Public Papers of the Presidents (Harry S. Truman, 1946, p. 197-200)
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT ANNOUNCING THE USE OF THE A-BOMB AT HIROSHIMA
Sixteen Hours Ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an
important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons
of T.N.T. It had more than two thousand times the blast power of the
British "Grand Slam" which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the
history of warfare.
The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been
repaid many fold. And the end is not yet. With this bomb we have now
added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction to supplement the
growing power of our armed forces. In their present form these bombs
are now in production and even more powerful forms are in development.
It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the
universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed
against those who brought war to the Far East.
Before 1939, it was the accepted belief of scientists that it was
theoretically possible to release atomic energy. But no one knew any
practical method of doing it. By 1942, however, we knew that the
Germans were working feverishly to find a way to add atomic energy to
the other engines of war with which they hoped to enslave the world.
But they failed. We may be grateful to Providence that the Germans got
the V-1's and V-2's late and in limited quantities and even more
grateful that they did not get the atomic bomb at all.
The battle of the laboratories held fateful risks for us as well as the
battles of the air, land and sea, and we have now won the battle of the
laboratories as we have won the other battles.
Beginning in 1940, before Pearl Harbor, scientific knowledge useful in
war was pooled between the United States and Great Britain, and many
priceless helps to our victories have come from that arrangement. Under
that general policy the research on the atomic bomb was begun. With
American and British scientists working together we entered the race of
discovery against the Germans.
The United States had available the large number of scientists of
distinction in the many needed areas of knowledge. It had the
tremendous industrial and financial resources necessary for the project
and they could be devoted to it without undue impairment of other vital
war work. In the United States the laboratory work and the production
plants, on which a substantial start had already been made, would be out
of reach of enemy bombing, while at that time Britain was exposed to
constant air attack and was still threatened with the possibility of
invasion. For these reasons Prime Minister Churchill and President
Roosevelt agreed that it was wise to carry on the project here. We now
have two great plants and many lesser works devoted to the production at
atomic power. Employment during peak construction numbered 125,000 and
65,000 individuals are even now engaged in operating the plants. May
have worked there for two and a half years. Few know what they have
been producing. They see great quantities of material going in and they
see nothing coming out of these plants, for the physical size of the
explosive charge is exceedingly small. We have spent two billion
dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history -- and won.
But the greatest marvel is not the size of the enterprise, its secrecy,
nor its cost, but the achievement of scientific brains in putting
together infinitely complex pieces of knowledge held by many men in
different fields of science into a workable plan. And hardly less
marvelous has been the capacity of industry to design, and of labor to
operate, the machines and methods to do things never done before so that
the brain child of many minds came forth in physical shape and performed
as it was supposed to do. Both science and industry worked under the
direction of the United States Army, which achieved a unique success in
managing so diverse a problem in the advancement of knowledge in an
amazingly short time. It is doubtful if such another combination could
be got together in the world. What has been done is the greatest
achievement of organized science in history. It was done under high
pressure and without failure.
We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every
productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city. We
shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications.
Let there be no mistake; we shall completely destroy Japan's power to
make war.
It was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction that the
ultimatum of July 26 was issued at Potsdam. Their leaders promptly
rejected that ultimatum. If they do not now accept our terms they may
expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been
seen on this earth. Behind this air attack will follow sea and land
forces in such numbers and power as they have not yet seen and with the
fighting skill of which they are already well aware.
The Secretary of War, who has kept in personal touch with all phases of
the project, will immediately make public a statement giving further
details.
His statement will give facts concerning the sites at Oak Ridge near
Knoxville, Tennessee, and at Richland near Pasco, Washington, and an
installation near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Although the workers at the
sites have been making materials to be used in producing the greatest
destructive force in history they have not themselves been in danger
beyond that of many other occupations, for the utmost care has been
taken of their safety.
The fact that we can release atomic energy ushers in a new era in man's
understanding of nature's forces. Atomic energy may in the future
supplement the power that now comes from coal, oil, and falling water,
but at present it cannot be produced on a basis to compete with them
commercially. Before that comes there must be a long period of
intensive research.
It has never been the habit of the scientists of this country or the
policy of this Government to withhold from the world scientific
knowledge. Normally, therefore, everything about the work with atomic
energy would be made public.
But under present circumstances it is not intended to divulge the
technical processes of production or all the military applications,
pending further examination of possible methods of protecting us and the
rest of the world from the danger of sudden destruction.
I shall recommend that the Congress of the United States consider
promptly the establishment of an appropriate commission to control the
production and use of atomic power within the United States. I shall
give further consideration and make further recommendations to the
Congress as to how atomic power can become a powerful and forceful
influence towards the maintenance of world peace.