documents from july. you can see my timeline here, the first five documents we're going to show you, and then we'll have another five to finish off as we get into august of 1945 and even some from later that connect to this topic, the '60s. so the first information that truman has about the manhattan project comes in april just 12 days after he becomes president on april 12th. this very famous letter some of you are probably familiar with, when henry stimson, the secretary of war, writes to truman to tell him about this highly secret matter, as it mentions in that first paragraph. now stimson had mentioned this to truman after his inauguration april 12th after fdr's death, just in passing, tells him they need to talk about it in the future. just two weeks later, he sends this letter to truman, telling him they need to get together quickly so he can tell him in the project. you can see some interesting handwritten notes here. at the bottom what i like to point out in harry truman's own handwriting, matt, put on list tomorrow wednesday the take 25th, hst. that's matthew, the appointment secretary, he's telling mr. connolly to get henry stimson on his calendar for the next day. interestingly truman did come across the manhattan project when he was a senator in charge of the truman committee looking at overspending during world war ii. he didn't really get into much detail as he started to see the budget numbers built project. but stimson actually is the person that warned him off and said you can't investigate that anymore. let it go. now, of course, he's president, and stimson tells him more about the project. it's interesting, too, in those 80 days as vice president, truman did not know about the manhattan project. it takes him becoming president before he is told about the project. of course, at this point they have not done a successful test, but the work has been going on in two or three different locations actually, as they start to develop the atomic bomb that we all hear more about during the rest of this evening's presentation. this is the first document i wanted to share with you out of the ten artifacts i'm going to share tonight, because it provides the context of when truman first finds out about the manhattan project. those interesting anecdotes that he didn't know. while he was vice president, he had come closer to it. as a senator, about two weeks after he's president where stimson sits down and gives him the details. stims stimson, who worked in the fdr add manage, is really in charge of the whole organizations. he supervises. he's the conduit between the white house and what's going on in new mexico, so he's a key figure in all of this. the second document we're going to look at is from lieutenant groves. this is -- you can see the date at the top of the page. this is from july the 16th, 1945. this is after the first test in new mexico of the atomic bomb. this is a sketch included in a 14-payable report that groves sends to stimson, and, of course, that is relayed to truman. now, we're going to learn more about this in a second. but of course president truman at this time is at the potsdam conference in germany meeting with stalin and initially winston churchill, but church hill is replaced after the british election. now, this 14-page report is very detailed. it's not an official report, and it's actually quite casual in its writing as the excitement and the wonderment of the scientists and military involved in this first successful test really comes through in the report. this sketch is on the last page of that 14-page report. on the second page lieutenant groves actually refers to the mushrooming cloud, and that's the first time that the word mushroom cloud is really used in that context. they describe the explosion as being beautiful and all the different colors in the sky they see. looking at this particular document, some of the handwritten cursive might be tricky for some of us to read. if you go close in, underneath where it says cloud drawings, and it's a little faint, but it says first atomic bomb explosion, alamagordo, new mexico, sketches from b-29 flying at 30,000 feet about 15 miles away. in fact, the b-29s sent up there for observation couldn't get as close as they would like because of the weather. you can also see the time there. you can see 5:30, 5:38, 5:42 at the bottom of the second part of the sketch. you can see they have done this first thing in the morning. was the weather when they were going to do this test. the report itself goes into detail about level of destruction and the impact it had. truman uses those exact words from those reports in some other documents we're going to see a bit later on, namely his diary entries. it also talks about the colors, dark brown, light gray, so on. it says see through here in the hole in the middle of the cloud and also gives the elevation. so of course later on we're able to see photographs and other footage of this atomic cloud. this is what truman receives while he's in germany. it's relayed to him by stimson to the officials in germany at the potsdam conference. so truman himself is very excited about the successful test, and they could really start now to plan if and when to use this against the japanese, just in a few short weeks when we get into two weeks later, of course, it's the end of july and getting close to when it happens august 6th. i'll let you study that a little bit more. it's a fascinating document. i would encourage you to read all 14 pages of the report. it sounds a little cumbersome. it's tight, easy to read, and available on the truman library website. it's quite fascinating read. the payoff as you get this sketch on the last page. the next document i mentioned previously are truman's diaries. these are different dirie entries. i could have chosen three he writes in this time period. this is july 17th, 1945, so just a day after he gets that report. of course, this is handwritten, and it can be hard to read. those who work at the truman library have become familiar over time with truman's handwriting. this is when he's first meeting with joseph stalin, the particular diary entry. we have some july 18th, the next day, when he meets church hill. from july 25th when he goes into a lot more detail about the atomic bomb testing. he does mention it in this one page of his diary, and he's t k talking to stalin about different negotiations coming up in the agenda. this is very much at the beginning of the potsdam conference. they are talking about china, and they are talking about the soviets coming bought japanese war august 15th, which is one of truman's goals of potsdam to get the soviets to join. he has kind of a cryptic phrase in here. he asked him about the agenda and he told -- truman said, i told him -- this is about halfway down. i told him to fire away. he did, and it is dynamite. but then truman says, but i have some dynamite, too, which i'm not exploding now. so he kind of has a cryptic reference to dynamite and not exploding now. it's not too surprising he mentions this the day after finding out about the successful test. i'm just using one of the diary entries today. but in the following day on the 18th, he says that he believes the japanese will surrender when the russians come in because stalin does agree to enter the war. then he has this phrase in the 18th of july entry where he says, i'm sure they will when manhattan appears over their homeland. now, truman doesn't really refer to manhattan very often in his writings home to bess and other correspondents. but on his diary entry of july 18th, he talks about manhattan appearing over the japanese homeland. he also goes on to say i will inform stalin about it at an opportune time and, in fact, join the potsdam conference. in fact, he does tell stalin briefly, but not in detail, about the fact they have a new weapon they can use against the japanese. truman didn't think that stalin knew anything about that. but of course, as we know now in 2020, stalin did, in fact, have spies in new mexico that were passing the inform is a about the manhattan project back to him. a week later on october 25th, he goes into a lot more detail and talks about how the weapon is to be used against the japanese between now and august 10th so these diary entries are revealing as truman expounds on the information that he's been givenly lieutenant groves. now, we've got two contrasting documents here, two documents that -- one is a little misleading. we'll do that one second. i'm trying to keep them in chronological order. this is actually from the national archives, which the truman library is part of, rather than the collections of the truman library. this is the closest you would get to the ordering of the use of the atomic bomb. this is a memo from thomas handy, the acting chief of staff while marshall is at potsdam with truman. he's writing to general carl st. pat's, commander general of united strategic air force. you can see the debts on this one is the 25th of july. so things are moving quickly, as you can see. spaatz, and you can see the date on this one is the 25th of july so things are moving quickly, as you can see. you know, you can see this. it's not super sharp, but basically it has four points on the single-beige memo it talks about the composite group. it will deliver the first special bomb as soon as weather will permit. and so they refer to it as the special bomb without saying -- using the word "atomic." it talks about the various targets. the first one is hiroshima and the fourth one there listed is nagasaki. the second point says that the additional bombs would be delivered on the above targets as soon as they are made ready by project staff. we found out later in early part of august, only two bombs were ready, and they use both of them. the third bomb wasn't probably going to be ready until around the 16th or 17th of august. the third point there is that the dissemination of any information about this is reserved for the secretary of war and the president. so the military not going to make any comment about this and any news stories, any people asking for information, they need to refer back to the secretary of war and the president for them to respond to. then the last point is any -- this is done with the approval of the secretary of war, which i mentioned before, is stimson and the chief of staff. it also mentions a copy has been sent to general mcarthur and a copy has been sent to admiral nimitz. this is as close as you get to the actual orders for the dropping of the bomb on hiroshima. that's dated the 25th of july. it does say after about august 3rd on there. so it does give a date for that. at that point they are waiting for a response for potsdam declaration to the japanese. the other document that's often sometimes used incorrectly ought to talk about the authorization of the bomb is this memo and its response. this is from the secretary of war to truman, and it's a few days later. it's the 30th of july. this one is harder to read. some of these historic documents can be difficult to read. but if you close in on this one, this is from stimson to the president and he's talking about the ultimatum. that's the ultimatum made at on potsdam, and the dramatic results of the test, and the suggestions made by the british of which secretary of state burns is well aware. so he's giving recommendations of what to do, and i'm going to talk about the context of this in a minute. this is a two-pager. you can see in dark type there. truman writes on the back of this memo, secretary of war, reply -- this is the number of the memo -- 41011, suggestions approve, release when ready, but not sooner than august 2nd. truman liked to use his initials hst. some people over time thought when he says release when ready, he's talking about the atomic bomb. in fact, this is about the statement that's going to be released, like a press release, rather than a releasing of the bomb. that's why there's confusion. i did want to point out again. i meant to do that before. the number of the memo is 41 011 and that's what truman uses on the back. so this is an interesting document, in that the preparing of the statement, you better get this statement approved, because once the bomb is dropped, we're going to need a statement immediately. that's why there's a bit of a rush there. they've been going back and forth in terms of what to say to the world once this bomb is dropped. so they're trying to get the suggestions approved by both the british suggestions, and the suggestion from stimson himself, from truman, burns, and all of the others in the close circles of president truman at that time. so that's a fascinating one, but it shouldn't be used to mislead. it's more about statements rather than the bomb itself. now we're going to get closer and closer to that, august 6th. the last one we're going to look at from july is a letter home to bess. he actually writes a number of letters to bess. of course, he takes about two weeks to get to potsdam but "uss augusta" and goes across the atlantic rather than flying. many people argued he's done that to get ready, to prepare, read the materials. there's also a lot of strain and used some of that time to rest as well and play poker and other things in the evening. so he writes to bess from the "uss augusta." when he gets finally to germany, po' potsdam, he continues to write to her. during that time he says very little in his letters about the atomic bomb. obvious obviously there's concern about secrecy, letters being intercepted, things of that nature. on july 31st letter, he does make a cryptic reference to that. then we look at video footage of the news reel of the announcement and artifact of the safety plug and then finish with the video on screen gems, which i'll explain when we get to that footage. here is the letter to bess. this is just two pages of this. as i mentioned, it was written july 31st. of course, truman's writing is not the easiest to read, the cursive. this is all digitized and on our website. we have -- it goes up every time i say these numbers. we have more than 1,300 letters from harry truman to bess truman during their lifetime, 1910 to 1957, in most cases including the envelopes, which is amazing to have that in our collection. all of those letters harry has written to bess are digitized and available in the website in chronological order. can you go straight into july and look at those letters. this is the only one that really references the atomic bomb, and either rather cryptic when he does so. you look at the bottom of the first page on the left and the beginnings of the second page on the right, he finishes up this bottom of this first page where he says i rather thing that mr. stalin is stalling. he's not so happy about the english elections. just to remind you, churchill had lost the election in great britain, and he's replaced by atly. he goes on to say at the bottom of the page. he doesn't know it but i have an ace in the hole and another one showing. now, that ace in the hole, we're going to look at the transcript he here, the ace in the hole is cryptic. we believe he's talking about the atomic bomb. here we see a transcript. it's a little easier to read. he talks about secretary of state burns and the soviet foreign minister molotov and attlee. he doesn't know it but i have an ace in the hole and another one showing. truman loves his card games. unless he has threes, he's sitting all right. that's the one time he refers rather cryptically to the atomic bomb in his letters to his wife bess wallace truman. so i find that rather fascinating. sometimes in historical documents you learn from things not written there. the other seven or eight letters he writes, he makes no reference to the atomic bomb. the same with letters to his mother and sister at the time. either no references or rather cryptic. moving on, so we have a video clip for you now. this is truman announcing the surrender from the -- not the surrender, announcing the dropping of the atomic bomb from the "uss augusta." you can see the window in the background from the ship. a short time ago, an american airplane dropped one bomb on hiroshima and it's usefulness to the enemy. that bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of tnt. 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 the present form, these bombs are now in production and even more powerful forms are in development. it's 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. we are now prepared to destroy more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the japanese have 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 26th 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. >> i'm going to talk about this next artifact in a moment but i wanted to make a couple of comments about that news reel. firstly, i think the quality is remarkable. the definition of the video i think is spectacular. we feel fortunate it remains in that quality 75 years later. to the second part of that is very, very compelling. we are close -- you get the close-up video and truman looks at you with those eyes, and you know he means business. they wonder about that when he's at the negotiating table with stalin and church hill later, clement attlee when churchill is replaced. when he looks across the table, it seems like he would have that same serious stare when he made those tough decisions as president. it's a fascinating video. the fact you can see on the window on the "uss augusta" behind him, giving you a sense of time and place as he's getting ready to come home just as the bomb has been dropped on hiroshima. the fact that the one thing that comes across to me there is he really means business. this next piece is an artifact, a three-dimensional artifact from our museum collection. i'm going to do a close-up of the tag that's attached to this. let me talk about the object first and then the tag that's with it off to the side. i've got an upright view to look at that in a minute. first of all, this green, black, and silver plug is actually the safety plug taken out of the bomb fuse from the plutonium bomb dropped on nagasaki and the description on the tag tells us that, too. the green plug was removed and replaced with a red activating plug on the boxcar. the name of the b-29 th-- the p the boxkar. this was the safety plug, put in the activating plug which went with the bomb. easier to read 10th of august, i said this is one of the two green safety plugs used in nagasaki japan 9th of august, 1945. this was the second atomic bomb dropped on the empire. the writing of the two gentlemen underneath, the second one is probably a little easier to read. i did some research on this. the commander, whose name comes first, is frederick ashworth. he's one of the weaponiers. is assistant, lieutenant philip barnes. those are the two people to sign off on that to provide its authenticity. so a fascinating object. i'm going to go back so you can see that plug again. i should say this artifact and the tag will be on display in the renovated museum where we reopen the truman museum otruman library museum later this year after all, $30 million renovation. this safety plug will be in a special gallery dealing with the atomic bomb, and another artifact i'm going to show you a little bit later on will be in the same gallery. so a fascinating artifact. we're very fortunate to have it. the tag that goes with it just adds to the story. so that is really special. the fact that frederick ashworth and phillip barnes sign that giving it that authenticity is very much appreciated. so a really fascinating object. the next is its counterpart. this is from a little bit later, and we've had this on display before at the truman library. it's going to be displayed again in the same gallery space as the safety plug. they are going to juxtapose one another. this is the paper crane made by se dynamicu saz -- sazaki, a japanese girl who was a victim of the bombs when she was 2 years old. she did survive. the story is that during her early part of her life, in august 1955, she decided that she was going to start to make these paper cranes as a symbol of peace. that was her wish. there's different stories that go back and forth whether she accomplished that. the more recent research is she actually made more than 1,000 cranes before her death. there are children's stories about this crane, and this crane is rather small. we have it blown up on the powerpoint for you to see today, but it's very small. this is going to be displayed in the museum when we reopen along with approximately 5 to 600 paper cranes made by students in the kansas city area that have made paper cranes to go in the exhibit alongside this original paper crane, so we can help tell that story. the reason it's also really appropriate is this is part of the peace and reconciliation efforts made by truman's grandson, clifton truman daniel, in the last decade or more, where he has been to japan and reached out and it was largely through his efforts that we were able to get one of the last surviving cranes from sadako donated to the museum collection. all of those things have kind of come full circle with their connection between clifton truman daniel and the japanese, and, of course, the peace efforts after 1945 and the fact that the sadako family would allow that to be donated to the library is very special. i think when you see the renovated museum when we reopen later this year with both the safety plug and the sadako crane sharing the same space, it's really going to be a very meaningful approach and interpretation to that episode in history. moving on, we have one more video to show you. before i press play, it might want to do it itself. i'm trying to not let it do that. this is from when truman looks back in the 1960s when he's asked about the atomic bomb, he never really wavered much from his belief that it was the right thing to do. in 1964 and 1965, there was a television series looking at truman's decisions, and the truman library is very fortunate to have many of these outtakes now on the truman library youtube channel. this is one of those. it's quite short, where he talks about the decision to drop the atomic bomb. >> so when we issued the ultimatum to japan to surrender, the only answer we got was to go to the devil, yet all this time some of their people seem to be acting behind their backs, backs of the cabinet, trying to pursue peace in one under hand way or another. well, when -- applied that way, we knew there was only one of two things to do. we could advance on japan and fight every inch of the way, losing a million of our own men, or drop the atomic bomb. we dropped the bomb. still, there was no reaction. we learned later that the japanese cabinet met, and finally there were enough who agreed to surrender to split the cabinet in half. one half in favor of surrender, the other determined to fight on. in this spirit, the emperor was finally called on to give his opinion, an unprecedented move. he didn't want his people to die any more than he wanted to surrender. yet the military was so strong, they still wouldn't notify of their capitulation, so we had to drop a second bomb on nagasaki. that did it. the cabinet met again, really decided, but that wasn't the end. they notified us they would accept an unconditional surrender, but implied the conditions that the emperor might be retained in some way. the emperor made a recording of the pronouncement to the japanese people for the radio, the first time the japanese populace ever heard his voice. yet don't you think that one military didn't break into the the offices and try to record not -- or -- try to head off that record so it couldn't be broadcast. they did broadcast it, and they surrendered. i tell you, without those two a bombs dropped on them to show we meant business, they might never have surrendered, even though they knew they would be liquid. -- licked. but they would have killed 3 million more people on both sides. that's why there's no question that out of whole japanese -- hold japanese military had on their people, that the dropping of the bomb was the only sensible thing to do. it was the only thing to do. okay. i think we're ready for questions. thank you. there's a q&a feature at the if you haven't added it, please do so now. also like a question that has already been submitted that you are would like to see answered. so our first question is, were the targets listed in that document in priority order? if so, what moved up nagasaki to be the second location? >> i don't believe they were in priority order, no. a lot of the decision was going to be based on the weather. so i know that for nagasaki, the weather was much more cooperative than some of the other locations. as far as i understand it, i don't believe that those were priority -- that's a great question. i think it was more weather dependent. >> excellent. okay. our next question comes from zachary. it says, how did the museum get the plug? is there a story about the provenance? >> i believe it was donated by commander ashworth and lieutenant barnes. i can double-check that, but that's what i understand. >> all right. >> just to clarify, it may have been passed from ashworth on to others. i don't think he directly met president truman, but it was passed through the chain to be given to president truman eventually. all right. our next question comes from ed. were the materials couriered potsdam? i'm trying to understand the manner of document exchange? in very different times. >> they were often corriered, though they did have telegraph systems. >> next from tom, how were the reports sent to truman from potsdam -- sorry. i didn't read that in advance. basically the same question. >> that's right all right. >> next one from deborah. where are the videos available? great question. >> so there are videos available -- i love that question. the truman library has its own youtube channel scroll dot very -- and probably the easiest way to get to it, rather than give you a long url, if you go to truman library.gov, which should be easy to remember, scroll to the bottom of the beige and you'll see the icon for youtube, the play button. you click on the play button and go all the way into -- it will take you to the truman library youtube page. what i like about the way the page is organized, there are playlists. can you look at playlists and find the area of history you're particularly interested in. if you're interested in 1940 election campaign or interested in truman's earlier life or post presidency, they are organized in that way so you can see different eras of truman's life and times and presidency through those playlists. we've actually added quite a lot during the last few months. >> excellent. all right. our next question comes from michael. it says, what is your response to the claim we dropped the bomb to show russians we meant business and not the japanese? >> you know, i'm going to sound a little like a politician here. so i'm a federal employee and we preserve and document all the materials related to president truman and his life and times. really our goal is for you to decide as the researcher. to come and look materials on our website or in person when we reopen after covid-19 ends and decide for yourself on the evidence. of course, we might have individual opinions about things, but as a federal employee and federal institution, we encourage you to research and decide tore yourself. we don't dictate what the opinion should be. honestly, we hope our new museum exhibits open later this year are new tenet, you decide for yourself on the accomplishments of president truman, good or bad. >> all right. the next question comes from kim and it says, will there be any documents in the new exhibit? in the old one, the rumor about the bombing did not happen. few know about the training of civilians to attack our soldier. truman aide remarked to that to author jan greco. >> i believe that particular episode is not necessarily covered in the exhibit itself, though it sounds like a great public program. we do have a number of audio pieces that look at the japanese perspective alongside the american perspective on the reactions to the dropping of the bomb in a very balanced way. so both american and japanese perspectives on the use of the bomb are used in an audio program that we plan to have in that same gallery where we have the sadako crane and the safety plug. we obviously realize what an incredibly controversial decision it was by president truman. we are very well aware of the smithsonian and the enola gay controversy in the 1990s. our goal is to present the information and allow the visitor to decide. we have a comment book that we've had in the past when we've dealt with the atomic bomb and we're going to have again, so that people can reflect their own opinion. we are going to try and provide all the information we can from both sides, multiple opinions, more than two sides in that gallery space. our next question comes from bart, and he said is there any evidence president truman deliberated, any history of any moral dpbt? >> there's some, but not a whole lot. i think truman had the main goal of ending the war as quickly as possible. now, there's a couple things that are factoring in at the same time the testing is taking place in new mexico and what they deemed a successful test. in that same month in july, as you may well know, the united states had broken the codes of japanese intelligence, and they were receiving -- i think i'm right on this -- around about a million messages a month from the japanese. one of the crucial threads they were following was where the japanese buildup of troops were for a planned land invasion by the united states. those land invasion intercepts, the japanese were actually building up their troops in far greater numbers, in exactly the locations the american forces were landing, were going to land, with an invasion in the fall and then the following spring. and so there was certainly some hesitation about a land invasion once they started to read those intercepts. the other part of that, of course, is they really decided after looking at the intercepts that the japanese -- although some were saying they wanted to negotiate a surrender through the russians, they really were not ready for an unconditional surrender. so i think the intelligence code breaking really just reinforced truman and secretary stimson's opinion to use the weapon as quickly as possible and to end the war as quickly as possible. when truman was questioned about it later, you saw that video from the 1960s, he often reminded people about pearl harbor and the fact that that attack had happened while not at war and arguments of that nature. >> all right. our next question comes from cory, and it's how great of a role did secretary of state stimson have in this decision, if any? >> it was secretary of war stimson. he was crucial. not only did he head up the manhattan project overseeing, he was grove's supervisor in a sense, to use our modern day technology for that. he was obviously very much the first person to find out what was happening at the manhattan project but he was also a close confidante to truman. you saw my first document in the presentation. he's the one that tells truman about it. when the interim committee meets not making the decisions, but certainly at the forefront of those decisions and was a really key player. i wouldn't say one person over another made those decisions. in the top five he was one of those who truman goes to for advice and leans on for suggestions of what to do. he was involved in discussions latder about sharing information with the soviets and the set up of the atomic energy commission. all these things he was seeing what the war would look like when the war was over. he was rather far reaching in that regard. >> all right. we have time for a few more questions. our next one says, how did truman's family react to the dropping of the atomic bomb? >> this is a harder question. as far as i'm aware there's not a great deal of evidence that we have. we like as historians and archivers to rely on evidence for a response. everything i've read about bess truman and margaret truman is they were entirely supportive of truman. not too many decisions i found that they may have disagreed with truman on. if they did, they didn't express it publicly. unfortunately i mentioned all those letters truman wrote we have in the museum and library collection. we really don't have the letters after the time he was senator. when he's vice president, when he's president, we don't have any of bess' letters, they were burned. she burned them. we don't have evidence to say what she thought about it but i can only imagine she was supportive of him and the war was over quickly after that. i can't imagine there would be any criticism of what he did as president in this particular case. >> our last question comes from pat. were there ever any thoughts of using the bomb on tokyo? >> there was some early discussions on that. one of the reasons hiroshima and nagasaki along with the weather, they wanted to use the bomb on cities that had not received any kind of destruction. so it was -- easy is the wrong word, but that's the only word i can think of right now. it was easy to see the level of destruction. tokyo, as you know, had received a lot of firebombings and a lot napalm and other attacks. so it would have been difficult to show the destruction the atomic bomb was capable of doing. that's one of the reasons tokyo was not chosen because of already received damage in the past. these are great questions, by the way. keep them going. >> let's do a few more then. all right. our next question says, i've always heard truman felt remorse after the dropping of the bomb. did he revisit that decision later in life? >> yeah. that was one of the reasons i showed that video clip at the end from 1964, '65. he didn't show much remorse there and lives for another seven years. clifton told a story in april about how he questioned that right towards the end of his life in 1972. there is some conversations he has, actually, at research hospital in kansas city where he passes away december 26, 1972, where he kind of has some discussions then about that. i'm obviously not party to those conversations. from what i can tell there was maybe some -- i don't want to say second-guessing. maybe clarification did i do the right thing? was it the right thing to do? that was right towards the end. clifton truman daniel relayed a story about that in the past about maybe comments in the last year or two of his life where he wonders about that at the end, which seems quite natural to me. most of the time he makes the decision as president. he was responsible for so many in that seven and a half years as president. he may have questioned this one. when he was questioned publicly, on the television series or in writing, as i mentioned before, he often referred back to pearl harbor and the attack by the japanese as a large part of his justification and the second part was he was saving lives. the other part about saving lift that richard frank, the historian brings up, even though it wasn't truman's intent, he saved a number of asian lives because of japanese occupation of asian countries. richard frank estimates 400,000 japanese were saved by the fact that the japanese surrendered and no longer causing those atrocities in asia according to richard frank, rather than me. that's another set of lives that were saved by the speedier surrender than would have happened. >> our next question from james. did truman ever visit japan? >> no, he did not. i mentioned his grandson, clifton truman daniel, has visited several times but truman did not visit japan. i like the short answers. short answers are great. >> this is definitely the most questions we've answered during a program. this is a great. >> it's a big topic and it's a big anniversary. >> william asked what was the timeline of decision making of president truman between the first and second use of the atomic bomb? >> so there really wasn't a second decision. the way it's been explained to me, he authorized the use of the bomb, so they had this new weapon and they were able to use it. once the reports came in of the amount of devastation and things like that, then after the bomb, then truman said no for the future use of this. it goes back to the executive, back to the president as commander in chief. when he gave the first authorization for hiroshima, there was no second order needed. it was use as necessary. you have this new weapon. now there were only two that even existed at that time. the third wasn't going to be ready until august 16th or 17th. so there wasn't a third decision he made. by then if there had of been one, if they were ready to use one and japan had not already surrendered, then it would have been truman's decision again. the first two, it was only one decision. that's often misunderstood. there was only one decision for the first two bombs. all right. edward asked, what would be your recommendation for the best book dealing with the decision to drop the bombs? >> richard frank "downfall of the imperial japanese empire" or something like that. "downfall" is the main name and subheading. richard frank's book. even though it's a little old now, it does include information about ultra and magic intercepts, which some of the earlier studies done did not include. a lot of those came out later on. he also did a lot of his research with japanese and soviet archives as well. >> all right. next question comes from deborah. it says was anyone in congress -- was there anyone in congress that knew about the manhattan project? >> you got me. probably. probably. very few, though. it was a very tight circle. i'd hate to say no. there was a very tight circle of -- hard to say. you'd have to look at interim committee notes and see who served on that committee. i don't think he got much further than that. those minutes and notes are on the website. i'd have to go back and look. i would imagine there's a few lead senators that were involved in those discussions, but very, very few. i'm not going to say a blanket no. i think it was a few. sorry to not be precise on that one. >> our last question comes from robin, who says, did truman and oppenheimer ever meet? >> gosh, actually, you know, you got me. this is like i'm stumped. i don't know that, actually. we will get back to you on that. one of our archivists might have to look that up. we have appointment calendars online. if i was quick on my fingers, i would do a search for oppenheimer on our appointment calendar and see if his name pops up. it's in a database. that would just be as presidential appointments. so i actually don't know off the top of my head whether he did meet oppenheimer or not. i would guess that he did, but i'm just guessing. but our appointment calendar could probably come up, although he may have been in secret meetings and not recorded. so not an all exclusive answer for that. i would say right off the top of my head i'm very sorry, i can't answer that question accurately. i'm going to look it up as soon as we get done though. >> we'll take a third and final question then. this is from dave who says do you have any more information on the soviet spies that infiltrated the "a" bomb development program in new mexico? >> we do, actually. that's a whole other topic for discussion but it's pretty obvious we know spies were in new mexico. truman did not know at the time. a lot of it came later on about those spies. that's a whole other presentation. but later on it was found that the worst spies in new mexico -- and i believe it's in 1949 that the soviets by that time they have their atomic bomb. so it's another four years later but it's shortly after. so yeah, there was a lot of information at the truman library about that and other sources as well about those soviet spies. there's been books written about it as well. >> you're watching american history tv. every saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3. weeknights we're featuring american history tv program as what's available every weekend on c-span3. on august 18, 1920 tennessee became the last state needed to ratify the 19th amend granting women the right to vote. that will be followed by a forum on the 19th amendment which includes remarks by house speaker nancy pelosi and condoleezza rice. enjoy american history this week and every weekend

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