When the Atomic Bombings Got the Green Light

On this day in 1945, the plea by some Manhattan Project scientists--either not use the atomic bomb they were creating against people in Japan or at least set off a demonstration shot before that--was rejected.  Although note: the plan to use it against "military targets" when actually the targets would be the center of cities with limited (Hiroshima) or no (Nagasaki) military bases.  The vast majority of those who'd die were women and children.  (See my book.) 

Stimson proposed that a special committee be set up to consider whether the atomic bomb would be used, and if so, when and where it would be deployed. ...General George Marshall and Manhattan Project Director Leslie Groves also participated in some of the committee’s meetings. On June 1, 1945, the Interim Committee recommended that that atomic bombs should be dropped on military targets in Japan as soon as possible and without warning. One committee member, Ralph Bard, convinced that Japan may be seeking a way to end the war, called for a two to three day warning before the bomb was dropped.

A group of scientists involved in the Manhattan project opposed the use of the atomic bomb as a military weapon. In a report signed by physicist James Franck, they called for a public demonstration of the weapon in a desert or on a barren island. On June 16, 1945, a scientific panel consisting of physicists Arthur H. Compton, Enrico Fermi, E. O. Lawrence, and J. Robert Oppenheimer reported that it did not believe that a technical demonstration would be sufficient to end the war.