Did the United States have a third atomic bomb to drop on Japan?
Upvote:7
A third bomb was in production, though it wouldn't have been ready until after the 15th. Truman specifically rescinded authorization for atomic bomb release prior to the 15th, though.
On August 10, 1945, one day after the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, General Groves, the director of the Manhattan project, sent a memo to Truman's chief of staff stating that they were ahead of schedule for the third bomb (another fat man), and it would be ready to drop as early as August 17th. Truman responded, via his chief of staff, that a third, or any further bomb, should not be dropped without his (the president's) express authorization. The text is as follows
The next bomb of the implosion type had been scheduled to be ready for delivery on the target on the first good weather after 24 August 1945. We have gained 4 days in manufacture and expect to ship from New Mexico on 12 or 13 August the final components. Providing there are no unforeseen difficulties in manufacture, in transportation to the theatre or after arrival in the theatre, the bomb should be ready for delivery on the first suitable weather after 17 or 18 August.
The hand written response was:
It is not to be released on Japan without express authority from the president
Upvote:29
Ray Monk in Inside the Center: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer tells the story thus:
Truman returned to Washington from Potsdam on the evening of 7 August and was immediately caught up in a whirlwind of activity generated by Groves, who was determined to proceed as quickly as possible with a second bombing of Japan. He and Admiral William Purnell, Groves writes in his autobiography, 'had often discussed the importance of having the second bomb follow the first one quickly', so that the Japanese would not have time to recover their balance'. This second bomb would have to be of the Fat Man type, there being no chance of assembling another uranium bomb at this stage (in fact, the Little Boy remained one of its kind; the Fat Man design, despite its complicated assembly, being easier to manufacture, safer to transport and more powerful). After the success of the Trinity test, the only thing standing in the way of using a Fat Man bomb in Japan was the availability of plutonium. Groves had originally been advised that a plutonium bomb could be ready to use on August 20. At the end of July, this was revised to 11 August. Groves, however, was too impatient to wait that long and, somewhat against the advice he was given by the scientists, saw to it that the bomb was assembled, loaded and ready to use by the evening of 8 August [...]
Immediately after the Nagasaki bombing the Allies did not possess any more atomic bombs. It is true, as Groves puts it, 'our entire organization both at Los Alamos and at Tinian was maintained in a state of complete readiness to prepare additional bombs', but, as he himself reported to General Marshall, the earliest data at which the next bomb could be assembled for use was 17 August, and almost everybody expected the war to be over by then.
BTW, there are also interesting original documents available from the Truman Library. And if you want my personal opinion: two such bombs were more than enough.
More post
- 📝 Why did people stop building square-rigged ships?
- 📝 Was there a case where a king died while the heir to the throne was unborn?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union's economy grow fast in the 1950's-1960's?
- 📝 How is Gaddafi viewed outside the West?
- 📝 What was Lester B. Pearson's motivation for instituting Canada's 40 hr. work week?
- 📝 What biographical information do we know about author Frank Rudolph Young?
- 📝 Did a sumo referee ever actually commit ritual suicide over a reversed decision?
- 📝 WWII: Did the entire war depend on breaking the ENIGMA cipher?
- 📝 Why did Stalin keep the famine of 1932 a secret?
- 📝 Who were the members of Hartnell's _Compañía Extranjera_?
- 📝 What / When was the first use of concentration camps in history?
- 📝 What is the oldest verifiably correctly translated written work?
- 📝 What did the ancient Egyptians think of Khufu?
- 📝 What did ancient countries call themselves?
- 📝 Historiography and the uses of history in the Second French Empire?
- 📝 Why was the Håndfæstning forced on Erik V of Denmark?
- 📝 Looking for source for Jefferson Davis with Bat Wings
- 📝 Why was Independence Day in America established on July 4?
- 📝 Which is more correct, Carlos I or Carlos V?
- 📝 Looking for a symbol for Southern USA communism
- 📝 Muslim population in Islamic Iberia
- 📝 Legendary visits by Alexander the Great
- 📝 Did the 1962 comedy album about JFK impact the presidency or US prestige abroad?
- 📝 Was there any mention in historical articles regarding Joan of Arc's physical appearance?
- 📝 Why was the Tea Horse Route through Tibet less prevalent than the Silk Road route through Tarim Basin, for contact between China and India?
- 📝 Where would the first nuke have been dropped in Germany?
- 📝 What did executioners do when not performing executions?
- 📝 When was the earliest recorded battle with the usage of gunpowder as an offensive weapon?
- 📝 General Sherman's March to the Sea
- 📝 How was the term "Mandate of Heaven" used during the rise and fall of Chinese dynasties?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did the United States have a third atomic bomb to drop on Japan?
- 📝 Why did the United States drop a uranium bomb instead of a plutonium bomb on Hiroshima?
- 📝 When did the Soviets get the ability to drop a nuclear bomb on the United States?
- 📝 At what point did the United States have a truly federal army?
- 📝 Why did the United States under the Articles of Confederation have a hard time getting funding?
- 📝 What role did the United States government and major corporations have in controlling dissent and protest starting in the late 1940s?
- 📝 Did Japan perceive their hypergrowth as stable and unstoppable as the United States did?
- 📝 Did the third US atomic bomb disappear without a trace?
- 📝 Why didn’t Japan attack the West Coast of the United States during World War II?
- 📝 Why did the United States not resort to nuclear weapons in Vietnam?
- 📝 Did Heisenberg undermine the German atomic bomb by deliberately hiding his expertise from the Nazis?
- 📝 How did gold come to symbolize lower ranks than silver in the United States Air Force?
- 📝 Why did the Japanese expect the United States navy would attack the Home Islands?
- 📝 Did the Soviet Union or its satellite states have any broadcast propaganda media for an international audience?
- 📝 Why did the United States not invade North Vietnam?
- 📝 Aside from the Jews, did Hitler have a final solution plan for other ethnicities/races in the Third Reich?
- 📝 Why did the United States enter World War I?
- 📝 Why did the Germans fall behind the Americans in the development of the atomic bomb after an initial lead?
- 📝 How did the central government of the United States finance itself under the Articles of Confederation?
- 📝 Why have population maps indicated a stark divide in population density of the United States on either side ot the 100th Meridian?
- 📝 Why did the United States not seriously develop Anti Aircraft Missiles?
- 📝 How did the United States avoid (or recover from) post revolution corruption?
- 📝 Why did United States stop celebrating The Eighth(January 8) as a federal holiday?
- 📝 Did the 'founding fathers' of the United States see Oliver Cromwell as a role model?
- 📝 How did the United States treat POWs in Vietnam?
- 📝 Why did the southern states have to be readmitted?
- 📝 How did Southern slaveholders in the United States relate to the Caribbean and Latin America?
- 📝 Did the US really consider demonstrating the atomic bomb to the Japanese by "blowing the top" off of Mt. Fuji?
- 📝 How far did Malcolm X get with taking the United States to the United Nations?
- 📝 Did the United States ever impose any trade embargoes on the basis of health related concerns?