Gentlemen,
Perhaps one of you historians can answer this question for me. I am looking for a positive answer and not theory. Here's my question:
Roosevelt knew about Oppenheimer's project since it's beginning and I would imagine that Opp. kept Roosevelt pretty much informed as to the progress that was going on in "The Manhatten Project". In 1944 the Japanese were actually no longer aggressing in the Pacific theater as there supply lines and troop capacity had been pretty much spent as well as their oil capacity could carry them. In other words they could not expect to take Australia (for example) with what little war supplies they had. So essentially the Japanese Army was at a stalemate, expecting the US to invade the island chains (as we did). Ok, here's my question, why did thousands of American Marines and sailors as well as Army GI's have to die taking island by island when Roosevelt knew that Opps work was progressing. If we had done nothing but keep the Japanese at bay (not invaded)in the islands until "the bomb" was ready 6 months 8 months who cares, we would never had had the casualities we had. Drop one on Tarawa if they didn't give up drop one on the next island ect, ect. until they would have given up. At what exact point did Roosevelt know that an atomic bomb could be used in the forseeable future???

Thanks in Advance
Von Ryan

Wayne,

He died before any decision on used was made, I think.

Dave

Dave,

He may have died before any decision was made, but he had just no idea about the progress of what was going on in "The Project"? Come on....

W.

I did not mean to imply he did not know of the project, but he died in April, before they even knew if it worked and how well.

If my memory is correct, the test at almagordo was in (late?)July. That quantified that the thing worked and what damage it did. There was much speculation of what would actually happen .... like with breaking the sound barrier.

Dave

Yeah, but I want to know not when things happened, but rather what Roosevelt knew about the PROGRESS of the whole Manhatten Project. Could Roosevelt have delayed the invasions long enough to wait until "the bomb" was ready?
W.

Von Ryan

Your question seems to be based on the presumption that Roosevelt, or anyone else, knew for certain that the Manhatten "experiment" would ever work... and, that they knew the exact date when it would be successfully finished.

What facts do base that presumption on?

Also,I wouldn't think that you would expect the participating Allies to have just stopped and waited indefinitely in the jungles of the South Pacific because of a rumored American super weapon.

quote:

Originally posted by Von Ryan:
Drop one on Tarawa if they didn't give up drop one on the next island ect, ect. until they would have given up. At what exact point did Roosevelt know that an atomic bomb could be used in the forseeable future???

Thanks in Advance
Von Ryan

As stated before, the Alamogordo test took place on 16 July, 1945, about three months after the death of FDR. Prior to Trinity, there was much theory of whether the bomb would work, and what the true effects would be, with no hard evidence. Standing pat would have been politically unacceptable at home if the bomb either didn't work or worked less than promised.

The problem with dropping bombs on outlying areas before on one of the main islands was that there simply weren't enough atomic weapons to do that. The first three were used in either testing (Trinity) or in action (Hiroshima and Nagasaki). After Nagasaki, it would have been nearly a month before another would be ready, with only six more probably complete by the end of the year.

At the time, it was not a certainty that the Japanese would sue for peace after Nagasaki. Remember, Japan had been undergoing firebomb raids since at least 3 February 1945, with the raid on Tokyo killing a comparable number if not exceeding those killed in Hiroshima, and the Japanese showed no signs of surrendering. Only 20/20 hindsight allows us to assume the Japanese would surrender after the initial atomic raids.

If the Japanese did not capitulate, Operation DOWNFALL was to be put into place with Operation OLYMPIC slated to begin 1 Nov. 1945 and existing atomic weapon production would have been used in support of ground operations, in a tactical, rather than strategic, manner.

Casualties for OLYMPIC and CORONET were estimated to be so heavy that orders were placed for Purple Heart medals in anticipation of the invasion. The numbers of Purple Hearts produced was so huge that they were sufficient for the end of WW2, all of Korea, and all of Vietnam, with some being recently sold as surplus.

Bottom line, with the information known at the time, the best case scenario happened. Making warplans on untested, unproven wonder weapons was the realm of Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler. We could not afford to do so.

quote:

Originally posted by foxart:
Also,I wouldn't think that you would expect the participating Allies to have just stopped and waited indefinitely in the jungles of the South Pacific because of a rumored American super weapon.

Especially with the Japanese active in Burma, China and Manchuria.