Reconsidering Truman's claim of ‘half a million American lives’ saved by the atomic bomb: The construction and deconstruction of a myth

Notes

• 1955 . Year of Decisions , 417 Garden City, NY : Doubleday .
   Google Scholar
• Allison , Graham . 1971 . Essence of Decision: Explaining The Cuban Missile Crisis , 181 Boston : Little, Brown .
   Google Scholar
• Capaccio , Tony and Mohan , Uday . 1995 . ‘Missing The Target’ . American Journalism Review , July/Aug. : 18 – 26 .
   Google Scholar
• Capaccio , Tony . “ ‘How Many Casualties?’ ” . 25 ibid.,
   Google Scholar
• Churchill , Winston . 1953 . The Second World War, Vol. VI, Triumph and Tragedy , 639 Boston : Houghton, Mifflin .
   Google Scholar
• Stimson , Henry L. 1947 . ‘The Decision to Use The Atomic Bomb’ . Harper's Magazine , 194 Feb. : 97 – 107 . 102 – 6 .
   Google Scholar
• Byrnes . 1958 . All in One Lifetime , 286 NY : Harper .
   Google Scholar
• 1944 . Health , 31 Dec.
   Google Scholar
• Beebe , Gilbert and DeBakey , Michael . 1952 . Battle Casualties: Incidence, Mortality, and Logistic Considerations , 47 – 57 . Springfield, IL : Charles Thomas .
   Google Scholar
• 1998 . World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1998 , 161 NY : World Almanac Books .
   Google Scholar
• Bernstein , Barton J. 1985 . ‘The Myth of Lives Saved by A‐bomb’ . Los Angeles Times, , 28 July : 1 – 2 . Sect. IV,
   Google Scholar
• 1986 . ‘A Postwar Myth 500,000 Lives Saved’ . Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , 42 June/July : 38 – 41 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Miles , Rufus Jr . 1985 . ‘Hiroshima The Strange Myth of Half a Million American Lives Saved’ . International Security , 10 Fall : 121 – 40 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Miles . “ ‘Hiroshima’ ” . 139
   Google Scholar
• Drea , Edward . 1992 . MacArthur's Ultra: Codebreaking and the War Against Japan, 1942–1945 , 216 – 25 . Lawrence : U. of Kansas Press .
   Google Scholar
• Drea . 1995 . ‘Previews of Hell’ . Military History Quarterly , 7 Spring : 74 – 81 .
   Google Scholar
• 1960 . Foreign Relations of the United States: Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), , Vol. II , 346 Washington DC : GPO .
   Google Scholar
• Bernstein , Barton J. 1998 . ‘Truman and the A‐Bomb: Targeting Noncombatants, Using the Bomb, and Defending The “Decision"’ . Journal of Military History , 62 July : 551 – 3 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Bernstein . 1995 . “ ‘The Struggle Over History: Defining the Hiroshima Narrative’ ” . In Judgment at the Smithsonian , Edited by: Nobile , Philip . 178 – 85 . NY : Marlowe .
   Google Scholar
• Bernstein . 1995 . ‘Wrong Numbers,’ . Independent , July : 41 – 4 .
   Google Scholar
• McCullough , David . 1992 . Truman , 400 – 1 . NY : Simon & Schuster .
   Google Scholar
• Capaccio , Tony . “ ‘How Many Casualties?’ ” . 25 (note 5)
   Google Scholar
• 1994 . Defense Week, , 11 Oct. : 1 8 – 9 .
   Google Scholar
• Maddox , Robert J. 1995 . Weapons For Victory The Hiroshima Decision Fifty Years Later , 3 – 4 . 59 – 62 . 117 – 21 . Columbia : U. of Missouri Press .
   Google Scholar
• Kagan , Donald . 1995 . ‘Why America Dropped the Bomb’ . Commentary , 100 Sept. : 18 – 20 .
   Google Scholar
• Newman , Robert P. 1995 . Truman and the Hiroshima Cult , 8 – 11 . 17 – 20 . East Lansing : Michigan State UP .
   Google Scholar
• Newman . 1998 . ‘Hiroshima and The Trashing of Henry Stimson’ . New England Quarterly , 71 March : 5 – 32 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Giangreco , D. M. 1997 . ‘Casualty Projections for the US Invasions of Japan, 1945–1946: Planning and Policy Implications’ . Journal of Military History , 61 July : 521 – 81 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Skates , John Ray . 1994 . The Invasion of Japan: Alternative to the Bomb , 74 – 83 . 244 255 – 7 . Columbia : U. of South Carolina Press .
   Google Scholar
• Maslowski , Peter . 1995 . ‘Truman, the Bomb, and the Numbers Game’ . Military History Quarterly , 7 Spring : 103 – 7 .
   Google Scholar
• Alperovitz , Gar . 1995 . The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb , 516 – 9 . 578 – 613 . 466 – 70 . NY : Knopf .
   Google Scholar
• Walker , J. Samuel . 1997 . Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan , 38 – 41 . 116 – 19 . Chapel Hill : UNC Press .
   Google Scholar
• Newman . Truman 137 – 45 . 185 – 90 . (note 15)
   Google Scholar
• Dower , John . 1986 . War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War , 294 – 302 . 362 – 5 . NY : Pantheon .
   Google Scholar
• Inega , Saburo . 1978 . The Pacific War World War II and the Japanese, 1931–45 , NY : Pantheon .
   Google Scholar
• Giangreco . “ ‘Casualty Projections’ ” . 539 564
   Google Scholar
• Newman , Both . Truman 7 – 8 . (note 15)
   Google Scholar
• Giangreco . “ ‘Casualty Projections’ ” . 539 (note 16)
   Google Scholar
• Nimitz , Chester W. “ ‘Joint Staff Study, Kyushu Island Operation’ ” . Washington, D.C : Naval Archives, Washington Naval Yard .
   Google Scholar
• Joint Staff Planners . 25 April 1945 . “ ‘Pacific Strategy,’ ” . 25 April , JCS 924/15.
   Google Scholar
• King , Ernest . 2 May 1945 . “ ‘Pacific Strategy’ ” . 2 May ,
   Google Scholar
• Joint Strategic Survey Committee . 30 Aug. 1944 . “ ‘Operations Against Japan Subsequent to Formosa’ ” . 30 Aug. ,
   Google Scholar
• Shockley , W. B. and Bowles , Edward . 21 July 1945 . “ ‘Proposal for Increasing the Scope of Casualty Studies’ ” . 21 July ,
   Google Scholar
• Newman . Truman 18 – 19 . (note 15),
   Google Scholar
• Newman , Giangreco . “ ‘Casualty Projections’ ” . 568 – 9 . (note 16)
   Google Scholar
• Smith , Clarence McK. 1956 . The Medical Department: Hospitalization and Evacuation, Zone of Interior , 209 – 13 . Washington DC : GPO .
   Google Scholar
• 1944 . Health , 31 July
   Google Scholar
• Beebe and DeBakey . Battle Casualties 218 – 68 . (note 8)
   Google Scholar
• Joint War Plans Committee . 15 June 1945 . “ ‘Details of the Campaign Against Japan’ ” . 15 June ,
   Google Scholar
• Joint Staff Planners . 9 July 1945 . “ ‘Details of the Campaign Against Japan’ ” . 9 July ,
   Google Scholar
• Maddox . Weapons 60 (note 14),
   Google Scholar
• JWPC . 15 June 1945 . “ ‘Details of the Campaign Against Japan’ ” . 15 June ,
   Google Scholar
• Manchester , William . 1979 . American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880–1964 , 513 NY : Dell .
   Google Scholar
• Drea . MacArthur's Ultra 209 – 10 . (note 11)
   Google Scholar
• Leahy , I . 1950 . Was There: The Personal Story of the Chief of Staff to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman Based on hs Notes and Diaries Made at The Time , 384 NY : Whittlesey House .
   Google Scholar
• Maddox . Weapons 3 – 4 . (note 14),
   Google Scholar
• Newman . Truman 202 (note 15),
   Google Scholar
• 1945 . Health , 31 May
   Google Scholar
• Beebe and DeBakey . Battle Casualties 36 – 44 . (note 8),
   Google Scholar
• Strangely , Thomas Allen and Polmar , Norman . 1995 . Code‐Name Downfall: The Secret Plan to lnvadeJapan ‐ and Why Truman Dropped the Bomb , 211 NY : Simon & Schuster .
   Google Scholar
• FRUS: Berlin (Potsdam) , I 909
   Google Scholar
• Drea . MacArthur's Ultra 203 – 6 . (note 11)
   Google Scholar
• JWPC . 4 Aug. 1945 . “ ‘Alternatives to Olympic’ ” . 4 Aug. ,
   Google Scholar
• Drea . MacArthur's Ultra 220 – 2 . (note 11)
   Google Scholar
• White , H. V. 31 Dec. 1945 . “ ‘The Japanese Plans for the Defense of Kyushu’ ” . 31 Dec. ,
   Google Scholar
• Jim Underwood, of Australia , Denis and Warner , Peggy . 1982 . Sacred Warriors: Japan's Suicide Legions , 299 – 304 . NY : Van Nostrand Reinhold .
   Google Scholar
• Ennis , R. F. 30 April 1945 . “ ‘Use of Atomic Bombs on Japan’ ” . 30 April ,
   Google Scholar
• Bernstein , Barton J. 1997–98 . “ ‘The Alarming Buildup on Kyushu: Would Olympic Have Been Shifted?’ ” . unpub. paper).
   Google Scholar
• Bernstein . 1995 . ‘Understanding the Atomic Bomb and the Japanese Surrender: Missed Opportunities, Little‐Known Near Disasters, and Modern Memory’ . Diplomatic History , 19 Spring : 236 – 68 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• 1961 . Public Papers of the Presidents: Harry S. Truman 1945 , 197 – 200 . Washington DC : GPO .
   Google Scholar
• Hillman , William , ed. 1952 . Mr. President , 248 NY : Hill and Wang .
   Google Scholar
• Giangreco . “ ‘Casualty Projections’ ” . 569 – 71 . (note 16)
   Google Scholar
• Craven , Wesley F. and Cate , James L. , eds. 1953 . The Army Air Forces in World War 11 , Vol. V , U. of Chicago Press .
   Google Scholar
• Bernstein . 1992 . ‘Writing, Righting, or Wronging the Historical Record’ . Diplomatic History , 16 Winter : 163 – 73 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Alperovitz . Decision 517 – 20 . (note 17)
   Google Scholar
• Giangreco . “ ‘Casualty Projections’ ” . 521 – 2 . 569 – 73 .
   Google Scholar
• Kagan , Donald . “ ‘Why America Dropped the Bomb?’ ” . In Commentary 20 (note 14)
   Google Scholar
• Schott , Webster . 1954 . ‘How the Memoirs Were Written’ . New Republic , 134 19 March : 18 – 19 .
   Google Scholar
• Williams , Herbert Lee . 1982 . ‘I Was Truman's Ghost’ . Presidential Studies Quarterly , 12 Spring : 256 – 9 .
   Google Scholar
• Heller , Francis . 1983 . ‘The Writing of the Truman Memoirs’ . ibid. , 13 Spring : 81 – 4 .
   Google Scholar
• Truman . Memoirs, I, Year of Decisions 265 (note 3)
   Google Scholar
• Kagan . “ ‘Why America Dropped the Bomb?’ ” . 19 (note 14)
   Google Scholar
• Bartley , Whitman . 1954 . Iwo Jima: Amphibious Epic , 210 220 – 2 . Washington DC : GPO .
   Google Scholar
• Garand , George and Strobridge , Truman . 1971 . Western Pacific Operations , Vol. IV , 475 – 7 . 797 Washington DC : GPO .
   Google Scholar
• Beebe . Battle Casualties, 48 DeBakey
   Google Scholar
• FRUS Conference of Berlin ( Potsdam) , I 905
   Google Scholar
• Appleman , Roy . 1948 . Okinawa: The Last Battle , 488 – 91 . Washington, DC : GPO .
   Google Scholar
• 1945 . United States Army in World War II; and Army Service Forces, Health, , 30 Sept.
   Google Scholar
• 1945 . Health , 30 Sept.
   Google Scholar
• Beebe and DeBakey . Battle Casualties 48 (note 8)
   Google Scholar
• FRUS: Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), , I 905 – 9 .
   Google Scholar
• Bernstein . “ ‘The Struggle Over History Defining the Hiroshima Narrative’ ” . 127 – 256 .
   Google Scholar
• Walker , J. Samuel . 1996 . “ ‘The Decision to Use the Bomb A Historiographical Update’ ” . In Hiroshima in History and Memory Edited by: Hogan , Michael . 11 – 37 . NY : CUP, .
   Google Scholar
• Bernstein . 1991 . ‘Eclipsed by Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Early Thinking About Tactical Nuclear Weapons’ . International Security , 15 Spring : 149 – 73 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Lifton , Robert Jay and Mitchell , Greg . 1995 . Hiroshima in America: Fifty Years of Denial , 179 – 82 . NY : Grosset/Putnam .
   Google Scholar
• Bernstein . “ ‘Writing, Righting, or Wronging the Historical Record’ ” . 163 – 73 . (note 54)
   Google Scholar
• Alperovitz . Decision 409 – 570 . (note 17)
   Google Scholar
• Mohan , Uday and Maley , Leo III . 1997 . “ ‘Orthodoxy and Dissent The American News Media and the Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb Against Japan, 1945–1995’ ” . In Media Memories: Anglo‐American Images of Japan , Edited by: Hammond , Phil . 144 – 50 . Washington DC : Cassell .
   Google Scholar
• Miller , Merle . 1973 . Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman , 244 – 8 . NY : Berkeley .
   Google Scholar
• 1995 . ‘Plain Faking?’ . American Heritage , 46 May‐June : 14 – 16 .
   Google Scholar
• Carpozi , George Jr . 1965 . ‘Hiroshima Plus 20’ . Pageant , Sept.
   Google Scholar
• 1965 . New York World Telegram and Sun, , 13 Feb.
   Google Scholar
• Truman . 1960 . Truman Speaks , 67 NY : Columbia U. .
   Google Scholar
• Truman , Margaret , ed. 1989 . Where The Buck Stops The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman , 206 NY : Warner Books .
   Google Scholar
• Alperovitz . Decision 558 (note 17)
   Google Scholar
• Truman , Margaret . 1973 . Harry S. Truman , 273 NY : William Morrow .
   Google Scholar
• Gallup , George . 1971 . The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935–1971 , 521 – 2 . NY : Random .
   Google Scholar
• Graham , Thomas . 1988 . American Public Opinion on NATO, Extended Deterrence, and Use of Nuclear Weapons , 81 – 3 . Cambridge, MA : Harvard UP .
   Google Scholar
• Bernstein . “ ‘Understanding the Atomic Bomb’ ” . 265 – 7 . (note 41)
   Google Scholar
• Bernstein , Barton J. 1987 . ‘Ike and Hiroshima Did He Oppose it?’ . Journal of Strategic Studies , 10 ( 3 ) Sept. : 377 – 89 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Walker . Prompt and Utter Destruction 1 – 5 . (note 17)
   Google Scholar
• Alperovitz . Decision 319 – 65 . (note 17)
   Google Scholar
• Bundy , McGeorge . 1988 . Danger and Survival: Choices About the Bomb in the First Fifty Years , 79 – 84 . NY : Random .
   Google Scholar
• Bernstein . 1990 . ‘An Analysis of ‘Two Cultures’ Writing About the Making and the Using of the Atomic Bombs’ . Public Historian , 12 Spring : 95 – 100 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Allison . Essence of Decision 181 152 – 3 . (note 4)
   Google Scholar
• Bernstein . 1993 . ‘Seizing the Contested Terrain of Nuclear History: Stimson, Conant, and Their Allies Explain the Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb’ . Diplomatic History , 17 Winter : 35 – 72 .
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Hershberg , James . 1993 . James B. Conant: Harvard to Hiroshima and the Making of the Nuclear Age , 279 – 304 . NY : Knopf .
   Google Scholar
• Alperovitz . Decision 448 – 71 . (note 17)
   Google Scholar
• Newman . 1998 . ‘Hiroshima and the Trashing of Henry Stimson’ . New England Quarterly , March
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kennedy , Robert F. 1969 . Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis , NY : Norton .
   Google Scholar
• Bernstein . 1992 . “ ‘Reconsiderng the Missile Crisis Dealing with the Problems of the American Jupiters in Turkey’ ” . In The Cuban Missile Crisis Revisited , Edited by: Nathan , James . 55 – 129 . NY : St Martin's .
   Google Scholar
• Nash , Philip . 1997 . The Other Missiles of October: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Jupiters , 91 – 176 . Chapel Hill : UNC Press .
   Google Scholar
• 1996 . CIA Targets Fidel Secret 1967 Inspector General's Report on Plots to Assassinate Fidel Castro , 1 – 84 . Melbourne Ocean Press .
   Google Scholar
• Lichterman , Marvin . 1963 . “ ’To The Yalu and Back,’ ” . In American Civil‐Military Relations: A Book of Case Studies , Edited by: Stein , Harold . 569 – 639 . Birmingham : U. of Alabama Press .
   Google Scholar
• Neustadt . 1960 . Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership , NY : Signet .
   Google Scholar
• Acheson , Dean . 1969 . Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department , 426 – 78 . NY : Norton .
   Google Scholar
• McLellan , David . 1976 . Dean Acheson: The State Department Years , 280 – 94 . NY : Dodd, Mead .
   Google Scholar
• Department of State . 1976 . Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, VII , 1204 – 8 . Washington DC : GPO .
   Google Scholar