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Resistance would be fanatical. It would be necessary to leave the Japanese Islands "even more thoroughly destroyed" than Germany. Continued B-29 fire raids would wreak more damage than any atomic raids. But "the atomic bomb was more than a weapon of terrible destruction; it was a psychological weapon."
The Ultimate Responsibility. It was Harry Truman who had to make the final, terrible decision.* But "the ultimate responsibility for the recommendation to the President rested upon me, and I have no desire to veil it."
The New Mexico test occurred as the Big Three conferred at Potsdam. An ultimatum, which did not, however, hint at the bomb, was delivered. Japan's premier, Suzuki, replied haughtily that it was "unworthy of public notice."
A list of targets was presented to Stimson for his approval. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were doomed.
The Face of Death. Henry Stimson did not see how any man could have done otherwise "and afterwards looked his countrymen in the face." Did his apologia have "a harsh and unfeeling sound?" He reflected: "As I look back over the five years of my service as Secretary of War I see too many stern and heart-rending decisions to be willing to pretend that war is anything else than what it is. The face of war is the face of death. . . . This deliberate premeditated destruction was our least abhorrent choice."
* A fact which the President emphasized this week when he rebuked Dr. Karl Compton for failing to point that out in a recent Atlantic Monthly article.