In 1945, Hitler’s Germany was defeated. The question that now faced President Truman was should the United States use the atomic bomb against Japan. Truman had several committees of experts advising him on how to use the bomb. Two of these committees were the Interim Committee, mainly composed of top administration officials, and the Manhattan Project’s Target Committee. The Target Committee was headed by Brigadier General Leslie Groves. It met in Robert Oppenheimer’s office at Los Alamos in May 1945 and selected four Japanese cities as targets for the bomb: Hiroshima, Kokura, Yokohama, and Kyoto. Kyoto was later ruled out because it was an ancient cultural center. On June 1, 1945, the Interim Committee, headed by Secretary of War Stimson, "recommended that the bomb should be used against Japan, without specific warning, as soon as possible, and against such a target as to make clear...