Stimson on the Bomb
From “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb” by Henry Stimson
From “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb” by Henry Stimson
October 15, 1945
Dear Mr. Gillespie,
By Harold Agnew
By George Cowan
I address myself to the organization, founded for the purpose to further co-operation between nations on all problems of common concern, with some considerations regarding the adjustment of international relations required by modern development of science and technology. At the same time as this development holds out such great promises for the improvement of human welfare it has, in placing formidable means of destruction in the hands of man, presented our whole civilization with a most serious challenge.
I think there are issues which are quite simple and quite deep, and which involve us as a group of scientists—involve us more, perhaps than any other group in the world. I think that it can only help to look a little at what our situation is—at what has happened to us—and that this must give us some honesty, some insight, which will be a source of strength in what may be the not-too-easy days ahead. I would like to take it as deep and serious as I know how, and then perhaps come to more immediate questions in the course of the discussion later.
WAR DEPARTMENT.
Washington, D.C.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 6, 1945
STATEMENT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR
THE WHITE HOUSE
Washington, D.C.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE —August 6, 1945
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of T.N.T. It had more than two thousand times the blast power of the British “Grand Slam” which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare.