Baltimore / Indianapolis Colts Quiz (1953-2000): 1) What year
did the franchise make the move to Indy? 2) Most pass
receptions, career? 3) Most rushing yards, career? 4) Most TD,
career? Answers below.
Harry Truman.In his own words
My friend Liz S. inquired as to how Harry Truman handled the
dropping of the first atomic bomb. Specifically, we were both
looking for his speech announcing it, which may provide a lesson
for the type of destruction that, someday, an American leader
may be forced to resort too as well.
Back in 1989, Truman”s daughter Margaret edited the musings of
President Truman, which he had written and dictated in the years
after he left office. He didn”t want his thoughts (which included
the “best” and “worst” presidents, in his opinion) to be released
until he died. Following are his comments on that fateful
decision to end World War II.
Truman: If I live to be a hundred years old, I”ll never forget the
day that I was first told about the atomic bomb. It was about
7:30 PM on the evening of April 12, 1945, just hours after
Franklin Roosevelt had died at 3:35 PM, and no more than half
an hour after I was sworn in as president at 7:09 PM. Henry L.
Stimson, who was Roosevelt”s secretary of war and then mine,
took me aside and reminded me that Roosevelt had authorized
the development of a sort of superbomb and that that bomb was
almost ready. I was still stunned by Roosevelt”s death and by the
fact that I was now president, and I didn”t think much more about
it at the time. But then, on April 26, Stimson asked for a meeting
in my office, at which he was joined by Major General Leslie
Groves, who was in charge of the operation that was developing
the bomb, the Manhattan Project. The meeting was so secret that
Groves came into the White House by the back door. And at the
meeting, Stimson handed me a memorandum that said, “Within
four months we shall in all probability have completed the most
terrible weapon ever known in human history, one bomb which
could destroy a whole city.”
Stimson said very gravely that he didn”t know whether we could
or should use the bomb because he was afraid that it was so
powerful that it could end up destroying the whole world. I felt
the same fear as he and Groves continued to talk about it, and
when I read Groves”s twenty-four-page report. The report said
that the first bomb would probably be ready by July and have the
strength of about five hundred tons of TNT, and even more
frighteningly, it went on to say that a second bomb would
probably be ready by August and have the strength of as much as
twelve hundred tons of TNT. We weren”t aware then that that
was just the tip of the iceberg. That second bomb turned out to
have the power of 20,000 tons of TNT, and the hydrogen bomb
that eventually followed it had the explosive power of twenty
million tons of TNT.
[Ed. A committee was then formed to advise the president on
whether or not to use the bomb on Japan. Members included
Enrico Fermi and J. Robert Oppenheimer, two of the lead
scientists on the project.]
Then, on May 8, my sixty-first birthday, the Germans
surrendered, and I had to remind our country that the war was
only half over, that we still had to face the war with Japan. The
winning of that war, we all knew, might even be more difficult to
accomplish, because the Japanese were self-proclaimed fanatic
warriors who made it all too clear that they preferred death to
defeat in battle (ed. like al Qaeda?) Just a month before, after
our soldiers and Marines landed on Okinawa, the Japanese lost
100,000 men out of the 120,000 in their garrison, and yet, though
they were defeated without any question in the world, thousands
more Japanese soldiers fell on their own grenades and died rather
than surrender.
Nevertheless, I pleaded with the Japanese in my speech
announcing Germany”s surrender, begging them to surrender,
too, but was not too surprised when they refused. And on June
18, I met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to discuss what I hoped
would be our final push against the Japanese. We still hadn”t
decided whether or not to use the atomic bomb, and the chiefs of
staff suggested that we plan an attack on Kyushu, the Japanese
island on their extreme west, around the beginning of November,
and follow up with an attack on the more important island of
Honshu. But the statistics that the generals gave me were as
frightening as the news of the big bomb. The chiefs of staff
estimated that the Japanese still had five thousand attack planes,
seventeen garrisons on the island of Kyushu alone, and a total of
more than two million men on all of the islands of Japan.
General Marshall then estimated that, since the Japanese would
unquestionably fight even more fiercely than ever on their own
homeland, we would probably lose a quarter of a million men
and possibly as many as a half million in taking the two islands.
I could not bear this thought, and it led to the decision to use the
atomic bomb.
We talked first about blockading Japan and trying to blast them
into surrender with conventional weaponry; but Marshall and
others made it clear that this would never work, pointing out that
we”d hit Germany in this way and they hadn”t surrendered until
we got troops into Germany itself. Another general also pointed
out that Germany”s munitions industries were more or less
centralized and that our constant bombings of these facilities
never made them quit, and Japan”s industries were much more
spread apart and harder to hit. Then, when we finally talked
about the atomic bomb, on July 21, coming to the awful
conclusion that it would probably be the only way the Japanese
might be made to surrender quickly, we talked first about hitting
some isolated area, some low-population area where there would
not be too many casualties but where the Japanese could see the
power of the new weapon. Reluctantly, we decided against that
as well, feeling that that just wouldn”t be enough to convince the
fanatic Japanese. And we finally selected four possible target
areas, all heavy military-manufacturing areas (ed. Including
Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
I know the world will never forget that the first bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima on August 5, at 7:15 PM Washington time
(Aug. 6 in Japan), and the second on Nagasaki on August 9. One
more plea for surrender had been made to the Japanese on July
29, and was rejected immediately. Then I gave the final order,
saying I had no qualms “if millions of lives could be saved.” I
meant both American and Japanese lives.
The Japanese surrendered five days after the bomb was dropped
on Nagasaki, and a number of major Japanese military men and
diplomats later confirmed publicly that there would have been no
quick surrender without it. For this reason, I made what I
believed to be the only possible decision. I said something to
this effect in a letter to my sister, Mary: “It was a terrible
decision. But I made it. And I made it to save 250,000 boys
from the United States, and I”d make it again under similar
circumstances.”
[In a 1965 speech Truman added the following:]
It was a question of saving hundreds of thousands of American
lives.You don”t feel normal when you have to plan hundreds of
thousands of.deaths of American boys who are alive and joking
and having fun while you”re doing your planning. You break
your heart and your head trying to figure out a way to save one
life.The name given to our invasion plan was Olympic, but I
saw nothing godly about the killing of all the people that would
be necessary to make that invasion. The casualty estimates
called for 750,000 American casualties – 250,000 killed, 500,000
maimed for life.I couldn”t worry about what history would say
about my personal morality. I made the only decision I ever
knew how to make. I did what I thought was right.
[Following are excerpts from President Truman”s statement to
the American people on August 6, 1945…after the first bomb
was dropped.]
.We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and
completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above
ground in any city. We shall destroy their docks, their factories,
and their communications. Let there be no mistake; we shall
completely destroy Japan”s power to make war.
It was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction that the
ultimatum of July 26 was issued at Potsdam. Their leaders
promptly rejected that ultimatum. If they do not now accept our
terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of
which has never been seen on this earth. Behind this air attack
will follow sea and land forces in such numbers and power as
they have not yet seen and with the fighting skill of which they
are already well aware.
[Source: “Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private
Writings of Harry S. Truman,” edited by Margaret Truman.
Note: It has never been my habit to quote so extensively from a
book like this but this is all in the public record and it”s our
history, which I feel a certain duty to share where appropriate.]
Top 3 songs for the week of 10/23/65: #1 “Yesterday” (The
Beatles) #2 “Treat Her Right” (Roy Head) #3 “A Lover”s
Concerto” (The Toys)
*Harry K. reminds me that a “Top 3″ group from last week, ”?
(Mark) & The Mysterians,” originally was formed in Flint, MI in
1962 and took their quirky name from the obscure science fiction
movie “The Mysterians.” Their only hit, “96 Tears” was one of
the great garage band classics of the 60s. Lead singer Question
Mark had two real names, Rudy Martinez and Reeto Rodriguez.
But the drummer, Mel Schacher, was a founding member of
Grand Funk Railroad. And now you know…the rest of the story.
College Football
Congratulations to Nebraska for toppling Oklahoma on Saturday.
But with all of the upsets this weekend, and with Nebraska
having to probably face Oklahoma again in December, who
knows how the BCS will play out? What we do know is that
Fresno State”s 15 minutes of fame is long over. Thank goodness
I didn”t waste money acquiring a Fresno State t-shirt as a way of
hopping on the bandwagon. [I did, incidentally, purchase about
10 Black Hills State t-shirts on my recent trip to Spearfish, SD.
I”m now convinced that after watching Fresno State lose to Boise
State and Hawaii on consecutive weekends, Black Hills State
would give them a tussle.] And Joe Paterno deserves a little
credit for whipping two decent clubs the past two weekends in
finally besting Bear Bryant”s all-time college mark of 323 wins.
Wild Bear Alert
The New Jersey black bear population now stands at 1,400.
Crocodiles
There is a rather detailed report on saltwater crocodiles in the
current issue of Smithsonian magazine, reported by Derek
Grzelewski (to give him his due). What I learned is that there are
thousands of these dinosaurs in Australia, with the record being
one that was hunted down in 1957, 28” 4″! Since 1876, there
have been 60 confirmed croc attacks Down Under, with 27
fatalities, but experts say there are far more that have gone
unreported. However, Nile crocodiles kill 300-400 a year! One
other tidbit, crocs just love dogs. “Their barking is like the jingle
of an ice-cream truck to a child.”
Middle Linebackers
Sports Illustrated”s long-time football writer Paul Zimmerman
listed his Top Ten middle linebackers in NFL history.
1. Dick Butkus
2. Ray Lewis
3. Joe Schmidt
4. Willie Lanier
5. Ray Nitschke
6. Jack Lambert
7. Mike Singletary
8. Lee Roy Jordan
9. Sam Mills
10. Bill Bergey
I like where Lanier is ranked, but I”m partial to Jack Lambert and
would place him 3rd. Sam Mills?! C”mon. Quality player, yes;
Top Ten, no.
Colts Quiz Answers: 1) Franchise moved from Baltimore to
Indy in 1984. 2) Receptions, career: Raymond Berry, 631.
Berry fumbled only once in his career! 3) Rushing, career:
Lydell Mitchell, 5,487 yards (he also played for San Diego and
the L.A. Rams.ending up with 6,534 as well as 376 receptions,
leading the league twice in the latter category). 4) TD, career:
Lenny Moore, 113. Moore, like Mitchell, was a Penn State grad
and had an incredible career. Operating out of the HB – FL slot,
3 seasons he averaged over 7 yards a carry.”56: 86-649, 7.5;
”58: 82-598, 7.3; ”61: 92-648, 7.0. On the receiving end, from
1958-60 Moore averaged between 18 and 21 yards a reception in
catching 45 to 50 balls each of those years. So quaff an ale to
Hall of Famer Lenny Moore. [Berry is also in the Hall, Mitchell
is not.]
Next Wednesday, a story or two involving musical groups from
the British Invasion.
