The Japanese Were Already Defeated ...When the bombs dropped

AP photo of the ruins of Hiroshima after the atomic bombing.

The official history on Hiroshima and Nagasaki details that on August 9, 1945, Harry Truman declared falsely in a radio address:

The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians.

Military and diplomatic historian Sanho Tree discusses key issues covered by US media  prior to the bombing read on ...