John J. McCloy

John J. McCloy appears in the account as an assistant secretary of war who raised a diplomatic alternative during a White House meeting on plans to invade Japan. As the atomic bomb remained unmentioned in the review, he urged Harry S. Truman to consider warning Japan of the weapon and offering surrender terms before committing to an invasion.

Position and Context

On June 18, 1945, McCloy attended a White House meeting reviewing plans for an invasion of Japan. The discussion proceeded as if the atomic bomb did not exist, a conspicuous omission to McCloy. He had expressed his views at length to Henry Stimson the previous night, but remained silent through the meeting’s discussion of the invasion plan.

Intervention on the Invasion Plan

As the meeting was ending, Truman noticed McCloy and made clear that he wanted him to speak. With Stimson’s encouragement, McCloy argued that the threat of the bomb might make a political solution possible and avoid the invasion. He proposed telling the Japanese that the United States possessed the weapon, explaining its nature, and setting out surrender terms. He also suggested that Japan be allowed to retain its Emperor.

Significance and Outcome

McCloy grounded his proposal in the value of warning: if Japan refused the terms, he believed, the United States would be in a stronger moral position. The suggestion briefly broke the meeting’s silence around the secret weapon, and Truman said he would think about it. The account records McCloy’s intervention as a challenge to the assumption that invasion was the only course under discussion, but does not establish that Truman adopted his proposal.