ORDER TO DROP THE ATOMIC BOMB Handy to Spaatz, National Archives (July 25,
1945)
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The document below is the order to attack Japanese cities
with atomic bombs. In it, the Acting Army Chief of
Staff, Thomas Handy, orders Commanding General Carl
Spaatz, Army Strategic Air Forces, to "deliver [the] first
special bomb as soon as weather will permit . . . after
about 3 August 1945." The target list: "Hiroshima,
Kokura, Niigata, and Nagasaki." Further attacks were
also authorized: "additional bombs will be delivered on
the above targets as soon as made ready." Handy was
the acting chief of staff because George Marshall was with
President Harry S. Truman at the
Potsdam Conference. The letter explicitly notes that this order was
approved by Marshall and Secretary of War Henry
Stimson. Truman, of course, provided the ultimate
authorization for dropping the bomb.
The document is available on the
National Archives web site. To read a transcript of the letter
click here.
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Sources and notes for this page.
The text for this page is original to the Department of
Energy's
Office of History and Heritage Resources.
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