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Обращение президента США Трумена к нации 6 августа
1945 |
THE WHITE HOUSE, Washington, D.C.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- August 6, 1945
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an
important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of
T.N.T. It had more than two thousand times the blast power of the British "Grand
Slam" which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare.
The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been
repaid many fold. And the end is not yet. With this bomb we have now added a new
and revolutionary increase in destruction to supplement the growing power of our
armed forces. In their present form these bombs are now in production and even
more powerful forms are in development.
It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe.
The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who
brought war to the Far East.
Before 1939, it was the accepted belief of scientists that it was
theoretically possible to release atomic energy. But no one knew any practical
method of doing it. By 1942, however, we knew that the Germans were working
feverishly to find a way to add atomic energy to the other engines of war with
which they hoped to enslave the world. But they failed. We may be grateful to
Providence that the Germans got the V-1's and the V-2's late and in limited
quantities and even more grateful that they did not get the atomic bomb at
all.
The battle of the laboratories held fateful risks for us as well as the
battles of the air, land, and sea, and we have now won the battle of the
laboratories as we have won the other battles.
Beginning in 1940, before Pearl Harbor, scientific knowledge useful in war
was pooled between the United States and Great Britain, and many priceless helps
to our victories have come from that arrangement. Under that general policy the
research on the atomic bomb was begun. With American and British scientists
working together we entered the race of discovery against the Germans.
The United States had available the large number of scientists of distinction
in the many needed areas of knowledge. It had the tremendous industrial and
financial resources necessary for the project and they could be devoted to it
without undue impairment of other vital war work. In the United States the
laboratory work and the production plants, on which a substantial start had
already been made, would be out of reach of enemy bombing, while at that time
Britain was exposed to constant air attack and was still threatened with the
possibility of invasion. For these reasons Prime Minister Churchill and
President Roosevelt agreed that it was wise to carry on the project here. We now
have two great plants and many lesser works devoted to the production of atomic
power. Employment during peak construction numbered 125,000 and over 65,000
individuals are even now engaged in operating the plants. Many have worked there
for two and a half years. Few know what they have been producing. They see great
quantities of material going in and they see nothing coming out of those plants,
for the physical size of the explosive charge is exceedingly small. We have
spent two billion dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history - and
won.
But the greatest marvel is not the size of the enterprise, its secrecy, nor
its cost, but the achievement of scientific brains in putting together
infinitely complex pieces of knowledge held by many men in different fields of
science into a workable plan. And hardly less marvelous has been the capacity of
industry to design, and of labor to operate, the machines and methods to do
things never done before so that the brain child of many minds came forth in
physical shape and performed as it was supposed to do. Both science and industry
worked under the direction of the United States Army, which achieved a unique
success in managing so diverse a problem in the advancement of knowledge in an
amazingly short time. It is doubtful if such another combination could be got
together in the world. What has been done is the greatest achievement of
organized science in history. It was done under high pressure and without
failure.
We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every
productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city. We shall
destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no
mistake; we shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war.
It was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction that the ultimatum
of July 26 was issued at Potsdam. Their leaders promptly rejected that
ultimatum. If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin
from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth. Behind this
air attack will follow sea and land forces in such numbers and power as they
have not yet seen and with the fighting skill of which they are already well
aware.
The Secretary of War, who has kept in personal touch with all phases of the
project, will immediately make public a statement giving further details.
His statement will give facts concerning the sites at Oak Ridge near
Knoxville, Tennessee, and at Richland near Pasco, Washington, and an
installation near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Although the workers at the sites have
been making materials to be used in producing the greatest destructive force in
history they have not themselves been in danger beyond that of many other
occupations, for the utmost care has been taken of their safety.
The fact that we can release atomic energy ushers in a new era in man's
understanding of nature's forces. Atomic energy may in the future supplement the
power that now comes from coal, oil, and falling water, but at present it cannot
be produced on a basis to compete with them commercially. Before that comes
there must be a long period of intensive research.
It has never been the habit of the scientists of this country or the policy
of this Government to withhold from the world scientific knowledge. Normally,
therefore, everything about the work with atomic energy would be made
public.
But under present circumstances it is not intended to divulge the technical
processes of production or all the military applications, pending further
examination of possible methods of protecting us and the rest of the world from
the danger of sudden destruction.
I shall recommend that the Congress of the United States consider promptly
the establishment of an appropriate commission to control the production and use
of atomic power within the United States. I shall give further consideration and
make further recommendations to the Congress as to how atomic power can become a
powerful and forceful influence towards the maintenance of world
peace.
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