This story comes from David McCullough’s amazing biography of Harry Truman. The facts are true, but I have my own take on what happened. Hugh Barnett is not in the Truman biography.
Things happen which cannot be explained. At 4:10 on the afternoon of August 14, 1945 President Truman received word that Japan had accepted the terms of unconditional surrender. There were formalities to be observed. Almost three hours would pass before the announcement of the surrender would be made.
Over those three hours there was a kind of diplomatic relay race. The text of the official Japan surrender would first be sent from the Japanese to the offices of RCA(the Radio Corporation of America) in Washington D. C. Then the text would be hand delivered to the Swiss legation, which was acting as an intermediary between Japan and the United States. Then the charge d’affaires for the Swiss would take it to Secretary of State James Byrnes at the State Department. Then Byrnes would hand deliver the surrender to the president.
Sometimes the hand-offs in a relay race can get sloppy. This one was no different. It set back the arrival of the surrender to President Truman by ten minutes.
The courier left the offices of RCA to head for the Swiss legation. He made an illegal u-turn on Connecticut Ave. Probably in a hurry. A police officer saw it and pulled him over.
The account doesn’t include what the discussion was like between the officer and the courier, but my imagination takes over a bit. The courier was given at the RCA office, I assume, a sealed diplomatic pouch. It sits on the passenger side of the front seat. The courier has made deliveries like this one, now delayed many times.
The police officer maybe gave the driver some guff. He doesn’t care if the sealed pouch is going to the Swiss legation or General Eisenhower. Watch what you’re doing. Somebody could get hurt. McCullough’s account doesn’t say whether the courier got a ticket or not.
The Swiss charge d’affaires walked into Secretary Byrnes’ office at 6:10pm on August 14th. Byrnes went straight to the Oval Office. Truman addressed the nation at 7pm. The celebrating would last until the sun came up the next morning. World War II, after 70 million deaths, was finally over.
The courier delivered the end of World War II to the Swiss legation, perhaps still a bit hot under the collar over the traffic stop. We do not know what he did the rest of the night. Perhaps he joined the other half a million revelers who jammed the streets in Washington after Truman’s announcement. We will never know. We do know he was Thomas E. Jones. He was 16 years old.
Meanwhile, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Manhattan Project worker Hugh Barnett was having a bit of a day.
The nation, and Oak Ridge too, was on edge for days, anticipating the surrender of Japan. The nation, nine days earlier, learned about the top secret Manhattan Project and about the atomic bomb used at Hiroshima.
Hugh knew the secret for years. He was hired by The Manhattan Project while it was, in fact, in Manhattan in New York City. From his first day on the job, he knew he would make a new fuel, uranium, for a highly destructive bomb.
He and his wife Shirley moved to Oak Ridge and Hugh supervised hundreds of people working on enriching uranium. Fewer than 1 in 200 knew what they were working on Hugh knew.
On Tuesday, August 14th. Hugh wasn’t thinking about work at all. His wife had gone into labor at the hospital with their first child. Around 7pm Lee was born. Hugh and Lee would share the same birthday separated by 29 years. Through an open window, Hugh could hear cheering. He wondered how news get out so quickly about his first born son?
Lee was born within minutes of Truman announcing the surrender of Japan and the ending of World War II. Hugh had played an essential role in the quick ending of the war.
On Wednesday., August 12th Hugh celebrated his 103rd. birthday in Maryville, Tennessee with Lee and his younger son Larry.