Hiroshima: The World's Bomb

384 Pages·2008·3.47 MB·English

by  Andrew J. Rotter

R
HI OSHIMA
THE MAKING OF THE
R R
MODE N WO LD
Thisgroupofnarrativehistoriesfocusesonkeymomentsandeventsinthe
twentiethcenturytoexploretheirwidersignificanceforthe
developmentofthemodernworld.
published:
TheFallofFrance:TheNaziInvasionof1940,JulianJackson
ABitterRevolution:China’sStrugglewiththeModernWorld,RanaMitter
DynamicofDestruction:CultureandMassKillingintheFirstWorldWar,AlanKramer
forthcoming:
TheVietnamWars:AGlobalHistory,MarkBradley
Algeria:TheUndeclaredWar,MartinEvans
series advisers:
ProfessorChrisBayly,UniversityofCambridge
ProfessorRichardJ.Evans,UniversityofCambridge
ProfessorDavidReynolds,UniversityofCambridge
R
HI OSHIMA
the world’s bomb
R R R
AND EW J. OTTE
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp
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p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978–0–19–280437–2
1. Atomicbomb—History. I. Title.
QC773.R672008
355.8’251190904—dc22 2007045146
TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India
PrintedinGreatBritain
onacid-freepaperby
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ISBN 978–0–19–280437–2
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
To my daughters, Sophie and Phoebe Rotter.
Praise for Hiroshima
‘Anengagingandexceptionallyskillfulcombinationofthescientific,tech-
nological, military, diplomatic, political, and cultural history of the atomic
bomb in an international context. By any standard, a terrific book.’
J.SamuelWalker,authorofPromptandUtterDestruction:TrumanandtheUse
of Atomic Bombs against Japan
‘In a smart, useful, and beautifully written book, Rotter treats the atomic
bombing of Japan in its multinational context. Synthesizing a huge liter-
ature, he concisely shows in how many ways this truly was the world’s
bomb.’
Laura Hein, Northwestern University, and author ofLiving with the Bomb
‘A profound look at one of mankind’s most significant (and tragic)
events...diplomats and their politician bosses should read this work for an
understanding of the dire outcomes that diplomacy—and a lack thereof—
can reap.’
Thomas W. Zeiler, University of Colorado, and author of Unconditional
Defeat: Japan, America, and the End of World War II
Acknowledgements
I never intended to write a book on the atomic bomb, but when David
Reynolds emailed out of the blue, as it were, in the summer of 2001
and asked me to write one for a new Oxford series, I could not resist
his invitation. I have appreciated his support and advice throughout the
protracted writing process. Katherine Reeve was my first editor and got
mestarted;LucianaO’Flahertytookoverandproddedmetofinishduring
my sabbatical leave in London in 2006. Luciana’s able and helpful assistant,
Matthew Cotton, and my Oxford production editor Kate Hind, brought
the book home. Hilary Walford copyedited the manuscript, even as the
water rose around her house in Gloucester during the summer of 2007.
Zoe Spilberg hunted down the photographs and negotiated permission for
theiruse.CarolynMcAndrewhandledtheproofreadingandeliminatedthe
last of my sincere but, as it turned out, unnecessary attempts to spell in
British.
I got interested in the atomic bomb because of my Stanford University
graduate adviser Barton J. Bernstein, whose deep research on the subject
I only gloss here. At Colgate University, my home institution, I was
lucky enough to teach a course on the bomb with my colleague from
acrosstheQuad,CharlesHolbrow.SinceCharliewasresponsiblefordoing
the physics part of the course, I was fortunate that Robin Marshall, a
physicist at the University of Manchester, read the manuscript and saved
me from a number of errors. Laura Hein offered suggestions throughout,
and Sam Walker bravely read the entire manuscript and said nice things
about the writing. Conversations with friends and colleagues, including
Carl Guarneri, David Robinson, Karen Harpp, Walter LaFeber, Frank
Costigliola,and Jeremi Suri, helped tokeep meon task,more or less.Iam
grateful to them all. I also thank audiences at the University of Minnesota,
the University of Wisconsin, Fitchburg State College, Nanzan University,
Kitakyushu University, and the Hiroshima Peace Institute, for questions,
viii Acknowledgements
comments, and corrections following my lectures at these places. Students
and colleagues at Colgate helped enormously. Thanks especially to my
fourterrificresearchassistants:SarahHillick,AlexanderWhitehurst,Adam
Florek, and Casey Graziani.
My parents, Roy and Muriel Rotter, and my in-laws, Chandran and
Lorraine Kaimal, supported me unswervingly, which they seem to think
is their job. My daughters, to whom the book is dedicated, have become
young women in the course of my writing it. In the acknowledgements in
my last book I characterized them as “naughty”; they are that no longer,
but smart and beautiful and my proudest work ever. As always, my greatest
debtistomywife,Padma.Writingabouttheatomicbombisnotthemost
cheerful of pursuits. She kept me going, and much more.
Contents
List of Plates xi
Introduction: The World’s Bomb 1
1. The World’s Atom 7
2. Great Britain: Refugees, Air Power, and the Possibility of
the Bomb 31
3. Japan and Germany: Paths not Taken 59
4. The United States I: Imagining and Building the Bomb 88
5. The United States II: Using the Bomb 127
6. Japan: The Atomic Bombs and War’s End 177
7. The Soviet Union: The Bomb and the Cold War 228
8. The World’s Bomb 270
Epilogue: Nightmares and Hopes 304
Notes 310
Bibliographical Essay 340
Credits 356
Index 357