The Day the World Went Nuclear

by Bill O'Reilly

  September 2, 1945

  GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR steps past Admiral Halsey and takes his place at the microphone shortly after 9:00 A.M. on Sunday, September 2. He is dressed in a crisp khaki uniform, as are the other American admirals and generals. The eleven-member Japanese contingent is wearing military dress and even formal top hats and tails, but it is MacArthur’s rationale that “we fought them in our khaki uniforms, and we’ll accept their surrender in our khaki uniforms.”

  The two thousand members of the USS Missouri’s crew, however, are all in their dress whites. They literally hang off gun turrets and other parts of the ship to witness this moment of history. The deck is packed with media, dignitaries, and weapons of war. The sky is gray on this storm-tossed morning, and the mood somber.

  Sailors hang off the turrets to watch the surrender ceremony on the USS Missouri. [Mary Evans Picture Library]

  “We are gathered here, representatives of the major warring powers, to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored,” MacArthur announces over the loudspeaker. “The issues, involving divergent ideals and ideologies, have been determined on the battlefields of the world, and hence are not for our discussion or debate.”

  The morning begins with the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The thirty-one-star Commodore Perry flag from 1853 hangs in a frame affixed to the ship’s superstructure, too fragile to snap smartly in the wind. The same cannot be said, however, for the Capitol flag, which was run up the flagpole this morning. The Japanese contingent looks morose and seems to want to conclude the ceremony as quickly as possible. The generals among them have already suffered the disgrace of surrendering their swords, and the diplomats had the Japanese flag removed from their official cars just this morning.

  “As Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, I announce it my firm purpose, in the tradition of the countries I represent, to proceed in the discharge of my responsibilities with justice and tolerance, while taking all necessary dispositions to ensure that the terms of surrender are fully, promptly, and faithfully complied with.”

  MacArthur clutches a sheaf of notes. He stands tall before the table on which the surrender will be signed.

  Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu lead the Japanese delegation that will sign the surrender agreement on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. [Harry S. Truman Library]

  “I now invite the representatives of the emperor of Japan and the Japanese government and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters to sign the instrument of surrender at the places indicated.”

  Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the surrender agreement. General MacArthur stands at the microphone. [National Archives]

  A coffee-stained, dark green cloth covers a folding table brought up this morning from the ship’s galley when it became clear that the ceremonial mahogany table donated by the British for the surrender ceremony would be too small. Two copies of the surrender agreement lie on the table, leather-bound for the Americans and canvas-covered for the Japanese. The surrender documents are printed on rare parchment found in a Manila basement.

  The vanquished sign first, followed by the victors. Clicking camera shutters are the only sound as the crew and press eagerly capture the moment. The ceremony lasts twenty-three minutes and is broadcast around the world.

  General Douglas MacArthur takes his seat at the table in a simple wooden chair and patiently begins using a series of different fountain pens to affix his name twice. He hands one pen to Lieutenant General John “Skinny” Wainwright, his dear friend who spent the war in a Japanese POW camp after being captured during the fall of the Philippines. The sight of the skeletal Wainwright evokes the beatings, torture, and starvation to which he was subjected for three years as a prisoner of war.

  Another ceremonial pen is handed to Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, a British commander who also endured the horrors of a Japanese POW camp after the fall of Singapore. Like Wainwright, Percival was moved several times by the Japanese to prevent him from falling into Allied hands. By war’s end, Percival and Wainwright were held at the same prison in Hsian, Manchuria. MacArthur has specifically asked these two bone-thin, malnourished survivors to stand immediately behind the surrender table, visible at all times to the Japanese party.

  General Douglas MacArthur signs the Japanese surrender agreement. Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright and Lieutenant General A. E. Percival, both former POWs, stand behind him. [National Archives]

  The ceremony concluded, MacArthur rises to his feet, stands ramrod straight, and announces to all in attendance that “these proceedings are closed.”

  As the Japanese are led back to the motor launch that will carry them to land, a formation of American aircraft flies overhead. Looking up, the vanquished receive a dramatic message: the Americans are now your masters.

  U.S. Army and Navy planes fly in formation over the USS Missouri at the conclusion of the Japanese surrender ceremony. [Harry S. Truman Library]

  EPILOGUE

  AMERICAN EMBASSY TOKYO, JAPAN

  September 27, 1945 • 10:00 A.M.

  A NERVOUS AND PREOCCUPIED Emperor Hirohito steps out of his maroon 1930 Rolls-Royce at the entrance of the American embassy in Tokyo. The emperor’s war is not over. Hirohito is depressed, and his hands tremble. He suffers from severe jaundice, which has deepened the sallow pallor of his skin. Last night he lay awake worrying that he will have to stand in a prisoner’s dock, listening to an American prosecutor listing his many war crimes.

  Taking a deep breath, Hirohito momentarily calms his fears. Perhaps he won’t hang, after all. His only hope is a direct appeal to General Douglas MacArthur, which is why the emperor has traveled to the American embassy this morning. Courage is everything right now, even if it is false.

  The emperor could have saved himself days of worry by greeting MacArthur a week ago. Hirohito’s Imperial Palace is just across a moat from MacArthur’s brand-new office headquarters in Tokyo’s Dai-Ichi Seimei Building. When MacArthur moved in, he gave the Dai-Ichi Life Insurance Company three days to vacate the imposing structure, then chose for himself a simple sixth-floor office that actually looks down onto the Imperial Palace.

  But while Hirohito can see MacArthur’s office just by looking out the window, and MacArthur can just as easily see him, the emperor has waited for MacArthur to make the first move. But the general is cunning. Paying a call upon the emperor would have been seen as subservient. Better to have it the other way around.

  MacArthur has designated that the meeting should take place at the American embassy, allowing the people of Tokyo plenty of opportunity to see the emperor’s unmistakable car making the shameful drive to MacArthur’s residence. The emperor’s journey from the Sakurada-mon Gate of the Imperial Palace south through the decimated streets of Tokyo has taken less than ten minutes. His imperial sedan has been followed by three black Mercedes loaded with members of the royal court, but the emperor pays little attention to them now.

  Clad in a black waistcoat, top hat, and polished dress shoes, Hirohito steps through the American embassy’s front door. He is unused to commoners touching his personal possessions, and immediately recoils as two army officers salute him and then step forward to take his hat.

  “You are very, very welcome, sir!” says a grinning MacArthur, striding into the room to break the ice. He wears his usual khaki uniform rather than formal wear and has not even affixed his combat ribbons to the simple pressed shirt. The general thrusts out his hand to greet the emperor, but Hirohito bows low at the same time, leaving MacArthur’s open hand hovering awkwardly above the emperor’s head. Hirohito continues to bow, finally extending his hand upward to clasp MacArthur’s.

  After a moment’s hesitation, MacArthur invites Hirohito and his interpreter into a private room. The two men speak for forty minutes. The emperor apologizes for the war—an admission MacArthur actually downplays during their conversation.

  This is the first of eleven
meetings that will take place between MacArthur and Hirohito over the next several years, but it is the most important. For in this simple midmorning conversation, MacArthur makes it clear that he sees the emperor as vital to forging an alliance that will successfully rebuild Japan. Even though the emperor’s admission of culpability makes him a war criminal, MacArthur will do everything in his considerable power to make sure Hirohito never sees the inside of a jail cell—or feels the coarse braid of a hangman’s noose around his throat.

  At the meeting’s end, MacArthur’s personal photographer is shown into the room. It was Captain Gaetano Faillace who snapped the iconic image of the general wading ashore in the Philippines six months ago, and now he snaps another photo for the ages. Faillace actually takes three pictures of MacArthur and Hirohito standing side by side in front of a desk. In the first two, MacArthur’s eyes are closed and Hirohito appears to be yawning. But the third image, the one that will forever remind the Japanese people that their emperor no longer rules Japan, is the keeper.

  The six-foot MacArthur towers over Hirohito, looking dominant and unimpressed by the small man to his left. The emperor stands at stiff attention; MacArthur looks casual, hands on his hips and elbows sticking out from his sides.

  Just to make sure the message is received loud and clear, MacArthur orders that the photo be released to the newspapers so that all of Japan can see the towering American who now rules their nation.

  Predictably, the people of Japan are horrified.

  Three months later, on January 1, 1946, at MacArthur’s urging, Emperor Hirohito denies his divine status, admitting to the people of Japan that he is not a god.

  Thus, the divine nature of the Japanese ruler is revealed as a fraud—but that admission comes far too late for the millions of dead scattered across Asia.

  General Douglas MacArthur, commander of the American occupation of Japan, meets with Emperor Hirohito at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo, September 1945. [Harry S. Truman Library]

  AFTERWORD

  THE OCCUPATION OF JAPAN: TURNING AN ENEMY INTO AN ALLY

  IN THE MONTHS FOLLOWING the Japanese surrender, American soldiers and sailors poured into Japan by the thousands, disarming the Japanese military, disabling naval guns, and removing the propellers from airplanes. The long, slow process of healing the great divide between America and Japan began. In China, forty thousand U.S. Marines served garrison duty and accepted the surrender of Japanese units that had not yet fallen to the Soviets. Many Japanese forces in China had never before suffered defeat in battle; the act of laying down their arms and ceremonially burning their regimental flags was bitter and humiliating.

  Between 1945 and 1952, enormous changes took place in Japan. Emperor Hirohito was allowed to remain the symbolic figure representing Japanese unity and culture, but a legislature was set up with elected representatives to make all decisions in the country; women were given the right to vote; and the Japanese military was dismantled. The country was forbidden to form a military or ever go to war again.

  On April 28, 1952, the American occupation of Japan was ended through a treaty signed in San Francisco in 1951, and peace was formally declared between Japan and forty-eight nations that signed the treaty.

  The U.S. Pacific Fleet in Tokyo Bay after the surrender of Japan. Mount Fuji, an active volcano and the highest mountain in Japan, appears in the background. [Harry S. Truman Library]

  THE DECISION TO DEVELOP AND USE THE BOMB

  LETTER FROM ALBERT EINSTEIN TO FDR

  IN 1933 AFTER THE NAZIS came to power in Germany, Albert Einstein immigrated to the United States. The German physicist, whose famous equation opened the door to nuclear fission, understood that as a Jew he would be persecuted in his homeland. In 1939, his fame well established, Einstein succeeded in getting his thoughts about a bomb, and Germany’s experiments to build one, into the hands of President Franklin Roosevelt.

  Old Grove Rd.

  Nassau Point

  Peconic, Long Island

  August 2nd, 1939

  F.D. Roosevelt,

  President of the United States,

  White House

  Washington, D.C.

  Sir:

  Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation which has arisen seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration. I believe therefore that it is my duty to bring to your attention the following facts and recommendations:

  In the course of the last four months it has been made probable—through the work of Joliot in France as well as Fermi and Szilard in America—that it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated. Now it appears almost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future.

  This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable—though much less certain—that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air.

  The United States has only very poor ores of uranium in moderate quantities. There is some good ore in Canada and the former Czechoslovakia, while the most important source of Uranium is Belgian Congo.

  In view of this situation you may think it desirable to have some permanent contact maintained between the Administration and the group of physicists working on chain reactions in America. One possible way of achieving this might be for you to entrust with this task a person who has your confidence and who could perhaps serve in an inofficial capacity. His task might comprise the following:

  a) to approach Government Departments, keep them informed of the further development, and put forward recommendations for Government action, giving particular attention to the problem of securing a supply of uranium ore for the United States;

  b) to speed up the experimental work, which is at present being carried on within the limits of the budgets of University laboratories, by providing funds, if such funds be required, through his contacts with private persons who are willing to make a contribution for this cause, and perhaps also by obtaining the co-operation of industrial laboratories which have the necessary equipment.

  I understand that Germany has actually stopped the sale of uranium from the Czechoslovakian mines which she has taken over. That she should have taken such early action might perhaps be understood on the ground that the son of the German Under-Secretary of State, von Weizsäcker, is attached to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut in Berlin where some of the American work on uranium is now being repeated.

  Yours very truly,

  (Albert Einstein)

  [Source: FDR Presidential Library]

  GENERAL EISENHOWER’S THOUGHTS

  THE LIST OF MILITARY leaders who opposed the use of the atomic bomb is long. Most felt that Japan was near surrender. General Dwight Eisenhower reflected the feelings of many. In his book Mandate for Change, he recalls the feeling when Secretary of War Henry Stimson informed him that the bomb was about to be used:

  In 1945 … Secretary of War Stimson, visiting my headquarters in Germany, informed me that our government was preparing to drop an atomic bomb on Japan. I was one of those who felt that there were a number of cogent reasons to question the wisdom of such an act.… The Secretary, upon giving me the news of the successful bomb test in New Mexico, and of the plan for using it, asked for my reaction, apparently expecting a vigorous assent.

  During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated a
nd that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of “face.” The Secretary was deeply perturbed by my attitude.

  PRESIDENT TRUMAN’S REFLECTIONS

  THE DECISION TO USE the bomb was the president’s alone. Harry Truman wrote at length about the decision in his memoirs. In this letter written around the eighteenth anniversary of the attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he sums up his thoughts. He is writing to a journalist at the Chicago Sun-Times who had written a favorable article about Truman’s decision.

  [Source: Harry S. Truman Library/NARA]

  LETTERS AND OPINIONS FROM SUBSEQUENT PRESIDENTS

  ALL LIVING FORMER PRESIDENTS were asked by Bill O’Reilly to give their opinions about President Truman’s decision to drop the A-bomb. Presidents George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, former navy men, share their thoughts below, along with President George W. Bush. Each agrees with Truman’s decision. (Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama declined to give their opinions of Truman’s actions.)

  James Earl Carter, a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, was considered to be an active-duty serviceman during the war. He entered Annapolis in 1943 and graduated with the class of 1946. If the war had not ended, Carter would most certainly have been sent to the Pacific with his classmates as part of the invasion that would have been launched against Japan. Carter later served on the USS Mississippi, a battleship that had seen extensive service in the Pacific theater. In 1948, he transitioned to submarines, where he trained to be the engineering officer on one of the first nuclear submarines. Jimmy Carter resigned from the navy in 1953 after his father died.