'The use of two different kinds of atomic bombs on the two cities, however, suggests calculated experimentation...the Japanese had sued for peace six months earlier.' Bertrand Russell

US Fleet Admiral Halsey, in charge of the Pacific Fleet at the time, said it 'was an unnecessary experiment...a mistake to ever drop it.'

The official US Strategic Bombing Survey reports that the bombings were not necessary, but that 'Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen as targets because of their concentration of activities and population.'

'It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan'. US Admiral W D Leahy, ('I Was There' p.441)

British Prime Minister Churchill: 'It would be a mistake to suppose that the fate of Japan was settled by the Atomic Bomb'. ('The 2nd World War', Vol VI, P. 559).

After the first test in the US Alamogordo Desert on the 16th of July, 1945, a petition protesting against the proposed use of th ebomb against Japan was circulated among the scientistsl it gained 67 signatures before the futher circulation was stopped.

The intelligence services of both the United States Army and Navy were already convinced, in July 1945, that the final downfall of Japan could only be a question of a few weeks.

The United States had deciphered the Japanese secret code and knew of all communications.