Hiroshima: The World's Bomb PDF
Preview Hiroshima: The World's Bomb
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 OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork ©AndrewJ.Rotter2008 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2008 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Rotter,AndrewJon. Hiroshima:theworld’sbomb/AndrewJ.Rotter. 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 ClaysLtd,StIvesplc 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
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