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source three
Extracts from ‘The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb’ by Henry Stimson, Truman’s Secretary of War, published in the Daily Telegraph, 14 February 1947
(Catalogue ref: PREM 8/486)
PREM 8/486; extract from article by Stimson, 1947 PREM 8/486; extract from article by Stimson, 1947 PREM 8/486; extract from article by Stimson, 1947 PREM 8/486; extract from article by Stimson, 1947 PREM 8/486; extract from article by Stimson, 1947
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Transcript
AIR 48/15; US survey of damage of Tokyo, 1945

Questions
  1. What reasons does Stimson give for deciding to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

  2. Do you think the majority of British and American people in 1947 would have thought that these were good reasons for the decision?

  3. Do you think the majority of Japanese people in 1947 would have thought that these were good reasons for the decision?

  4. Do you get the impression that the decision to use the bomb was taken lightly?

  5. What are three questions that you would have liked to ask Stimson in order to find out more about the event?
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