48 pages • 1 hour read
Chris Wallace, Mitch WeissCountdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: Countdown: 70 Days
The next step in the operation is to choose potential targets to attack. The governmental committee narrows their targets to five potential locations: Kyoto, Hiroshima, Yokohama, Kokura, and Niigata. Kyoto is ruled out immediately, as it is a favorite tourist destination for Stimson, the war secretary.
Lieutenant Jacob Beser, who had enlisted after the Pearl Harbor attacks and who eventually became a radar expert, arrives late for the committee meeting. Beser works with the group who developed the proximity fuse for the weapon, allowing it to be detonated before impact at a specific height in order to spread the blast radius. He also acts as a general troubleshooter, assisting the committee in making their first choice for an atomic strike: Hiroshima.
Chapter 8 Summary: Countdown: 68 Days
In a Japanese town called Kimita, a little girl named Hideko Tamura spends the day learning and working in the local temple. Her parents sent her there from their home in Hiroshima—along with many other children from the area—for safekeeping in case the city of Hiroshima is bombed, as they know it is a likely target. Hiroshima has prepared itself well for war, digging wells and setting up bomb shelters everywhere. On April 10th the children of the city are evacuated in preparation for an attack. The children hate their stay at the temple, however, and Hideko schemes with a friend to get a letter to their parents that would evade being censored.
Chapter 9 Summary: Countdown: 66 Days
The most important question that the committee in Washington asks itself is whether to continue the plan for a full-scale land invasion on Japanese territory, or to eventually use the atomic bomb. Henry Stimson has reached no conclusion yet—"The more Stimson heard, the more he returned to the same question: How many civilians would die?” (81). It is now three years since the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the country is tired of the war. Germany and Japan had had no qualms about destroying civilian targets, but the atomic bomb is destruction on an even severer scale: it is a “revolutionary change in the relations of man to the universe” (83). If the Americans use the bomb, nuclear warfare will henceforth always be an option. With the Japanese emperor refusing to submit to an unconditional surrender, as the Allies demanded, Stimson knows their options are becoming more and more limited.
Chapter 10 Summary: Countdown: 53 Days
In Omaha, Nebraska, Captain Robert Lewis flies missions with his crew without knowing what, exactly, they are training for. When Commander Tibbets is present, Lewis acts as copilot for their training missions. Ιt was Tibbets who previously recommended modifications to the B-29 planes to make them lighter and faster for the mission. The crew needs the training, as bombing at extremely high altitudes is an innovative tactic.
While he does his best to prepare his men, there is one thing Tibbets will not share with his flight crew: nobody knows what the after-effects of the bomb will do to the plane as they fly to safety, and for all they know, the shockwaves from the explosion could potentially destroy the plane. What is certain is that they will be flying into great danger.
Chapter 11 Summary: Countdown: 49 Days
In Washington, Truman is contemplating how to end the war once and for all. He has been briefed for weeks on the progress of the Manhattan Project and has heard all the opinions. Some are in favor of using the bomb for the shock and awe factor; others, like Generals Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower, think that the Japanese defeat is inevitable and that to use such a weapon would be unwise for the country in the long run. Others estimate that the plan to invade the Japanese homeland, dubbed “Operation Downfall” (95), could result in the deaths of close to one million American soldiers and extend the war by months or even years.
The recent assault on the island of Okinawa has proven that the cost of invading Japan is likely to be very steep: Japanese soldiers never surrender, and even civilians are ferocious opponents. One piece of advice that Truman does take to heart is offered by John McCloy, the assistant war secretary: “I think our moral position would be better if we gave them a specific warning of the bomb” (97). The only thing that remains before making the final decision is to wait until the bomb is finally complete and to schedule a test firing.
Chapter 12 Summary: Countdown: 36 Days
The test explosion is scheduled for July 16th at Los Alamos, the desert assembly site. Some scientists wrestle with the ethical question of using the bomb, with Leo Szilard passing around a petition that demands limits to its use. Lilli Hornig, “one of the few female scientists at Los Alamos” (102), is a chemist who works there along with her husband. Hornig—who had risen to the top despite women rarely receiving those kinds of opportunities—realizes that she has a moral responsibility to speak up about her concerns even though it might put her career in jeopardy.
Chapter 13 Summary: Countdown: 35 Days
As the day of the test draws nearer, General Groves grows more concerned with the possibility of spies discovering what they have been doing all this time out in the desert. In particular, Groves is concerned the Soviet Union could find out, since they are the only real rival threat in nuclear development. While it is relatively common knowledge that many of the scientists working on the project have loose ties to communist ideology—many are refugees from European countries where communism has made inroads—extensive background checks are standard procedure in order to keep the project safe and secure. Even Oppenheimer, the lead scientist, is reported to be a communist sympathizer. Groves knows that security has to be a top priority, as the size and population of the site at Los Alamos makes it “a security nightmare” (110).
Chapter 14 Summary: Countdown: 34 Days
William Laurence is a journalist who has been commissioned to write the story of the development of the atomic bomb. He has been granted access to the community at Los Alamos. A writer for the New York Times, he was specifically chosen for the job by General Groves. Born in Lithuania, he had emigrated to America and gone to law school at Harvard before dropping out to join the Army during the First World War. Since then, he has worked as a journalist, becoming one of the very first writers in the country to focus almost exclusively on science news. General Groves realizes that the story of the bomb will have to be told eventually, and so decided to choose Laurence for the job.
Chapters 7-14 Analysis
While the scientists and weapons experts continue bringing the Manhattan Project to a close, a short list for targets is created that prioritizes the presence of military installments, manufacturing infrastructure, and the greatest possibility of damage, both in terms of physical damage and mental anguish. What will be considered controversial in years to come is the relative disregard that the overseeing committee takes for potential collateral damage—namely, civilian casualties. While the targets are not chosen specifically for the ability to inflict the greatest number of deaths, the question of civilian casualties is generally ignored or considered as a mere secondary concern.
One of the things that makes Wallace’s narrative technique unique is his use of the voices of individuals who found themselves caught up in the midst of various military machinations that transcended them. The tale of Hiroshima is told, in part, by the figure of Hideko Tamura, who finds herself evacuated and alone, without her parents, in a school filled with other children who have been thrust into similar circumstances. Including Hideko’s experience interjects the sense of loneliness and anxiety that many of the Japanese civilians felt at a time when their government and military leaders seemed to be making decisions completely at their expense. Hideko’s experience is representative of those of millions of people who were displaced, harmed, and even killed by a war in which they had no part, no say, and were ultimately powerless to prevent.
Just two months before the eventual nuclear strike, officials in Washington are still debating the merits of launching a full-scale mainland invasion against those of using nuclear weapons. The basic crux of the question is this: Is avoiding using nuclear weapons worth the potential cost of hundreds of thousands of American lives? Additionally, the question is framed in such a manner as to ask whose lives are more valuable, those of Japanese civilians or those of American soldiers. The Axis powers had never seemed to have any trouble destroying targets indiscriminately, disregarding civilian casualties as if they were of no concern. The committee debates whether America wants to use the same logic in its own wartime operations.
There is another equally pressing issue: up to this point, no nuclear weapon had even been developed, let alone used in an act of aggression. The Americans know that if they deploy the bombs, they will open an entirely new era of warfare and international relations that will always have to keep the threat of nuclear warfare in mind. The problem, as they see it, is that the Japanese forces have refused thus far to submit to the terms of unconditional surrender, and there seems to be no end in sight to the war. With the use of nuclear bombs, however, the possibility of shocking Japan into submission seems almost too good to ignore.
As Truman considers the possibilities for ending the war, leaning closer and closer to deciding in favor of the atomic bomb, one thing remains to be done: test the bomb. On the one hand, they need to know if such a novel weapon is actually going to work, or whether it will be a catastrophic failure. The second factor Truman needs to consider is whether to conduct the test in private or in full view of the world. The benefits to testing it in private are obvious: they could be the sole benefactors of the knowledge of the atomic weapon, and could choose to unleash it on the world at their own leisure. Testing the weapon with an audience, however, could be the means of ending the war through sheer terror alone—perhaps they could simply scare Japan into surrendering with a bare minimum of lives lost. Many are in favor of this latter option, arguing that it will allow the Americans to take the moral high ground, having offered their enemy every conceivable chance to capitulate and avoid further bloodshed.
When many of the scientists create a petition requesting that there be strict limits imposed by the government on their own creation—and use of nuclear energy in combat—the military remains skeptical. Many of the scientists have direct ties to communism or communist ideology, which calls their motivations into question. In the end, moral judgment on the use of the atomic bomb will be left up to the individual: the bomb will be dropped, opening up questions as to whether nuclear weapons could continue to be justified in the future. As for William Laurence’s work—observing the operation at Los Alamos in order to write the story from the inside—he realizes that the world will want to know the story of how everything happened, and it will be his job to give insight for each American to decide for themselves whether their country has acted wisely or not.
As a storyteller himself, Wallace highlights the various perspectives of all of those involved, allowing the reader to form their own judgment of what happened and what perhaps should have happened—using a “show, don’t tell” style of narration allows for the personal investment of the reader in interpreting the historical narrative.
