Target Committee

The Target Committee was involved in wartime deliberations over targets for the atomic bomb. The book’s account identifies meetings held on May 10 and 11, 1945, and cites a memorandum summarizing them in connection with the consideration of a target in a large urban area. This documentary trace places the committee within the process of translating the bomb’s development into questions of military use, while leaving the details of its discussions largely unspecified.

Meetings and Documentary Record

The evidence refers to a memorandum prepared for Leslie Groves by Major J. A. Derry and Dr. N. F. Ramsey, titled as a summary of the Target Committee meetings of May 10 and 11, 1945. The book cites that document alongside a discussion of a target described as being in a large urban area. The reference confirms that the committee’s deliberations were recorded and transmitted to Groves, but the passage does not identify the participants or reproduce the memorandum’s full account.

Role in Target Deliberations

The Target Committee’s significance in this evidence lies in its place in the decision process: its meetings addressed the selection of targets during the final months of the war. The surviving reference links the committee to consideration of an urban target, but does not establish the complete criteria it used, the alternatives it weighed, or the precise recommendations it made. The book therefore presents the committee through a narrow documentary window rather than a full institutional portrait.