Carl Robichaud

There was some talk of inviting the Japanese to see a demonstration at the Trinity test site.

But again, there was concern, what if the demonstration doesn't go as expected?

and we'd be tipping our hand as to this device that we have.

So ultimately, they decided to drop it with very little notification.

And they considered maybe saying, evacuate the city, we'll drop it.

But then they were concerned that the Japanese would shoot down the plane.

So this debate is treated very quickly in the Oppenheimer film, but it's not exactly how it played out.

Yeah.

So they had estimates of what it would take for the invasion.

And nobody knew, of course, but I think the median estimates were something like 100,000 US troops dead in the invasion of the islands, which obviously would have been awful.

And any president has to think first and foremost of the lives of those US service members.

But it wasn't the number that was cited in the post-war propaganda.

And I just want to acknowledge that we're having this conversation around the time of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

And it's striking to me that there are people who are alive today who live through that.

And the other day, I listened to an interview with Setsuko Thurlow, and she's...

a survivor of Hiroshima.

And it's this incredibly courageous act that she continues to bear witness in a recognition of this suffering that can last generations.

And I just want to acknowledge that we should be listening to those voices as well.

That's an incredible book.

And the story behind it's pretty remarkable because you have Hersey, who is this, really, he's a recognized war reporter.