Then there was this matter of the war with Japan that Truman was expected to deal with.  Strategic bombing of Japan (thus the firestorm of Tokyo that left hundreds of thousands dead and a million or more homeless) by conventional bombing, no matter how intense, seemed unable to shake the will of Japan to resist down to the last man, woman and child.  And lots of American lives would be lost in the process of breaking just such Japanese determination. In the process of trying to digest the meaning of these huge challenges, he also got word that a group of scientists had been working secretly in the desert of New Mexico to develop a new nuclear device, one so horrible in firepower that it might finally bring the Japanese to surrender ... though at this point no one working on the project was entirely sure of whether this bomb would work or not.  Also there was another concern accompanying this project, namely that this device was so powerful that it might set off an explosive chain reaction, one that might not be easily brought under control.  Thus even if it could be developed in the very near future, should it be used or not?   This was quite a decision facing the new president! THE POTSDAM CONFERENCE BETWEEN CHURCHILL (AND ATLEE), TRUMAN AND STALIN The Potsdam Conference (17 July - 2 August 1945) As a follow-up to the Yalta Conference in February, Truman, Churchill and Stalin gathered in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam in mid-July to iron out further details of governing a post-war Europe ... and fighting an on-going war with Japan.  Truman was the new kid on the block, but took up an immediate liking of Churchill ... and a deep distrust of Stalin – a virtual reversal of the position Roosevelt had moved to in the latter days of the war.  Truman understood that with their common enemy Hitler gone, the dynamics holding the Soviet-American (and British) alliance together would dissolve over the question of post-war governance of Europe.  Truman knew that either American troops would be shifted to the Pacific front ... or they would be coming home under pressure from the soldiers’ families in America.  And he knew that Stalin knew this as well ... and was counting on the American departure to leave Russia sitting in a dominant position not only in the East of Europe but possibly in all of Europe.  Truman immediately saw the dangers of defeating Hitler’s empire in Europe ... only to have it replaced by Stalin’s empire. Churchill out ... Attlee in Churchill promised what he could of British support of the Western position in Europe.  But the British were tired ... and like the Americans wanted simply to go home and forget about the whole nightmare.  Consequently, parliamentary elections held in July in Britain, the first since before the war started, went strongly against Churchill’s Tory Conservatives ... and in favor of the Labour Party under Clement Atlee, who had promised the British people that under the governance of him and his party national efforts would be turned inward toward post-war social improvements in Britain and away from Britain’s long involvement in international affairs led by such ‘imperialists’ as Churchill.  It was a sad repudiation of the man who had led Britain through the darkest days of the war.  Nonetheless that was what the British voters wanted ... and thus Atlee replaced Churchill during the middle of the Potsdam Conference itself. At this point Truman knew that America would be facing Russia alone: two huge superpowers attempting to define the post-war world according to their respective (and highly conflicting) goals for that world. Harry S. Truman with trusted advisor Jimmy Byrnes, new Secretary of State - July 1945 The Harry S. Truman Library The Potsdam Conference (July 17 - August 2, 1945) The Potsdam Conference The Harry S. Truman Library A picture of a conference session including Clement Attlee, Ernest Bevin, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, Joseph Stalin, William D. Leahy, Joseph E. Davies, James F. Byrnes, and Harry S. Truman The Harry S. Truman Library Clement R. Atlee, Harry Truman and Stalin at Potsdam - July 1945 (behind them:  Adm. William D. Leahy, Ernest Bevin, James F. Byrnes and Vyacheslav Molotov) THE BOMB (EARLY AUGUST 1945) It was in the context of Truman's growing sense of very likely post-war American-Russian political tensions that Truman casually mentioned to Stalin that the Americans had successfully tested an enormous bomb that would likely shift in America’s distinct favor the whole balance of power relationship with Japan (and by implication, with Europe as well).  Stalin seemed to show no reaction to the news, either because of his steely disposition ... or because he already knew of it, thanks to pro-Soviet informers within the circle working on the American project. But this was a significant shift in power toward America, both in Japan and in Europe.  Of course to be a true power factor, it would have to be more than just a possibility.  It would have to be an actuality.  And Stalin did not believe Americans strong enough in willpower to actually use such a device.  Thus Stalin seemed unalarmed.  There was little or no deterrent value in simply possessing a nuclear device ... if you had no plans to actually use it.   But indeed, Truman soon demonstrated that he did indeed intend such use.1 After warnings about "utter destruction" sent by the Allies to the Japanese emperor were ignored, on August 6th an atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima, killing an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 Japanese (half that number on the first day, the rest through burns and radiation poisoning over the next weeks).  Another warning was sent, this time directly by Truman to the Emperor.  But it too was not answered.  And thus on August 9th a second atomic bomb was dropped, this time over Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 to 80,000 Japanese. 1Actually, records later revealed that Truman, and the group of advisors around him, in no ways seemed to have been hesitant about putting the bomb to use to end the war in Japan.  Only Eisenhower, at the time, seemed hesitant about using the bomb, although later as President in the 1950s, he himself would include the real possibility of nuclear war as part of his Cold War strategy. Pierre and Marie Curie - co-discoverers of the radioactivity of uranium - 1898 Ernest Rutherford in his Cambridge University lab where he first split the atom American Ernest Lawrence with his cyclotron particle accelerator Albert Einstein - 1938 Italian emigre Enrico Fermi - 1938, He built a nuclear reactor under the University of Chicago football stadium and on December 2, 1942 achieved a sustained chain reaction – giving material proof of his theory of nuclear fission which had won him the Nobel Prize for physics in 1938 and which paved the way for the creation of the nuclear bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer. He helped lead the team that built the American atomic bomb in the wilderness of New Mexico - first tested successfully on July 16, 1945 "Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., pilot of the ENOLA GAY, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, waves from his cockpit before the takeoff, 6 August 1945." National Archives 208-LU-13H-5. A-bomb over Hiroshima - August 6, 1945 US Air Force Plutonium bomb "Fat Man" being prepared for delivery against Nagasaki - early August 1945 Corbis-Bettmann "A dense column of smoke rises more than 60,000 feet into the air over the Japanese port of Nagasaki, the result of an atomic bomb, the second ever used in warfare, dropped on the industrial center,August 8, 1945, from a U.S. B-29 Superfortress." National Archives 208-N-43888 PEACE AT LAST! (MID-AUGUST 1945) Stalin jumps into the war with Japan With the bombing of Hiroshima, Stalin had an idea that the war would likely be over very soon.  He thus declared war on Japan.  He was not going to be left out in the sharing of the goodies grabbed from a defeated Japan. Japan surrenders Within a week after the Nagasaki bombing, the Japanese announced (August 15th) their unconditional surrender to the Allies.  And on September 2nd, Japanese representatives came aboard the U.S. Battleship Missouri to sign the instrument of surrender.   At the White House, President Truman announces Japan's surrender. Abbie Rowe, Washington, DC, August 14, 1945. National Archives 79-AR-508Q. "New York City celebrating the surrender of Japan. They threw anything and kissed anybody in Times Square." Lt. Victor Jorgensen, August 14, 1945. National Archives 80-G-377094. "American servicemen and women gather in front of 'Rainbow Corner' Red Cross club in Paris to celebrate the unconditional surrender of the Japanese." By McNulty, August 15, 1945 National Archives 111-SC-210241 "GI's at the Rainbow Corner Red Cross Club in Paris, France, whoop it up after buying the special edition of the Paris Post, which carried the banner headline, 'JAPS QUIT.'" T3c. G. Lempeotis, August 1945. National Archives 111-SC-210208. A Russian soldier receiving Japanese arms ... after only one week of war effort! Most likely, these arms will find their way into the hands of the fellow Communist, Mao. Japan's formal surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri Japanese delegation arrives aboard USS Missouri to sign surrender - 1945 National Archives NWDNS-111-SC-210626 Gen. MacArthur (at microphone) watches as Japanese Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu signs the surrender document aboard the battleship U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay on the morning of September 2, 1945 Department of the Navy Japanese Gen. Umezu signs surrender document as Foreign Minister Shigemitsu and other Japanese watch "Gen. Douglas MacArthur signs as Supreme Allied Commander during formal surrender ceremonies on the USS MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay. Behind Gen. MacArthur are Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright and Lt. Gen. A. E. Percival." Lt. C. F. Wheeler, September 2, 1945. National Archives 80-G-348366.  "F4U's and F6F's fly in formation during surrender ceremonies; Tokyo, Japan. USS MISSOURI left foreground." September 2, 1945. National Archives 80-G-421130. COUNTING THE COSTS This was a hugely devastating war … not just in terms of soldiers lost in battle … but also in terms of civilians caught in the crossfire.  It is estimated that somewhere between 70 to 85 million people died as a result of the war – troops lost in action, troops who died in captivity … and civilians caught in the bombings, and those who died as forced labor or as prisoners in concentration camps. The best estimates are that the Soviets suffered almost 11 million military deaths – but over 12 million civilian deaths.  China's loss was almost as big … nearly 4 million troops and approximately 8 million civilians killed in the fighting … plus another 10 million who died simply from the famine and disease unleashed by the war.  Germany lost 5.5 million troops and approximately 2 million civilians for a total of almost 11% of its population.  Poland lost approximately 5.6 million people – nearly all civilians … and the highest percentage rate of all participants, losing over 18% of its population – the majority being its Jewish population (approximately 3 million … or half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust).  Japan lost approximately 2 million troops – and another half-million civilians for just under 6% of its population.  Italy lost 457 thousand, over 301 thousand of that being military. French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies lost 1-1.5 million and 3-4 million respectively … nearly all civilians caught in the crossfire. Although all countries experienced the tragedy of such loss, for the Allies America, Britain, and France the numbers were much smaller.  America suffered just under 420 thousand deaths, nearly all military.  Britain lost over 450 thousand people, 67 thousand of that being civilians killed in Germany's bombings.  France lost nearly 568 thousand, over half of that being civilians caught in the crossfire (and those who died in work camps and death camps). Eleven million of those deaths took place in Germany's concentration camps.  Approximately 6 million of those were Jews.  The other 5 million were mostly prisoners of war (also mostly Soviet) … but also the physically and mentally disabled, homosexuals, Romany (Gypsies), Jehovah's Witnesses, and other "undesirables" – as defined by the Nazi regime.  German politicians falling out of favor (if not killed on the spot) also ended up in just such camps (thousands of camps across German-occupied Europe). And that's just deaths.  Harder to calculate are those who were wounded … oftentimes severely so.  And what about the damage in homes, industries, farms, towns and cities?  The size of that loss is actually incalculable. But at least the worst seemed over.  Hopefully now the world could move on into an era of much-needed peace. World War Two was devastating for both the Allied and Axis nations. Five countries suffered the deaths of more than 10% of their population. Germany in ruins Devastated Nuremberg - 1945 Bremen, Germany at War's end - 1945 US Army Bombed-out Dresden - May 1945 The results of Dresden's destruction - February 12-15, 1945 Sächsische Landesbibliothek -- Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden Cologne in ruins In earlier days Germany had done its own destruction:  notably Dutch Rotterdam Aerial view of the ruins of Rotterdam. - 1945. "The German ultimatum ordering the Dutch commander of Rotterdam to cease fire was delivered to him at 10:30 a.m. on May 14, 1940. At 1:22 p.m., German bombers set the whole inner city of Rotterdam ablaze, killing 30,000 of its inhabitants." National Archives 208-PR-10L-3. The Opening of the Death Camps "Bones of anti-Nazi German women still are in the crematoriums in the German concentration camp at Weimar, Germany, taken by the 3rd U.S. Army. Prisoners of all nationalities were tortured and killed."  Pfc. W. Chichersky, April 14, 1945. National Archives 111-SC- 203461. "A truck load of bodies of prisoners of the Nazis, in the Buchenwald concentration camp at Weimar, Germany. The bodies were about to be disposed of by burning when the camp was captured by troops of the 3rd U.S. Army." Pfc. W. Chichersky, April 14, 1945. National Archives 111-SC-203464. "This victim of Nazi inhumanity still rests in the position in which he died, attempting to rise and escape his horrible death. He was one of 150 prisoners savagely burned to death by Nazi SS troops." Sgt. E. R. Allen, Gardelegen, Germany, April 16, 1945. National Archives 111-SC-203572. "Some of the bodies being removed by German civilians for decent burial at Gusen Concentration Camp, Muhlhausen, near Linz, Austria. Men were worked in nearby stone quarries until too weak for more, then killed." T4c. Sam Gilbert, May 12, 1945. National Archives 111-SC- 204811 Corpses in the Auschwitz camp in Poland - the largest of the German Nazi extermination camps. Buchenwald inmates liberated by the Americans - April 11, 1945 National Archives Prisoners at the Abersee, Austria, concentration camp, liberated by the 80th Division - May  7, 1945 National Archives "Starving inmate of Camp Gusen, Austria." May 12, 1945 National Archives 111-SC-264918. Survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp Survivors of Dachau concentration camp - 1945 A Russian P.O.W. accusing a Nazi guard of cruelty National Archives "These Jewish children are on their way to Palestine after having been released from the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. The girl on the left is from Poland, the boy in the center from Latvia, and the girl on right from Hungary." T4c. J. E. Myers, June 5, 1945. National Archives 111-SC-207907 "A German girl is overcome as she walks past the exhumed bodies of some of the 800 slave workers murdered by SS guards near Namering, Germany, and laid here so that townspeople may view the work of their Nazi leaders." Cpl. Edward Belfer. May 17, 1945. National Archives 111-SC-264895. German mother and sons forced to inspect remains of Russians killed by SS National Archives NA-111-SC-205629 A child passes along a road lined with dead from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp Japan in Ruins Tokyo after the 1945 fire bombing Wikipedia - "Bombing of Tokyo A Japanese policeman certifying Hiroshima victims for emergency aid Hiroshima after the A-bomb blast of August 5, 1945 U.S. Air Force Devastated Hiroshima - 1945 U.S. Air Force In the background, a Roman Catholic cathedral on a hill in Nagasaki. ca. 1945. National Archives 77-AEC-52-4459. Allied "Justice" Begins to Register "German Gen. Anton Dostler is tied to a stake before his execution by a firing squad. The General was convicted and sentenced to death by an American military tribunal.  Aversa, Italy." Blomgren, December 1, 1945. National Archives 111-SC-225295. "Japanese POW's at Guam, with bowed heads after hearing Emperor Hirohito make the announcement of Japan's unconditional surrender." August 15, 1945. National Archives 80-G-490320 "Gaunt allied prisoners of war at Aomori camp near Yokohama cheer rescuers from U.S. Navy. Waving flags of the United States, Great Britain and Holland." Japan, August 29, 1945. National Archives 80-G-490444 "Correspondents interview "Tokyo Rose" Iva Toguri, American-born Japanese." September 1945. National Archives 80-G-490488 Go on to the next section:  The Postwar World   Miles H. Hodges