America at war! (1941-1945) -- Part 6

241

U.S. State Department (August 9, 1945)*

740.00119 PW/8-945

Memorandum by the Acting Director of the Office of Strategic Services to the Secretary of State

Washington, 9 August, 1945

The following is the substance of a message dated 8 August from Mr. Allen Dulles, Chief of the OSS mission in Wiesbaden. The information contained in this message is a sequel to memoranda dated 13, 16, and 18 July, and 2 August, concerning a Japanese attempt to approach Allied authorities through OSS representatives.

Per Jacobsson, a Swedish national and economic adviser to the Bank for International Settlements, has transmitted the following information to Mr. Dulles through an intermediary:

Kojiro Kitamura, director of the Bank for International Settlements and former financial attaché in Berlin, has held a number of conversations on the significance of the tripartite ultimatum to Japan issued at Potsdam with the Japanese Minister in Bern, Shunichi Kase, and Brigadier General Kiyotomi Okamoto, believed to be the head of Japanese intelligence in Europe.

According to indications from the Tokyo Radio, the three men all feel that the declaration initially was badly received. They emphasize, however, the “brief and perfunctory” nature of the formal reply as given over the Tokyo Radio by Premier Suzuki. They attribute the terseness of the reply as evidence of the influence of a “peace party.”

This group in Switzerland has been sending daily caibles to Tokyo stating that the Potsdam declaration to Japan was merely a simple statement of Allied war aims and not a “take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum which Japan could not honorably accept, as was first believed.” The group feels that these daily messages to Tokyo have served to bolster the efforts of the “peace party” in Tokyo. The group finds encouraging the fact that it has not been rebuked for such frank statements, and attaches considerable importance to a report in the Swiss press on 5 August that Foreign Minister Togo was received in private audience by the Emperor. The group considers that Togo belongs to “a new peace party.”

The group requested Jacobsson to ask Mr. Dulles whether he would be willing to see an authorized representative of the Japanese Government. If so, one of the following would be selected as the representative: (1) Minister Kase, acting as Japanese Government delegate to the conversations, not as Minister to Switzerland; (2) Ambassador Sato in Moscow; or preferably (3) some Swiss civilian now in Tokyo who could be sent under the cover of a representative of the International Red Cross. The group prefers the third alternative because it feels that such a person would know the situation in Tokyo and “would evaluate the situation as envisaged in Europe.”

Mr. Dulles comments that there is no direct evidence that these suggestions from the Japanese group in Switzerland are based on instruction? from Tokyo. Mr. Dulles has again cautioned Jacobsson on this point and has emphasized to Jacobsson that the only question is whether the Japanese are ready to accept unconditional surrender as set forth in the Potsdam and other previous official declarations. Realizing the extreme delicacy of this matter, Mr. Dulles continues to handle it with the greatest caution.

JOHN MAGRUDER, Brig. Gen.

242

Salzburger Nachrichten (August 9, 1945)

Russland erklÀrt Japan den Krieg

Die KriegserklĂ€rung ist das einzige Mittel, den Frieden in greifbare NĂ€he zu rĂŒcken




243

Hiroshima ein TrĂŒmmerhaufen




244

Truman unterzeichnet die Charta

WASHINGTON (OWI) – PrĂ€sident Truman hat in Washington den Senatsbeschluss unterzeichnet, der die Charta der Vereinten Nationen ratifiziert. Damit ist die Annahme der Weltsicherheitscharta durch die Vereinigten Staaten völlig abgeschlossen. Das Dokument trĂ€gt auch die Unterschrift des Außenministers Byrnes.

245

L’Aube (August 9, 1945)

L’URSS dĂ©clare la guerre au Japon

« La décision a été prise à la demande des Alliées », annonce M. Molotov

MOSCOU, 8 aoĂ»t – Le 8 aoĂ»t, M. Molotov, commissaire du peuple aux Affaires Ă©trangĂšres, a reçu M. Sato, ambassadeur du Japon en URSS et, au nom du gouvernement soviĂ©tique, lui a remis la note suivante pour ĂȘtre transmise au gouvernement japonais :

AprĂšs la dĂ©bĂącle et la capitulation de l’Allemagne hitlĂ©rienne, le Japon reste la seule grande puissance qui dĂ©sire poursuivre la guerre. L’ultimatum fait le 26 juillet par les trois grandes puissances, les Etats-Unis, la Grande-Bretagne et la Chine, sur la capitulation inconditionnelle des forces armĂ©es japonaises a Ă©tĂ© dĂ©clinĂ© par le gouvernement japonais. Ainsi, la proposition du gouvernement japonais, faite Ă  l’URSS pour servir d’intermĂ©diaire dans la guerre en ExtrĂȘme-Orient, perd sa raison d’ĂȘtre.

Ayant pris en considĂ©ration le refus du gouvernement japonais d’accepter cet ultimatum, les AlliĂ©s ont adressĂ© au gouvernement soviĂ©tique la proposition de participer Ă  la guerre contre le Japon, afin de rapprocher la fin des hostilitĂ©s, de rĂ©duire le nombre des victimes et de contribuer au rĂ©tablissement le plus rapide d’une paix gĂ©nĂ©rale.

FidĂšle Ă  son devoir d’alliĂ©, le gouvernement soviĂ©tique a acceptĂ© la proposition et se dĂ©clare solidaire de l’ultimatum prĂ©sentĂ© au Japon le 26 juillet.

Le gouvernement soviĂ©tique estime qu’une telle politique constitue le seul moyen capable de rapprocher la paix, prĂ©server les peuples de nouvelles souffrances et de nouveaux sacrifices et donner la possibilitĂ© au peuple japonais d’éviter les souffrances et les destructions semblables Ă  celles que le peuple allemand avait subies aprĂšs son refus d’accepter la capitulation.

Par consĂ©quent, À PARTIR DE DEMAIN 9 AOÛT, L’UNION SOVIETIQUE SE CONSIDERE EN ETAT DE GUERRE AVEC LE JAPON.

246

ÉpĂ©e de DamoclĂšs pour hĂąter la capitulation –
Le bombardement atomique ne sera pas répété immédiatement

A Hiroshima aux deux tiers anĂ©antis, tout ĂȘtre vivant a Ă©tĂ© carbonisĂ©




247

Moscou informe les USA la Chine et l’Angleterre




248

Rentre a Washington –
Le président Truman parlera demain au micro




249

Les Nippons transportent des armes dans des navires hĂŽpitaux




250

Les troupes russes et anglaises vont évacuer Téhéran




251

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (August 9, 1945)

Editorial: Russia declares war




252

Editorial: Reaping the whirlwind




253

lawrence

Lawrence: Atomic bomb may prove weapon to end all war

By David Lawrence

WASHINGTON (Aug. 8) – There is no sense of jubilation or even of triumph here over the development of the atomic bomb. There is a sense of horror and of reluctance to use the weapon to destroy Japan.

The hope is that the Japanese militarists will see that the discovery really gives them a way out of their dilemma and that negotiations leading to the occupation of Japan may be begun soon.

But nobody here seems able to fathom the possible reaction of the Japanese leaders to the bomb. Its destructive power sounds so incredible that it may be that several more bombs will have to be dropped before the Japanese realize that the broadcasts are not as fantastic as they must sound.

The Japanese, of course, don’t know whether we have one bomb or a large quantity and they cannot be sure whether the whole thing isn’t just a means of inducing their surrender and thus avoiding an invasion by our forces. But in due time the Japanese will discover that there are plenty of bombs to continue the destruction.

So it may be that the end of the Japanese war is merely a matter of weeks now, if not days.

Certainly the frightfulness of the bomb has produced already on this side of the ocean psychological repercussions that make one wonder whether the device to end all wars, so long predicted, has now finally materialized. When a war weapon becomes so easy to manufacture that it can be used by either side, there is apt to be non-use. Thus gas was used in the First World War, but not in this war. It was not out of any humane consideration that gas was not used by Germany or is not being used by Japan. The belief that the other side can use it with equal destructiveness causes hesitation.

The fact that the United States would not use gas but has used the atomic bomb disposes of any argument that humane considerations prevented the use of gas by us in the Pacific war. It would appear now that the United States believed the Japanese would use gas in China where the latter’s armies are not equipped to fight it and that the rise of gases might be detrimental to our own forces on such small islands as Iwo Jima because of changing winds. Whatever the reason for non-use of gas, the atomic bomb emerges as far more deadly.

American public opinion at the moment is quick to insist that any or all measures be taken to end the war against the Japanese. But a sober, second thought will come eventually and the responsibility for using the atomic bomb will weigh more and more heavily as time goes on.

The belief prevails that the United States and Allies will perhaps issue another ultimatum and will not use the bomb extensively until absolutely necessary to force the submission of the Japanese. In other words, the United States would rather be in the position of employing the weapon as a coercive measure rather than for actual destruction.

As a matter of fact, the bomb is so new and the test in this country was so recent that nobody knows just what damage the first one did in Japan. It is believed, for instance, that the Japanese themselves do not know what struck them and possibly all communication with the affected area and all persons within it have been destroyed. Hence the whole world is left to guess, along with the Japanese, as to what the power of the weapon really is though no one doubts that it can do damage beyond anyone’s imagination.

The problem for the Japanese military leaders has been simplified, however, by the atomic bomb. They have the choice of permitting the Japanese empire and many of her people to be killed for the “honor” of their country in a sort of suicide spirit or of surrendering and building the hope that someday the Japanese Empire may be strong again and perhaps invent its own atomic bombs as a measure of self-defense, if not offense.

Clearly the atomic bomb places upon mankind a greater responsibility than it has ever faced to find means to use reason instead of force to settle international dispute and to curb the greed and selfishness which feeds the economic unrest out of which so often has come the urge to aggression.

254

ON THE RECORD —
Potsdam Plan declares all German guilty

By Dorothy Thompson




255

The Pittsburgh Press (August 9, 1945)

Atom raid levels Nagasaki

Deluge of destruction hits major naval base during noon rush hour

BULLETIN

SAN FRANCISCO, California – The Domei News Agency announced that its radio transmitters would remain open “throughout the night” for an expected special announcement. There was no hint of the nature of the “special announcement.”

GUAM (UP) – Preliminary reports indicated that the second atomic bomb to be dropped on Japan all but obliterated Nagasaki, a major naval base and Japan’s 11th largest city, during the noon rush hour today.

Crew members of the Superfortress which loosed the terrifying bomb on Nagasaki watched the earth-shaking explosion and flashed back to Gen. Carl A. Spaatz, commander of the Strategic Air Forces, that results were “good.”

“No further details will be available until the mission returns,” Gen. Spaatz said in a brief communiquĂ©.

But to all hands that brief report – “results good” – indicated that Nagasaki, a city of 252,630 persons, virtually had been blown off the map of Japan by an explosion equal to that which levelled four and one-tenth square miles of Hiroshima, target of the first atomic bombing raid last Monday.

The population of Nagasaki is comparable to the size of Providence, Rhode Island, also a seaport, with a population of 253,504.

Radio Tokyo was silent on the results of the Nagasaki attack. Only yesterday, however it told how searing flames and horrible concussion blasted and burned to death “every living thing” within range in the Hiroshima raid.

Tokyo admitted that, even four days after the mighty atomic explosion in Hiroshima, it was impossible to assess fully the devastation wrought by the bomb. Bodies, burned beyond recognition and too numerous to count, still remained in the ruins.

American experts computed the completely-destroyed area of Hiroshima with 318,000 population Japan’s seventh largest city, at 60 percent of the built-up area. An even greater percentage of Nagasaki probably was razed.

Nagasaki lies on the western coast of Kyushu, southernmost of the Jap home islands, approximately 175 miles southwest of Hiroshima.

In addition to its important navy yard, Nagasaki is crowded with shipyards, aircraft factories, steel works, aircraft plants and electric works of the octopus-like Mitsubishi industries.

The city was damaged slightly in early raids by China-based Superfortresses, but escaped the destruction that has been rained on the enemy homeland since the 20th Air Force came of age with large bases in the Marianas.

Powerless to halt the atomic bombing raids, Japan was crying out in “horror” against them and indirectly pleading for withdrawal of the weapon in the “name of humanity and fair play.”

“Men, women and children, sick, crippled or helpless – the bomb has no mercy as to whom it kills,” Radio Tokyo said. “From earlier reports, we are certain that Hiroshima was subjected to the most inhuman and barbaric act yet to be reported in the annals of America.”

‘Madame Butterfly’s’ hometown atomized

“Madame Butterfly’s” hometown was destroyed when an atom bomb fell on Nagasaki. That famous port was the scene of Puccini’s well-known opera.

It was long Japan’s best-known port since it was the first opened to trade with the outside world. It was opened to the Dutch in 1560 and to the world at large in 1858, following the famous voyage of Cmdre. Matthew C. Perry. Perry entered Tokyo Bay in 1853 and was ordered to go to Nagasaki, but refused. Again in 1854, he anchored off Tokyo in battle formation and forced the trade treaty which opened Japan to world trade. Nagasaki was the first center of Christianity in Japan.

The city, lying at the head of a beautiful three-mile inlet, has one of Japan’s best harbors.

256

Russian army of million smashes into Manchuria

Major border cities captured by Reds in advancing up to 15 miles




257

Third Fleet’s planes join in ‘rain of ruin’

80 B-29s smash at refinery near Osaka




258

Mighty Red Army to speed doom of bleeding Japan

Tokyo seems to realize hopeless situation; Truman may give details on Russian action




259

World can’t survive another war –
Fear tops he jubilance over new atomic bombs

Terrifying success of discovery brings realization that earth can be destroyed
By Phelps Adams, North American Newspaper Alliance




260

‘Revolt!’ leaflets tell Jap people

Okinawa planes drop millions of tracts