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. The Japanese were almost defeated and ready to surrender…in being the first to use it, we… adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages." ---Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during World War II In early August 1945 atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These two bombs quickly yielded the surrender o f Japan and the end of American involvement in World War II . By 1946 the two bombs caused the dea