Countdown to Hiroshima: X Minus 7 Days

Last year at The Nation, I wrote a daily piece  during the two weeks leading up to the first use of an atomic bomb, against Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945.  This is subject that I have written about for the past three decades, including in two books.  The daily posts revealed what had happened on that day in 1945--more than 125,000 died, the vast majority civilians--as a way of considering what might have been done differently.  The U.S. "first use" policy remains today along with a certain message to the world:  nuclear weapons can be used in a pre-emptive strike.  I'll be linking to those stories here every day now that we are down to the final week.  Here's the report on July 30, 1945, which includes the drafting of Truman's (criminally misleading) announcement of the bombing and dreadful response to the first bomb test at Trinity--which would help put U.S. soldiers in harm's way for years to come.