[dropcap]C[/dropcap]apt. Kermit K. Beahan of Houston tossed and turned the night of Aug. 8, 1945 knowing that the next day, which also happened to be his twenty-seventh birthday, he might be called upon to drop the second atom bomb on Japan.
The bloody 11-week battle for Okinawa, that ended in June 1945 with 49,000 Allied casualties, showed defeat had not diminished the fanatical determination of the Japanese to fight to the death. For “Operation Olympic,” the invasion of the home islands scheduled for November, the Pentagon estimate of a million Americans killed and wounded was realistic if not conservative.
President Truman was in Germany for a meeting with Churchill and Stalin, when U.S. scientists staged the first successful test of an atom bomb in the New Mexico desert on Jul. 16. The Allies issued an ultimatum ten days later demanding the unconditional surrender of Japan. Receiving no response, Truman authorized an atomic attack.
