The Surrender

Surrender Plaque onboard the USS Missouri
The Plaque of Surrender That is on the U.S.S. Missouri

Even after the taking of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the Japanese could not accept surrender.They were bound to the Samurai Code, which generally meant that Japan and her people were to fight to the death.The Allies had given Japan the orders to surrender unconditionally, as was set forth by the "Big Three Meetings" at Casablanca in 1943 and at Potsdam in 1945.So, Allied military planners began drawing up plans for Operation:Olympic, the invasion of Japan.But, the Allies figured that the Japanese would fight on, and estimated that over one million Allied sailors and soldiers would die, if an invasion occured.With these grim statistics, the began planning.

Allied scientists had been working on a new weapon, a super-weapon.The Atomic Bomb.The work started because of a letter sent from Albert Einstien to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which Einstien stated that e=mc˛ could be used to build a bomb.So, Roosevelt ordered a group of scientist to research and, if possible, make a bomb.The Manhatten Project gathered the best minds to Los Alamos, New Mexico.Meanwhile, at Oak Ridge, Tennesee, they would produce Uranium-235, the element used to make an atomic fusion, and, at Hanford, Washington, they would make Plutonium.Work proceeded into 1945, after an expenditure of 2000 million dollars, a plutonium bomb was ready for testing.So, at Los Alamos, they set the bomb on a steel tower.Now, you have to understand something about the mindset of these scientists.They had no idea of how this weapon would react.There were three possible conclutions.

  1. It would work perfectly.
  2. It would work and cause a chain reaction that would destroy the planet.
  3. It wouldn't work at all.

But, it worked.The steel tower the bomb was on was vaporized in a half a second of exploding.President Harry Truman, who became president after FDR past away, had a tough choice in front of him.Either drop the bomb on Japan and kill 100,000 people, or invade Japan and lose one million people.He decided to drop the bomb.

The bombs were delivered to Tinian by the U.S.S. Indianapolis in July 1945.When Japan did not surrender, Truman decided to drop them.So, military planners had to decide on a target (one of strtegic importance and one that hasn't been devestated by earlier raids).They chose Hiroshima.So, on August 6th, 1945, five B-29's took off from Tinian for Hiroshima with the bomb "Fat Man" for Hiroshima.Four of these planes were photo recon versions and one, the Enola Gay, bomber.The people in Hiroshima woke up that morning to a quiet, calm day.In the morning, the air raid sirens went off, but, no one paid attention to them.Then, all of a sudden, a bright flash occured 1,900 feet above the city.In an instant, 10,000 people were vaporized.The winds and shock wave from the blast killed 90,000 people.When news of the Hiroshima bombing reached Tokyo, Emperor Hirihito was horrified.He urged the Supreme Japanese command to surrender.But they vowed to fight on.Only a second atomic bomb, dropped on Nagasaki, convinced them to surrender, on August 10th,1945,under one condition.The people of Japan decide what to do with the Emporer.The Allies agreed and, on the decks of the U.S.S. Missouri, the Japanese Supreme Command surrendered to General MacAuthur on September 9th, 1945.The war was finally over.



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