Artifacts Page

This is a video of the preparation, the drop, and the devastation caused by the excessiveness of dropping 'Fat Man' or in other words, the atomic bomb dropped over Nagasaki. As you can see, the United States soldiers were so proud to have made such a terrible machine that they were signing the bomb, like a yearbook, before it was dropped and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.

8/9/45: Excerpt from public statement by President Truman. This was the second time he had publicly given reasons for using the atomic bomb on Japan:

"The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians. But that attack is only a warning of things to come. If Japan does not surrender, bombs will have to be dropped on her war industries and, unfortunately, thousands of civilian lives will be lost.

"Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans.

"We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan's power to make war. Only a Japanese surrender will stop us." (Public Papers of the Presidents, Harry S. Truman, 1945, pg. 212).

[Even before Hiroshima was a-bombed, hundreds of thousands of civilians had been killed in the conventional bombings of over 60 of Japan's largest cities (Michael Sherry, "The Rise of American Air Power", pg. 314-315, and pg. 413, note 43). Was President Truman unaware that Hiroshima was primarily a city of civilians and that they would be the a-bomb's main victims? Note his reason (8/10/45 below) for halting the atomic bombings.]

This watch is a chilling reminder of just how human the people in Nagasaki were. The hands of the watch are frozen at the time the atomic bomb hit the city. 

This is a heart breaking photo of a young boy, no older than seven, carrying his dead younger brother on his back after the bombing of Nagasaki. When Truman set out to kill civilians and innocent people, he did his job, because it doesn't get much more innocent than a young child having to carry his dead baby brother.

FACT:

95% of those killed at Nagasaki were civilians.

This chart proves that the United States had no idea what they had really gotten themselves into when they bombed Nagasaki, which was all civilian. The chart shows the correlation between the atomic bomb and cancer.


FACT:
Experts estimate that 1-1.5 million United States soliders would have been killed had the atomic bombs not been dropped.

This letter, written by President Truman to a journalist at the Chicago-Sun Times clearly lays out why he chose to drop the bombs. As you can see, his reasons for Hiroshima were clearly laid out and were deemed necessary in order to save American lives.