On august 6 and Army Air Force b29 dropped atomic bomb number two on hiroshima, japans seventh largest city. [explosion] a stunned universe swiftly learned that man had a new weapon of shocking destructiveness. A weapon bordering on the absolute. Died instantly. 70,000 persons were killed or listed as missing. 140,000 persons were injured. 43,000 were badly hurt. The city was unbelievably crushed. Of 90,000 buildings, over 60,000 were demolished. The remains were described as vapor and ashes. Man had torn from nature one of her innermost secrets. With his knowledge he had fashioned an instrument of annihilation. Menacing implications were frightening to everyday people. What did you think of that bomb we dropped on the japs . Terrible. All of those people killed. Relays later, another b29 dropped an improved bomb on the seaport of nagasaki. A highly congested city boasting the best natural harbor in western kyushu. [explosion] this bomb, exploding over the district, took the lives of 42,000 persons. 39 of all of the buildings in nagasaki before the calamity. The japanese described their mutilated city as a graveyard, with not a tombstone standing. These terrifying blows were struck in japan only after profound consideration of all of the human and military factors. Dropped tobombs were end the war quickly, and they numbers, ive seen above 80 . Its changed over the years because the narratives have been employed over the years have changed very much. Reallythe things that concerns me about this is, i dont question thathe intelliges prepared to bring on this showdown with the army over whether there should be any invasion. Only the japanese surrender at off before it reached the level of mr. Truman having another that is the only reason we bombed japan, because they were not europeans. In other words, there were people of caller, which is nonsense because we bombed dresden in germany. A purpose of demoralizing the german people, for them to surrender. It is unfortunate what happened with the dropping of the two bombs. It didthere are so many reasonsy truman had to do that. What was the alternative . I heard generals saying they were going to blockade japan until they gave up. What . Could you address those points that you havent yet . Host thank you, rick. Know, he famously said he didnt lose any sleep over the decision and various comments like that. If you go through everything he actually said, in his mind he in twohole area compartments. One was, that i make the best decision of what was presented to me . He always believed that if you understood all of the he made what secretary stimson called the least abhorrent choice. Message, which is really the first serious message about ending the war that has this language in it that says, the precondition they want is that the prerogatives of the morning. My father served in world war ii. I would like to ask professor frank if he reads japanese . I would like to ask him if he has read the overwhelming number waromments just after the by japanese generals and admirals that it was not the two nuclear attacks, but the entrance of the soviet union into the war. They had invaded manchuria and they were occupying the islands, which they still occupy to this day, and they were threatening do. Qaeda hokkia this subject because i am an australian. At the timel child of the second world war. Film crews documenting the aftermath of the bombings for scientific purposes. Here is a look. [video] tragedy days after the visited hiroshima. August 1945. The hot summer sun shone upon the city. An area alarm was on. Then it was lifted. For 2. 5 hours, the warning continue to prevail. 11 00, two super fortresses appeared over the city. Flying at high altitude. The first plane dropped three objects attached to parachutes. 11 02, a second plane dropped an object. Then came a blinding flash. Followed by an explosion and a blaze. The destruction was the greatest ever wroght the bomb missed the center of the city and detonated above a canyon to the north. View the general seen of devastation from the top of one of the hills. On the others of the hills, left of the harbor, lies the city. Of theills on both sides city where the brakes which intercepted the atomic blast and pretended and prevented the devastation from reaching the harbor and the heart of the city. Those ofings, save reinforced concrete, or demolished. The whole of this neighborhood, wench teeming with houses and once teeming with houses and factories, denuded of everything. How can people rationally make a decision about using a weapon like this if they are taking the chance to destroy the earth . Not to mention, Going Forward, they have given license to everybody else to use a weapon when they develop it, which they knew they would soon as they got it. It is astounding to me that they could do such a thing. Host after noah and his fabulous arik. He was not the only one. Oppenheimer briefed the interim committee of military and test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Second, i hated to see our country be the first to use such a weapon. Macarthur says, in an exchange with former president hoover who had written to truman urging him to change his surrender terms in may, mcarthur said if truman had followed your wise advice the japanese would have surrendered and happily and macarthur implies that would have been as early as may. The possibility if we had told the japanese theyd be able to keep the emperor which we let them doafterwards anyway. We could have saved more lives american life, chinese lives, vietnamese life, but instead, we drop a bomb on august 6th in order to prevent an invasion thats supposed to begin november 1st and an invasion in which many of the military leaders didnt want to see happen at all especially the naval leaders. So the logic behind this escapes me. And peter, did stalin know, do you think according to that last scholars question . Yes. There were two or more prominent people who were giving intelligence to the soviets. Klaus fuchs. Stalin knew the americans were developing a bomb. He didnt he knew it was going to be tested. He didnt know the results until truman finally told him at pottsdam that the United States had the new weapon. Stalin was poker faced and truman thought he didnt understand. Stalin knew exactly what that meant. Marvin calling from tuscaloosa, alabama, welcome to the program, marvin. Thank you. I think youve played fast and loose to the facts and i dont think youve given credit to what americans put into this. It was germany, japan and italy, and hitler, and tojo and mussolini who started the war. I think you omitted the atrocities committed by the japanese. You mentioned that, but we dont hear a lot about that. Those atrocities were proven at the tokyo war trials. For example, you mentioned the tan death march, the rape of nan king, the killing all those slaughter and torture of american pows. One in three died in prison. The Burma Death Railway that was built. I think you played fast and loose with the facts because truman had the facts and he made a reasonable decision. Im not going to go into all that kind of detail, but i think we owe it to americans on this 75th anniversary at the end of world war ii to just say to the americans and the families that died including my two uncles and my father in law that honor and glory to all of those people, all of the families and all the americans died in world war ii and i feel like you arent fair and arent putting this in context, and i definitely disagree with your statement that we had atrocities just like the japanese. Thats rewriting history and thats wrong, sir. Marvin, lets get a respond from peter kusnick. Marvin, you werent listening very closely. First of all, i think that world war ii was a necessary war. I think the United States was on the side of the angels in world war ii. Im happy we won world war ii. That is not a question for debate. The debate is and i certainly dont play japanese atrocities or german atrocities, but the issue is something very, very different and it is for that reason that the entire history of the cold war and the nuclear arms raes is not something we can ignore. Dropping the bomb was instrumental in starting that cold war and the thing about it, there are so many people we should be quoting. Admiral leahy, for example, said i was unable to see any justification from a National Defense point of view for an invasion of an already thoroughly defeated japan. So if youre saying that we should have dropped the bomb to get revenge on the japanese, thats a different question and thats one that truman in his initial statement said were paying him back for pearl harbor and for his atrocities, but that is not the argument thats made by the historian. The argument is whether or not the bomb was necessary to end the war and ill quote Brigadier General carl clark, and he said we brought them down to an abject surrender through an accelerated sinking of their merchant marine and hunger alone and when we knew we didnt need to do it, and they knew we knew we didnt need to do it for two atomic bombs. The United States is not fighting a good war and we had to win. General groves in charge of the Manhattan Project said there was never two weeks from the time i took charge of this project any illusion on my part that russia was our enemy and the project was conducted on that basis. General groves told joseph rock brat, the future peace prize winner, and you realize, of course, that the main purpose of this project is to do with the russians. James burns, trumans top adviser said the same thing to walter barbie when they met with him in spartanburg, south carolina, on may 28th. This is the way to make the russians more manageable in europe. Now, if you think that that is a justifiable reason for killing hundreds of thousands of people and theres almost no limit to what you can justify now, then you can justify using atomic bombs today, if theres going to give us some way if you will achieve some moral purpose. Fortunately, thats not the attitude that the world has adopted, but under the current u. S. Nuclear posture of the Trump Administration from february 2018, weve lowered the threshold for use of Nuclear Weapons and were developing two more usable, smaller weapons and the world is in a very, very e precarious situation. As we wrap up what your view of the legacy of hiroshima and nagasaki . Exceptionalism. The United States we like to think of ourselves as americans as different from all other countries as more moral, more just. We go out in the world and we do things and we want to spread freedom and democracy. At the heart of that understanding is this it begins with the cold war and world war ii and it is as close as weve come to the cold war, but theres no such thing as a good war, really and the use of the bomb certainly compromises our moral position around the world and we have to look honestly at our past because if we dont study the past honestly well commit the same mistakes or new mistakes Going Forward in the future and the world is just too dangerous for us to have that luxury. Peter kosnick is director of the Nuclear Studies institute at the american university. Thanks a lot for your time and insight this morning. Much appreciate it. Thank you. Youre watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan3 explore our nations past. Cspan3, created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Next on the presidency we hear from Michael Neiberg at the u. S. Army war college about the personalities and stakes involved in the 1945 potsdam conference convened at the end of world war i. President truman had just assumed office after the death of Franklin D Roosevelt and the soviet unions joseph stalin. It was during this meeting that mr. Truman informed the soviet counterpart about the new u. S. Super weapon. It would soon be unleashed on the japanese cities of hiroshima and nagasaki. The Truman Library institute provided this video. We are at the 75th anniversary of the potsdam on