The Bomb And The Flag [Some Sunday Context]

This Day (An America 250 History Show)

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2026

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For our "Sunday Context" series, we advance the story from Iwo Jima by a few months to August 1945, when the United States drops nuclear weapons on Japan in order to bring an end to WWII. We're joined by Garrett Graff to discuss the brutal calculus that went into that decision.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, Jody Avergan here. Welcome to our Some Sunday context series, where we are bringing you conversations new and from the archives that try and give you a little context for what we are up to here in 26 with our 50 weeks that shaped America series.
0:20.7	This past week, we talked about the battle on Iwo Jima, which was part of the so-called
0:25.4	island hopping strategy as American forces worked their way towards Japan in the spring of
0:30.9	1945.
0:32.6	Of course, despite some success in battles like Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the war would not come to an end because of
0:38.7	this strategy, but because of the decision to drop atomic weapons a couple months later in
0:45.0	August of 45. So today we are bringing you an episode with the fantastic writer and reporter
0:51.0	Garrett Graf about the decision to drop those bombs, which takes us right to
0:56.6	those fateful final months of the war between Iwo Jima and Hiroshima.
1:02.2	Now, before we get to that, a quick reminder that we have a newsletter, America 250 Watch,
1:07.4	with a free edition every Thursday rounding up everything that is happening in the world
1:11.4	of America 250. And for those of you who are paying subscribers, you get a lot of bonus stuff,
1:17.6	including early ad-free access to all our episodes this year delivered right to your inbox
1:22.7	on Sunday afternoons. Up next, we're going to be talking about Valley Forge all the way back in
1:28.0	1778, George Washington, bedraggled American troops, Prussian military experts, lots more.
1:34.8	It's a really fascinating story. So go ahead and support our work at thisdaypod.com.
1:40.8	Once again, that's thisdaypod.com. Thank you to everyone who has become a pain
1:45.7	subscriber of the newsletter. Okay, that's that. After the break, August 1945 and the bombing of
1:52.8	Japan. We'll be right back. Hello and welcome to This Day, a history show from Radiotopia. My name is Jody Avergan.
2:06.7	This day, August 1945, 80 years ago, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The United States
2:14.6	dropped atomic weapons on those two cities in an effort to bring a quick
2:18.1	close to World War II. President Truman, who ultimately made the decision to use the nuclear
	...

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