American Prometheus (122 page)

298
“I thought even leaflet”
and subsequent quotes:
Palevsky,
Atomic Fragments,
pp. 84, 252; Norris,
Racing for the Bomb,
pp. 382–83.

299
“I set forth”:
Alice Smith,
A Peril and a Hope,
p. 50; Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 143.

299
“There was not sufficient:”
Gar Alperovitz,
The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,
p. 189.

300
“We didn’t know beans”:
JRO hearing, p. 34.

300
“unconditional surrender”:
After meeting with President Truman, Grew recorded in his diary on 5/28/45: “The greatest obstacle to unconditional surrender by the Japanese is their belief that this would entail the destruction or permanent removal of the Emperor.” Joseph C. Grew, Turbulent Era, vol. 2, 1952, pp. 1428–34; Sherwin, A
World Destroyed,
p. 225; Alperovitz,
The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,
pp. 48, 66, 479, 537, 712, 753.

300
“They wanted to keep”:
Allen Dulles, foreword to Per Jacobsson’s pamphlet “The Per Jacobsson Mediation,” Balse Centre for Economic and Financial Research, ser. C, no. 4, circa 1967, on file in Allen Dulles Papers, box 22, John J. McCloy 1945 folder, Princeton University.

300
“It is my opinion”:
William D. Leahy diary, 6/18/45, William D. Leahy Papers, LOC, reprinted in Bird and Lifschultz, eds.,
Hiroshima’s Shadow,
p. 515.

300
“question of whether”:
Walter Mills, ed.,
The Forrestal Diaries,
p. 70; “Extracts from Minutes of Meeting Held at the White House 18 June 1945,” in Sherwin,
A World
Destroyed, pp. 355–63 (Appendix W).

301 According to McCloy: James V. Forrestal diary, 3/8/47, President’s Secretary’s files, HSTL, reprinted in Bird and Lifschultz, eds.,
Hiroshima’s Shadow,
p. 537.

301
“The delivery of a warning”:
John J. McCloy diary, 7/16–17/45, DY box 1, folder 18, John J. McCloy Papers, Amherst College.

301
“the Japanese were ready”:
“Ike on Ike,”
Newsweek,
11/11/63, p. 107. Some historians question Eisenhower’s account. See Robert S. Norris, Racing for the Bomb, pp. 531–32; Barton J. Bernstein, “Understanding the Atomic Bomb and the Japanese Surrender: Missed Opportunities, Little-Known Near Disasters, and Modern Memory,”
Diplomatic History
19, no. 2 (1995).

301 “telegram from Jap Emperor”: Harry S. Truman, Off the Record, ed. Robert H. Ferrell, p. 53; Sherwin,
A World Destroyed,
p. 235.

301
“it was ever present”:
James F. Byrnes, interview by Fred Freed for NBC television, circa 1964, transcript found in Herbert Feis Papers, box 79, LOC. At Potsdam on 7/29/45, Ambassador Joseph E. Davies noted in his diary, “Byrnes was disgusted with Molotov’s stubbornness, and said ‘The New Mexico situation’ (Atomic Bomb) had given us great power, and that in the last analysis, it would control” (Joseph E. Davies diary, 7/29/45, Chron file, box 19, Davies Papers, LOC).

301 “Believe Japs will fold”: Truman, Off the Record, ed. Ferrell, pp. 53–54.

301
“President, Leahy, JFB [Byrnes] agreed Japs”:
Walter Brown diary, 8/3/45, Special Collections, Robert Muldrow Cooper Library, CU, reprinted in Bird and Lifschultz, eds.,
Hiroshima’s Shadow,
p. 546.

301
Isolated in Los Alamos:
For further evidence on the debate over the bomb in Washington in the summer of 1945, see the documents reprinted in Bird and Lifschultz, eds.,
Hiroshima’s Shadow,
pp. 501–50. For a different perspective on the question of whether the Japanese were attempting to surrender see Richard Frank,
Downfall: The
End of the Imperial Japanese Empire
(Random House, 1999); Herbert Bix,
Hirohito
and the Making of Modern Japan
(Harper Collins, 2000); and Barton J. Bernstein, “The Alarming Japanese Buildup on Southern Kyushu,”
Pacific Historical Review,
November 1999.

302
“the United States shall”:
Bird and Lifschultz, eds.,
Hiroshima’s Shadow,
pp. 553–54, 558.

302
Teller claims in his memoirs:
Teller to Szilard, 7/2/45, Teller folder, box 71, JRO Papers; Teller,
Memoirs,
pp. 205–7.

303
He was convinced:
Alice Smith,
A Peril and a Hope,
pp. 53, 63.

303
“since an opportunity”
and subsequent quotes:
Szilard to JRO, 5/16/45 and 7/10/45; Edward Creutz to Szilard, 7/13/45, Szilard folder, box 70, JRO Papers.

303
“The enclosed note”:
Szilard Papers 21/235; NND-730039, NA 201 E Creutz; Groves diary, 7/17/45, NA, courtesy of William Lanouette. Both Szilard and Lapp confirmed in interviews that Oppenheimer decided that the petition “could not be circulated” (Alice Smith,
A Peril and a Hope,
p. 55).

303
“There was tension”:
Church,
The House at Otowi Bridge,
p. 129.

303
“incompleteness of our knowledge”:
Norris,
Racing for the Bomb,
p. 395.

303
“the planning of the use”:
Jones,
Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb,
p. 511.

304
Here the army staked:
Peer de Silva, unpublished manuscript, p. 12; Rhodes,
The
Making of the Atomic Bomb,
p. 652.

304
“Batter my heart”:
JRO to Groves, 10/20/62, box 36, JRO Papers; Hijiya, “The Gita of J. Robert Oppenheimer,”
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society,
vol. 144, no. 2, June 2000, pp. 161–64; Szasz,
The Day the Sun Rose Twice,
p. 41; Norris,
Racing for the Bomb,
p. 397.

304
“I believe we were under”:
JRO hearing, p. 31.

304
By the end of June:
Norris,
Racing for the Bomb,
pp. 399–400; Morrison, “Blackett’s Analysis of the Issues,”
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
February 1949, p. 40.

305
To Robert’s delight:
The Day After Trinity,
Jon Else, transcript, p. 7.

305
The FBI and army:
In June 1944, while Frank was stationed at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, uranium separation plant, Jackie had written him soon after the Allied landings in France, “Well, well, the D-Day has come. I think that is wonderful. . . . But as you have predicted, and as I more or less [illegible], the battle against Russia (propaganda) has already started. . . . it’s insidious.” To Jackie this was “pure, unadulterated American Fascism.” (Jackie Oppenheimer to Frank Oppenheimer, undated, circa June 1944, folder 4–13, box 4, Frank Oppenheimer Papers, UCB.)

305
“We spent several days”:
Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Weiner, 2/9/73, p. 56.

305
“You can change the sheets”:
Goodchild,
J. Robert Oppenheimer,
p. 151.

305
“Oppenheimer became so emotional”:
George Kistiakowsky, “Trinity: A Reminiscence,”
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
June 1980, p. 21.

305 “In battle, in forest”: Vannevar Bush, Pieces of the Action, p. 148.

306
“The weather is whimsical”:
Lansing Lamont,
Day of Trinity,
p. 184.

306
“Funny how the mountains”:
Ibid., p. 193.

306
To relieve the tension:
The Day After Trinity,
Jon Else, transcript, p. 12.

306
“All the frogs”:
Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Weiner, 2/9/73, p. 57.

306
“There could be”:
Lamont,
Day of Trinity,
p. 210;
The Day After Trinity,
Jon Else, transcript, p. 12.

307
“obviously confused”:
Szasz,
The Day the Sun Rose Twice,
p. 73.

307
Worried that some:
Norris,
Racing for the Bomb,
pp. 403–4; Lamont,
Day of Trinity,
p. 210.

307
“If we postpone”:
Lamont,
Day of Trinity,
pp. 212, 220.

307
“a big ball of orange”:
Feynman, “
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!,
” p. 134.

307
“something had gone wrong”:
Hershberg,
James B. Conant,
p. 232.

308
“I could feel the heat”:
Serber,
Peace and War,
pp. 91–93.

308
“All of a sudden”:
Badash, et al.,
Reminiscences of Los Alamos,
pp. 76–77.

308
Frank Oppenheimer was:
The Day After Trinity,
Jon Else, transcript, p. 47.

308
“the light of the first”:
Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Weiner, 2/9/73, AIP, p. 56;
The Day After Trinity,
Jon Else, transcript, p. 14.

308
“Lord, these affairs”:
Lamont,
Day of Trinity,
p. 226.

308
“Dr. Oppenheimer . . . grew”:
General Thomas Farrell, “Memorandum for the Secretary of War,” 7/18/45, reprinted in Groves,
Now It Can Be Told,
pp. 436–37; NYT, 8/7/45, p. 5; Hijiya, “The Gita of J. Robert Oppenheimer,”
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society,
vol. 144, no. 2 (June 2000), p. 165.

308
“I think we just said”:
The Day After Trinity,
Jon Else, transcript, pp. 15–16.

308
“I’ll never forget”:
Davis,
Lawrence and Oppenheimer,
p. 242;
The Day After Trinity,
Jon Else, transcript, p. 50; Frank Oppenheimer, interview by Jon Else, 1980; Szasz,
The Day the Sun Rose Twice,
p. 89.

309 “Lots of boys”: William L. Laurence, NYT, 9/27/45, p. 7.

309
“We knew the world”:
The Day After Trinity,
Jon Else, transcript, pp. 79–80. Some Sanskrit scholars suggest that a better translation of this line would be “I am become Time, destroyer of worlds.”

309
“priestly exaggerations”:
Pais,
The Genius of Science,
p. 273.

309
“The big boom”:
Alice Smith,
A Peril and a Hope,
p. 76; NYT, 9/26/45, pp. 1, 16.

309
Oppie pulled out:
Lamont,
Day of Trinity,
p. 237; Kistiakowsky, “Trinity: A Reminiscence,”
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
June 1980, p. 21.