Author: Greg Mitchell

Reprinted with permission from Greg Mitchell’s newsletter Oppenheimer: From Hiroshima to Hollywood.

Seventy-eight years ago this week, President Harry S Truman exulted when he heard the first report that the atomic bomb he had ordered dropped over Hiroshima by a B-29 bomber had exploded as planned and on target, most likely devastating most of this large city. Truman was on the ocean, returning to Washington from the Potsdam Conference in Germany, where he had secured Joseph Stalin’s promise to declare war on Japan around August 10. An article in the press the day after the first atomic attack depicted Truman, his voice “tense with excitement,” personally informing his shipmates about the atomic attack. “The experiment,” he announced, “has been an overwhelming success.”

Missing from this account was Truman’s burst of triumphalism when the news of the bombing first reached the ship: “This is the greatest thing in history!”

Continue reading “Did Truman Ever Express Regrets for Atomic Bombings?”

Reprinted with permission from Greg Mitchell’s newsletter Oppenheimer: From Hiroshima to Hollywood.

On this date in 1945, the day after the the Nagasaki bomb:

MEMORANDUM TO: Chief of Staff.

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.
L. R. Groves,
Major General, USA

Continue reading “The Japanese Man Who Was A-Bombed Twice”

Reprinted with permission from Greg Mitchell’s newsletter Oppenheimer: From Hiroshima to Hollywood.

It’s Nagasaki Day and naturally I’ve written a major piece about this war crime – and Oppenheimer barely mentioning it – just up this morning at Mother Jones, my third piece for them in past three weeks (see here and here). Go over there and read the entire story but I’ll excerpt a bit from it below on the man who took charge of that tragedy, Gen. Leslie Groves. Reminder: Groves preferred to be called “Dick.”

In truth, the man behind the Nagasaki bomb was not Truman, but Gen. Leslie R. Groves, director of the Manhattan Project.  Earlier he had fiercely promoted using the first bomb and stifled attempts by scientists (not including Oppenheimer) to convince Truman otherwise.   Truman had never explicitly endorsed the notion of a necessary “one-two punch.”  It was Groves who was the true believer and catalyst.  As soon as Hiroshima was bombed he pushed for the second mission as soon as possible,  just as authority for the next attack had devolved to him from Truman (who was on a ship in the Atlantic returning from Potsdam).  Groves himself would later boast, “I didn’t have to have the president press the button on this affair.”

The second bomb run was originally set for around August 11 and, if adhered to, this would have come a full day after Japan’s initial surrender offer.  But bad weather was forecast, so Groves pushed the mission up two days, even knowing the conditions might not be any better and that he would have to rush preparations on the island of Tinian in the Pacific.    Another problem:  pilots had been ordered to only release the weapon when the target was found visually – not just by radar.

Continue reading “Nagasaki: Forgotten Bomb, Forgotten City”

Reprinted with permission from Greg Mitchell’s newsletter Oppenheimer: From Hiroshima to Hollywood.

Before “Barbieheimer” there was… “Bartenheimer.”

With the need to focus on run-up to August 6 and aftermath of Hiroshima bombing, I’ve had less on the Oppenheimer film lately, though frankly there might not be much more to report or observe. I’ve covered a lot of ground in the past 24 days, since this has been a daily endeavor. But a few notes:

– The movie has now topped Saving Private Ryan as most boffo at box office among all “World War II” films, as they classify it. And now it’s been extended at IMAX theaters….As for DVDs and streaming later: Cillian Murphy says the movie has no “deleted scenes”….A paperback version of Nolan’s screenplay sold out quickly (I know, I tried to order) and is now is on back order. And there is no ebook version right now…

Continue reading “How the Media Responded to Hiroshima Bomb”

Reprinted with permission from Greg Mitchell’s newsletter Oppenheimer: From Hiroshima to Hollywood.

Yoshito Matsushige, a photographer for the Chugoku Shimbun newspaper in Hiroshima, took the only pictures in that city on August 6, 1945, that have surfaced since, and been confirmed.

On that day, Matsushige wandered around Hiroshima for ten hours, carrying one of the few cameras that survived the atomic bombing and two rolls of film with twenty-four possible exposures. This was no ordinary photo opportunity. He lined up one gripping shot after another but he could only push the shutter seven times. When he was done he returned to his home and developed the pictures in the most primitive way, since every dark room in the city, including his own, had been destroyed. Under a star-filled sky, with the landscape around him littered with collapsed homes and the center of Hiroshima still smoldering in the distance, he washed his film in a radiated creek and hung it out to dry on the burned branch of a tree.

Continue reading “He Took the Only Photos in Hiroshima on the Day of Bombing (And Then They Were Suppressed)”

Reprinted with permission from Greg Mitchell’s newsletter Oppenheimer: From Hiroshima to Hollywood.

My photo, above, on another August 6, out on a branch of the Ota River, where thousands died, seeking relief.

In the movie Oppenheimer the scientists at Los Alamos, as I observed yesterday, learn that their new weapon had exploded over a Japanese city when it is broadcast over a public address system.  Almost at the same time, the physicist who directed the bomb project there receives a phone call from Gen. Leslie R. Groves, informing him that the first bomb had gone off with quite a “bang.”  These messages arrive suddenly, out of thin air, on August 6, 1945, and appear rather informal.

On the other hand, the official announcement for press and public had been carefully prepared and revised continually for several weeks.

Continue reading “78 Years Ago: Truman’s Announcement Set the ‘Hiroshima Narrative’ That Endures Today”