Those circumstances also weaken the argument that a demonstration bomb dropped off a Japanese coast before resort to the deadly ones might have been enough to achieve surrender. From the perspective of the twenty-first century, conscience probably did require such a warning, even though only two atomic bombs had been made, and the military diehards' grip might have been further strengthened by a demonstration bomb that failed to explode. (None of the makers was certain the triggers would work over a target, as opposed to at the test site.) Still, the same evidence of the persistence even after
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