Photographer: Abbie Rowe.
Oval Office, White House, U.S.A.
U.S. President, Harry S. Truman, announces the surrender of Japan to a jostling crowd of press reporters, on the 14th of August, 1945 in this photo by Abbie Rowe. A Virginia born, former public works and distinguished National Park Service photographer who after being assigned to Roosevelt in 1941 had gone on to document the tenure and presidential activities of four more U.S. presidents, till replaced by John F. Kennedy sometime during 1961.
Documenting a scene that had yearned to play itself out after the surrender of Germany on the 8th of May, 1945, and one that at the time both the people of the U.S. and its armed forces had desperately wanted to hear. What Abbie Rowe had in essence captured on the day, was not just a U.S. president making an announcement that seconds after its broadcast would leave a nation jubilant, but a milestone in history and the monumental moment that marked the end of World War II – that since America’s entry in the war, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on the 7th of December, 1941 and the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on the 9th of August, 1945, had raged with uninterrupted ferocity, claiming 4,07, 316 American lives, out of a grand total of 60 million casualties, worldwide.
Rowe’s focus on this occasion had been the 33rd U.S. President, Harry S. Truman. The son of a farmer from Independence, Missouri, whose career had started out as a senator under suspicious circumstances yet later was to leave behind an impressionable mark in American politics – and to be fondly remembered as an ordinary man who without a formal college degree, the wealth or prior experience in governance had scored a surprising win for the post of vice president and later been twice elected as the president of the U.S.
Taking over the helm of affairs after the death of his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt on the 12th of April, 1945, although Truman, was ultimately responsible for authorizing the use of the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A decisive call be had reserved solely for himself and taken after a lengthy discourse with his advisory committee and the U.S. Joint Chief of Staff.
The bombing in reality had happened under an allied agreement, particularly a British-American joint agreement, with Winston Churchill and possibly Russian Premier, Stalin, keenly aware of the clandestine operation, and a decision that ideally had been one for his predecessor, Franklin Roosevelt, to make – as he had been the president who had sanctioned funds for the nuclear project in 1939 and in collaboration with Churchill and Stalin, paved much of the path for victory. Including forming the decision of using the atomic weapons, if the need arised, on the Axis powers of Germany and Japan. Both of which at the time had also been experimenting with developing their own atomic weapons, yet by 1945 had failed to achieve any results.
While Truman’s first brush with the top secret nuclear program had come about accidentally in 1943 when as a senator he had initiated an investigation into the National Defense Program and almost immediately been confronted by U.S. Secretary of War, Henry Stimson.
He had formally been acquainted with the Manhattan project, on the night he had taken oath as the 33rd president of the United States, and fully debriefed thirteen days later, on the 25th of April, 1945 by none other than Stimson himself as well as Major General Leslie Groves – the high ranking commanding officer, responsible for building and spearheading the top secret Manhattan Project.
The decisive call to use the atom bombs had come about after the close of the Postdam conference held between the 17th of July and 2nd of August, 1945. In which the three allied leaders, Churchill, Stalin and Truman had met to address goals and issue Japan with a final ultimatum – almost two months after the unconditional surrender of Germany, on 8th of May, 1945.
Though Truman at the time was to make it clear, the aim had not been the destruction of the Japanese culture or the imprisonment of its people but only to rupture Japan’s military aggression. In modern times, questions have been raised over this historic decision, and Truman sometime been called a war-criminal by his detractors and those opposed to the deployment of the atomic bombs in 1945.
Especially as it had happened at a point when Japan had reached the brink of collapse both economically and militarily via naval blockades, defeat of its armies, and conventional bombardments that had razed its cities including Tokyo, and further stood to be invaded by both Russian troops, amassing on the Manchurian borders, and U.S. forces – leading some to believe, Japan would have inevitably surrendered by the 1st of November, 1945 even without having to launch an invasion.
The more widely accepted view, however, remains that its use had primarily been intended to bring World War II to an effective and quick end, without having to sacrifice a million more human lives, both allied and Japanese, during a time when both the American people and its armed forces had become weary of the conflict and begun to publicly display signs of anxious concern.
More significantly, in the wake of Japan’s rejection of unconditional surrender and a full fledged invasion of its homeland becoming a necessity to curb the military aggression it had unleashed in 1931 – when to secure raw materials and fuel for sustaining its own industries, it had embarked on a war footing and invaded China, then after pushing the Americans and British out, extended its influence to encompass much of the east, and reach a few miles short of the very tip of Australia, before being driven back by U.S. and allied troops.
Supporting this view is the work of several noted historians. Among whom military historian, Paul D. Walker, highlights curated information of U.S. war planners who at the time had anticipated the invasion to have cost between 8,00,000 – 1,000,000 casualties. Bearing in mind, Japan’s later record of waging a fanatical war with suicidal attacks becoming its main offensive, entrenched garrisons fighting ferociously to the last man, ordinary citizens ending their own lives en masse, and its agenda to groom its entire male population with the ancient Bushido code of honor to fight for its defense without question.
A fact author Denis Wainstock reveals had indeed been Japan’s plan in the desperate hours by quoting Japanese Admiral Tomioka, who is recorded to have said that after the realization that a Japanese victory had been impossible, the only alternative left had been to discourage an invasion by inflicting heavy losses. With another exponent of the view, historian Robert P. Newman, further adding, that besides the war planner’s concern over the high causality rate. Moral had also become a crucial factor. As after the victory over Germany, as U.S. troops had looked forward to return home to their families and friends under the assumption the terrible war was finally over, the news that they had to yet fight Japan in the Pacific had led many of them to openly complain and refuse to continue.
A sentiment that had also found voice with U.S commanding officers like, George Marshal, a General with the U.S. Chief of Staff, who at the end of the war had stated, “A democracy cannot fight a seven years war’, and in the opinion of the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, Ernest King, who had expressed his concern that, ‘pressure at home would have forced a negotiated peace before Japan could be defeated’.
Truman himself was to not only accept the full responsibility for the atomic bombing but also stand by his decision till his death on the 26th of December, 1972 – defending his role in his memoirs as well as to the public as can be seen in the letter below.
This photo captured by Rowe was later cataloged by the U.S National Archives Catalog as a part of its photographic series related to the administration, family and personal life of Harry S. Truman, 1957-2004. Assigned to the White House at a time when there had been no dedicated photographer for the job, Rowe, from 1941 to 1961, was to find ample opportunities to create an exhaustive collection of photos featuring presidents, events, ceremonies and presidential activities. Rowe, also finds mention in the National Archives and prior to his death in 1967, had become a recipient of the Service Award for the Department of Interior.
