Committee on Political and Social Problems

The Franck Report, written by a committee of scientists — including James Franck (serving as chairman) and Leo Szilard — who had worked on the Manhattan Project, was submitted to Secretary of War Henry Stimson in June 1945. By then Germany had been defeated, but Japan had not surrendered. The report addressed the question of whether America should use the nuclear bombs against Japan in order to hasten the war’s end. Knowing the destructive power of the bomb and the thousands of Japanese casualties that would result, the committee’s report argued for a demonstration of the new weapon on a desert island rather than deploying it directly against the enemy. The report predicted that if the bomb was used militarily, it would set off an arms race and other nations would acquire nuclear...