From: Tim Merry (timmerry@SHOAL.NET.AU)
Date: Thu May 27 1999 - 12:07:31 PDT
On 26 May 1999 Walter Felscher wrote: >>Reading through accumulated mail, I noticed with interest Tim >>Merry's contribution from April 11th in which he replied to a >>question from "Jessie" >> >> > Do you think the (a-) bomb would have been made >> > if Japan had offered a conditional surrender? (snip) Thank you Walter for straightening out my reference to the A-bomb. My information probably came from Churchill's memoires - I forget - but the story I was given was that a few scientists in the US, who were really worried that Germany was well along the way to developing an A-bomb of some sort, approached Einstein and urged him to write to Roosevelt recommending that the US act without delay. It's interesting to read what you say, that Germany was not in fact a threat in that particular respect. Well, Roosevelt could hardly ignore a man like Einstein, so he did the right thing in the circumstances. Jessie and co. clearly held the view that the bomb was bad, and were fishing for support. When I asked their teacher if they had any further questions the answer was No. Amen. Tim