As the story goes, prior to unleashing the atom bomb Americans dropped millions of leaflets over various cities in Japan as a warning. But according to the Nagasaki Memorial, none of those leaflets ever mentioned the atom bomb prior to August 6, 1945.
The bomb destroyed 70% of Hiroshima's buildings instantaneously. (Photo: lanl.gov)
Over the summer, during the systematic bombing of 35 cities, Allied forces did drop leaflets that promised "prompt and utter destruction" if they did not "evacuate these cities immediately". But it wasn't until a full two days after the bomb had dropped that they mentioned the existence of a brand-new weapon.
As John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War, recalled in his Challenge to American Foreign Policy:
"Not one of the Chiefs nor the Secretary thought well of a bomb warning, an effective argument being that no one could be certain, in spite of the assurances of the scientists, that the 'thing would go off.'"
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