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Ralph Austin Bard, July 29, 1884—April 1975) was a Chicago financier who served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1941- 1945, and as Under Secretary, 1944-1945. He was one of eight members of the Interim Committee appointed to advise President Harry S. Truman on the use of the atomic bomb. Although Bard joined in the committee's unanimous recommendation that the bomb should be used as soon as possible and without warning against a civilian target in Japan, he developed second thoughts. In a famous memorandum dated June 27, 1945, to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, Bard argued that Japan should receive two or three days' "preliminary warning" before the bomb was used. "The position of the United States as a great humanitarian nation and the fair play attitude of our people generally is responsible in the main for this feeling," Bard wrote, adding that he felt "that the Japanese government may be searching for some opportunity which they could use as a medium of surrender."

On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima without the warning that Bard recommended. On August 8August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining. Events 1585 John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in quest for the North West Passage. 1588 Battle of Gravelines ends Defeated by the English duri, the Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR ( Russian: ; tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (SSSR) also called the Soviet Union ( ; tr. Sovetsky Soyuz , was a state in much of the northern region of Eurasia that existed from 1922 until 1 declared war on Japan. On August 9August 9 is the 221st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (222nd in leap years), with 144 days remaining. Events 48 BC Roman Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt. 378 Battle of, a second bomb was used on the city of Nagasaki. On August 14August 14 is the 226th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (227th in leap years), with 139 days remaining. Events 1040 Assassination of King Duncan of Scotland by Macbeth. 1385 1383-1385 Crisis: Castilians are defeated by Portuguese at the Battle of, Japan surrendered.

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