Truman’s Deep Regret at the Atomic Age He Created

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

History, Society & Culture

4.2 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

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Summary

In the eight decades since the United States deployed the most destructive weapon ever used, conventional wisdom has held that American leaders were faced with a difficult choice: Invade Japan, which would have cost millions of Japanese and Allied lives in bloody combat or use the fearsome atom bomb in the hopes of convincing the Japanese emperor to surrender. President Truman—in what many have come to regard as an immoral decision—ordered the military to drop the bomb.

Today’s guest is Alex Wellerstein, author of The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age. Wellerstein offers a more complex and nuanced portrayal of Truman, showing a president entangled in secrecy, rushing against time, and operating with limited information. Contrary to the long-held belief that Truman was the decisive force behind the bombings, this book reveals how he was largely unacquainted with the specifics of Hiroshima and Nagasaki's targeting until after the fact.

Wellerstein explains how there was no formal decision to use the bomb, nor did President Truman likely know that Hiroshima or Nagasaki were heavily populated cities. Once the bombs were dropped, Truman began a years-long struggle for control of the awesome power of atomic weapons, the ramifications of which are still felt today.

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Transcript

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0:34.7	Scott here with another episode of the History on Plug Podcast.
0:37.7	We just passed the 80th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the argument
0:42.2	over the bombings have been relitigated. The argument for and against it are displayed as such.
0:46.8	Those who support it say that bombing Japan was necessary to convince the Japanese emperor to
0:50.9	surrender. If not, the United States would have had to invade Japan,
0:59.4	costing millions of Allied and Japanese lives. Those against it say that it wasn't necessary to bomb Japan. The United States knew they were going to win, and they did it to intimidate the Soviet
1:03.7	Union to get in the first punch at the start of Cold War. But when we look into the months
1:07.7	leading up to the dropping of the atomic bombs, we see that
1:10.9	it was much less clear and much more confusing to those on the ground at the time who had to make
1:15.5	the decision.
1:16.7	Harry Truman didn't know that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were heavily populated cities, and he
1:21.2	thought that the targets would be in almost completely militarized areas, and there would be
1:25.3	few, if any, civilian casualties.
2:00.8	After all, that's how the bombings in Germany mostly went. There wasn't even a formal decision to use the bomb. It's something that accrued over time, and it wasn't even clear who would have the final say. Would it be a military decision? Would it be a political decision? This was completely uncharted waters for the president, the Secretary of War, and the U.S. military command. In today's episode, I'm speaking to Alex Wellerstein, who's author of the new book, The Most Awful Responsibility, Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age. We see that Truman wasn't glib about dropping the bomb like he's been displayed in the media, like he was recently in Oppenheimer. He was deeply unnerved by the destructive power of the atomic bomb, and after the war he began a year-long struggle to control its power
	...

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