Dulce Et Decorum Est

This is a telegram that Richard B. Russell, then a powerful U.S. Senator for the state of Georgia, sent to Harry S. Truman the evening after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Winder, GA Aug 7 42 7P

The President
(Personal Delivery) The White House

Permit me to respectfully suggest that we cease our efforts to cajole Japan into surrendering in accordance with the Potsdam Declaration. Let us carry the war to them until they beg us to accept the unconditional surrender. The foul attack on Pearl Harbor brought us into war and I am unable to see any valid reason why we should be so much more considerate and lenient in dealing with Japan than with Germany. I earnestly insist Japan should be dealt with as harshly as Germany and that she should not be the beneficiary of soft peace. The vast majority of the American people, including many sound thinkers who have intimate knowledge of the Orient [sic], do not agree with Mr. Grew in his attitude that there is any thing sacrosanct about Hirohito. He should go. We have no obligation to Shintoism. The contemptuous answer of the Japs [sic] to the Potsdam Ultimatum justifies a revision of that document and sterner peace terms.

If we do not have available a sufficient number of atomic bombs with which to finish the job immediately, let us carry on with TNT and fire bombs until we can produce them.

I also hope that you will issue orders forbidding the officers in command of our air forces from warning Jap cities that they will be attacked. These Generals do not fly over Japan and this showmanship can only result in the unnecessary loss of many fine boys in our Air Force as well as our helpless prisoners in the hands of the Japanese, including the survivors of the March of Death on Bataan who are certain to be brought into the cities that have been warned.

This was a total war as long as our enemies held all the cards. Why should we change the rules now, after the blood, treasure and enterprise of the American people have given us the upper hand. Our people have not forgotten that the Japanese struck us the first blow in this war without the slightest warning. They believe that we should continue to strike the Japanese until they are brought groveling to their knees. We should cease our appeals to Japan to sue for peace. The next plea for peace should come from an utterly destroyed Tokyo. Welcome back home. With assurances of esteem

Richard B. Russell, US Senator

Two days later, Truman replied with a one page letter:

Dear Dick:

I read your telegram of August seventh with a lot of interest.

I know that Japan is a terribly cruel and uncivilized nation in warfare but I can’t bring myself to believe that, because they are beasts, we should ourselves act in the same manner.

For myself, I certainly regret the necessity of wiping out whole populations because of the pigheadedness of the leaders of a nation and for your information, I am not going to do it unless it is absolutely necessary. It is my opinion that after the Russians enter into war the Japanese will very shortly fold up.

My object is to save as many American lives as possible but I also have a humane feeling for the women and children in Japan.

Sincerely yours,
Harry S. Truman

Truman sent this letter to Dick Russell on August 9th, 1945 — the very same day that Truman’s humane feeling for the women and children in Japan were demonstrated by an American B-29 bomber, acting on his orders, dropping a second atomic bomb, without warning, on the city of Nagasaki, destroying the city and burning alive about one-third of the civilian population.

Today Truman is often counted as one of the greatest Presidents by American presidential historians. Russell served as a senator until he died of ephysema in 1971. The Russell Senate Office Building was named in his honor and a statue of Russell stands in the rotunda.

AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi

A woman offers prayers as she releases a paper lantern in the Motoyasu River with the backdrop of the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, western Japan, Sunday.

Canadian Press (2006-08-06): Japan marks 61st anniversary of U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima

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Grave marker with 1000-Person Mound written in India ink

Photo / Shunkichi Kikuchi Courtesy / Tokuko Kikuchi
October 17, 1945, Aza Majidomari, Ninoshima-cho

This mound was by the sea in Majidomari near the Horse Quarantine Station. About August 25, 1945, the marker was placed there by quarantine staff during a memorial service. In those days, burial sites were everywhere.

#28. Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Special Exhibit on the Island of Final Rest (2003).

As a sort of virtual tour guide, the Special Exhibit includes these manga drawings of a grandmother, who had been a nurse during the war, showing her grandchildren through the exhibit.

Kenichi Nakano was 47 at the time of the atomic bombing. He witnessed this scene in the city center, near ground zero, on the afternoon of August 6th, 1945. He was 76 when he drew this picture. The words on the drawing read:

Whole city a sea of fire. Hell. Hell on Earth.

Kenichi Nakano (1975)

Donated by Mihoko Naito, Akira Hirakawa
1,350m from the hypocenter
Sumiyoshi Bridge

Koharu Hirakawa (then, 50) was a teacher at Hijiyama Elementary School. She was exposed to the bomb in front of the Sumiyoshi Bridge in a truck carrying bags for her pupils who were leaving for their evacuation locations. When the bomb detonated, the bags ignited, and the head teacher instructed everyone to flee. He thought Koharu had fled with the others, but she was never seen again. In December 1945, her brother Akira (then, 21), when he attended her father’s memorial service, put a bowl he found in her totally destroyed house into a box of pawlonia wood in place of her remains. At that time, it was reported that Koharu’s bag had been found. In it were these glases, savings bonds and other valuables and the business cards of her two sons.

Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park

Kikue Komatsu was 37 when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. She witnessed this scene on the morning of August 7th, 1945, about 550 meters from ground zero. She was 67 when she drew the picture. The words written on the drawing explain:

While searching for my daughter, I came across a mountain of corpses in a street of carnage. People had evidently rushed to plunge their faces in the water of a cistern, where they died with their arms around each other, clinging to the side. How they must have screamed for water. My heart aches for them. I clasp my hands in prayer.

Kikue Komatsu (1975)

from WikiPedia

About nine-tenths of all buildings in Hiroshima were damaged or completely destroyed by the atomic bombing and the fires that it ignited.

This aerial photograph is signed by Paul W. Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay and the commanding officer of the mission that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Donated by Kazuo Nikawa
1,600m from the hypocenter
Kan-on Bridge

Kengo Nikawa (then, 59) was exposed to the bomb crossing the Kan-on Bridge by bike going from his home to his assigned building demolition site in the center of the city. He suffered major burns on his right shoulder, back, and head and took refuge in Kochi-mura Saiki-gun. He died on August 22. Kengo was never without this precious watch given him by his son, Kazuo.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

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Courtesy / NHK Hiroshima.

August 8, 1945 / The streetcar track in kamiya-cho (300m from the hypocenter)

The burnt ruins were filled with countless unidentified corpses. These were gathered and taken to riversides, schoolyards, and other open areas for cremation. Around the city, day after day smoke from cremation fires billowed into the sky.

#36. Special Exhibit, Hiroshima Peace Museum.

As a sort of virtual tour guide, the website for the Special Exhibit includes these manga drawings of a grandmother who had been a nurse during the war, showing her grandchildren the exhibit: