Transcript: The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb

NARRATOR: American planes dropped 2,000 tons of napalm on Tokyo, burning 16 square miles of the city to the ground. In a single day, 100,000 Japanese were killed.

BARTON BERNSTEIN: What has changed in the war is a redefinition of what is a target. A legitimate target is not simply a city but people in the city who are primarily noncombatants in what is a redefined, virtually total war.So that everybody becomes a target.

NARRATOR: The bombing destroyed nearly all of Japan's biggest cities and killed more than a half a million civilians. Still, the Japanese fought on. But America had been developing a weapon that might force the Japanese to surrender. Just 13 days in office,Truman was handed a memorandum by Secretary of War Stimson. "Within four months," Truman read, "we shall in all probability have completed the most terrible weapon ever known in human history." Stimson went on to tell Truman about the secret site in New Mexico where scientists had been working round the clock for the past two-and-a-half years to fashion a weapon out of the elemental forces of the universe. Truman did not know that some of the scientists who had helped create the bomb were actively attempting to limit its use. They advocated a demonstration bomb that would convince the Japanese to surrender. Their petitions never reached the president, but it is unlikely they could have changed his mind.

GEORGE ELSEY: All his advisors, without exception, recommended the use of the bomb just as soon as it was available. And he agreed with them. If the weapon could stop the killing, then, it was felt, it had to be used. Was it right? Was it wrong?I don't think that was the issue. I think they saw it as necessary.

ROBERT LIFTON: He's aware that it will be much more than a military target; it will kill large numbers of ordinary civilians. But you must remember, he, like all other Americans, saw this as a war against evil. And there was a lot of evil out there, real evil, on the part of the Nazis and Japanese militarism and fascism. In that sense, he can believe that the bomb is justified and that this greatest weapon ever developed has a place in overcoming or combating evil.

NARRATOR: August 6. The Enola Gay, carrying a four-ton atomic bomb, was heading out over the Pacific Ocean toward Japan. 8:15 A.M. The atomic bomb dropped clear of theEnola Gay. 43 seconds later, it exploded over Hiroshima. The atomic bomb had killed more than 80,000 men, women and children. Tens of thousands more would die from radiation sickness in the days and years to come. Three days after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, but still, there was no word of surrender. August 9, 11:00 A.M. A second atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese seaport of Nagasaki. In 1/10 of one-millionth of a second, the city was destroyed. Another 40,000 people were killed. August 14. The simple reason Truman always gave for using the atomic bomb was to end the war and save lives. Now, after nearly four years, Japan surrendered. The war was over. "I made the only decision I ever knew how to make," Truman wrote. "I did what I thought was right."