALIN declares war on Japan and is set to invade Japanese-held territory in Manchuria. The plan for that sneak attack has been kept from Harry Truman and America, as Stalin has rightly assessed Japan’s weakness.

  The Soviet Union’s invasion of Manchuria is the last epic battle of the Second World War. The clash occurs on a scale comparable to the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944; 1.5 million Russian soldiers face off against 700,000 Japanese troops. The Soviets rout the Japanese within a matter of weeks, losing an estimated 12,000 men killed and 24,000 men wounded. Japanese casualties are 22,000 killed and another 20,000 wounded, but just as debilitating is a historical rarity: mass desertion in the ranks. As in so many Russian conquests throughout Europe, rape and looting in Manchuria quickly follow. The joy many Chinese felt upon being liberated from their Japanese captors is soon replaced by fear and loathing for the Soviets.

  CHAPTER 44

  MANILA, PHILIPPINES

  August 9, 1945

  IN HIS MANILA OFFICE, General Douglas MacArthur greets the news of the Manchurian invasion with great joy: “I am delighted at the Russian declaration of war against Japan. This will make possible a great pincer movement which cannot fail to end in the destruction of the enemy. In Europe, Russia was on the eastern front, with the Allies on the west. Now the Allies are on the east and the Russians on the west. But the result will be the same.”

  Like many other top American military leaders, MacArthur still sees Joseph Stalin as an ally, not an enemy. He has previously told other officers that “we must not invade Japan proper unless the Russian army is previously committed to action in Manchuria,” believing that such an invasion would pin down Japanese divisions that might otherwise be shifted to fight against American forces. The general also thinks that Soviet occupation of large segments of China and Korea is “inevitable”—not realizing he will one day be called upon to fight the communist advance in those areas.

  It has now been three days since the atomic bomb was dropped. The Japanese have chosen not to surrender, and MacArthur is still hoping to lead the greatest amphibious invasion in the history of the world. To the general’s way of thinking, another A-bomb is not needed.

  America has him.

  CHAPTER 45

  IMPERIAL PALACE TOKYO, JAPAN

  August 9, 1945 • 10:30 A.M.

  EMPEROR HIROHITO IS MOROSE. He again walks through the elms and pine trees of his extensive garden, knowing the war is lost. He is brooding about the destruction of Hiroshima—he knows it has crushed the spirit of the Japanese people, and now there is even more horrible news: the Soviet Union has invaded Manchuria.

  Although he is protected in a bunker, he understands his people are not. The United States has been bombing Japan for months, destroying so many cities that they are running out of targets. Tokyo itself has been hit more than a dozen times. Just yesterday, the emperor once again heard air-raid sirens throughout his capital city as sixty-nine B-29s bombed a nearby aircraft factory. The Japanese people are weary of war, but they continue to endure it, hoping to save their god-king from shame.

  The invasion of Manchuria makes surrender inevitable. The Soviet Union and Japan signed a nonaggression pact four years ago, which Stalin has now violated. Hirohito knows the Russians to be an aggressive people. The Soviet entry into the Pacific war makes it possible that the Soviets may also attempt to invade mainland Japan. Hirohito’s nation has neither the men nor the arms to hold off a two-pronged American and Soviet invasion.

  Ignoring the heat, Hirohito continues to ponder the possibility of surrender. But this path is fraught with peril: the Japanese military might not cooperate. Some military and civilian leaders actually welcome the coming invasion for the chance to make a historic last stand against people they consider to be barbarians. If it comes to a final battle on Japanese soil, War Minister Korechika Anami believes, “we could at least for a time repulse the enemy, and might thereafter somehow find life out of death.”

  Even as the emperor absorbs the terrible news about the Soviet attack in Manchuria, the Supreme Council for the Direction of the War is meeting in the concrete bunker beneath the residence of Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki to discuss whether to accept the Potsdam Declaration and take the first steps toward surrender.

  Hirohito knows that surrender to the Americans will require the complete backing of his military. Despite Hirohito’s divine imperial reign, it is the military that truly holds power in Japan. It has been almost ten years, but Hirohito well remembers the terrible events of 1936, when an attempted military coup saw the assassination of several top government officials and the takeover of downtown Tokyo.

  A faction loyal to Hirohito was successful in crushing the revolt, but there is no certainty the results will be the same should such a coup attempt happen again.

  Despite the unprecedented carnage in Hiroshima, the god-man continues to dither.

  These scars were caused by the combination of burns from the heat of the bomb and poisoning from radioactive soot and dust that fell from the cloud. [National Archives]

  CHAPTER 46

  HIROSHIMA, JAPAN

  August 9, 1945

  WITHIN DAYS, THE EXODUS FROM HIROSHIMA is complete. More than 150,000 residents travel by military truck or train to temporary shelters. The island of Ninoshima, five miles offshore in Hiroshima Bay and untouched by the A-bomb blast, is a storehouse for medical supplies and becomes the region’s biggest relief center, providing comfort to more than ten thousand burn victims. The number of injured quickly overwhelms the available hospital beds, leading many of the burned and maimed to sleep in stables and other enclosures.

  Bacterial infection of wounds exposed to the extreme smoke and debris of the blast runs rampant. Teams of doctors perform surgery around the clock, seeing so many patients that there is no time to clean the operating theater between victims; the most common procedure is amputation.

  Compare this post-attack mosaic of Hiroshima with the pre-attack photograph here. [National Archives]

  Victims of the bombing wait in a makeshift hospital in a bank building that survived the blast. [National Archives]

  Yet the amputees are the lucky ones. At least they are alive and can begin planning for a new future; many victims of the blast who come to Ninoshima seeking medical help die within days from their infections and burns. At first, their corpses are stacked one on top of the other for burning. But soon the number of dead bodies is so great that mass cremation becomes impossible. Instead, the dead are carried to air-raid shelters and former quarantine centers. These impromptu burial sites will be excavated decades later, uncovering not just bone fragments and ashes but artifacts like rings and buckles that will help reveal the identities of the dead.

  A burn patient awaits treatment. [National Archives]

  CHAPTER 47

  NORTH FIELD TINIAN, MARIANA ISLANDS

  August 9, 1945 • 3:47 A.M.

  THE NEXT RUN does not begin well.

  The first issue is the weather. Monsoon conditions and a typhoon gathering strength around Iwo Jima mean the window for dropping the second A-bomb is closing fast. It is either go now or wait a week. The mission has been moved up.

  Complications begin late in the evening of August 8, when nuclear engineers assembling Fat Man’s firing unit almost detonate the device by inserting a cable into the assembly backward. The problem is fixed, but not before the two engineers spend several nervous minutes sweating fearfully as they switch and resolder the connectors, terrified all the while that Fat Man will blow
them up.

  The nose of Bockscar. The art was painted on after the bombing mission. [Getty Images]

  At midnight soldiers take Fat Man away and load it onto Bockscar. Before the crews board the planes, they receive last-minute changes to the plan. Because of the weather, they are to fly at higher than usual altitudes and rendezvous over Yakushima.

  A further complication arises during the preflight check, when it is discovered that the fuel in Bockscar’s reserve tank is not pumping. This could become a problem because flying at higher altitudes burns more fuel. But the mission has to proceed.

  And so Bockscar takes off at 3:47 A.M. on August 9, 1945. Like Enola Gay, it uses the entire length of Tinian’s runway before pilot Major Charles Sweeney coaxes it up into the thick tropical air.

  Diagram of Fat Man. [Los Alamos National Laboratory]

  Already exhausted and wanting to be sharp later in the flight, Major Sweeney immediately hands the controls off to his copilot, Lieutenant Charles Donald Albury, so he can catch a few hours’ sleep. The weather is volatile, a mixture of lightning, rain, and winds from the distant typhoon. Bockscar fights through the chop as it climbs to seventeen thousand feet.

  At 4:00 A.M., Frederick Ashworth, the mission’s chief weaponeer, replaces the bomb’s green safety plugs with red.