How we cite our quotes: Chapter name.(Chapter Number).Paragraph
Quote #10
Frank Oppenheimer, who was standing outside his brother's office, remembered thinking, "Thank God it wasn't a dud." But a second thought followed quickly. "Before the whole sentence of the broadcast was finished, one suddenly got this horror of all the people who had been killed." (Reaction Begins.(34).18)
What a conflict of interest. Of course he would want the bomb to be a success; he'd spent years of his life trying to make a theory a real possibility. But then again, his "success" meant the death of thousand of people. That's a horrible reality to have to face.
Quote #11
"People were saying that Tokyo would be next," remembered a Tokyo resident named Yukio Mishima. As he walked the streets of Japan's capital, Mishima could feel the agonizing suspense in the air; he could see it in passing faces. "It was just as though one was continuing to blow up an already bulging toy balloon, wondering, 'Will it burst now? Will it burst now?"
"If it had gone on any longer," he said, "there would have been nothing to do but go mad." (Reaction Begins.(34).87-88)
The state of constant terror must have been so awful. Imagine the stress of trying to live your life while wondering whether it would all end in the next moment. This was how effective the bomb was: Truman was counting on the fact that after dropping two bombs the fear alone would be enough to obtain Japan's unconditional surrender.