In this exhibit, visitors see a timeline progressing from April 1945 to August 1945. A series of panels bearing video newsreel, key documents and artifacts highlight the dramatic string of events that dominated the first four months of Harry Truman's Presidency.
Events include announcements of the end of the war against Germany, the signing of the United Nations Charter, the Potsdam Conference, firebombing Japan, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan, and the end of the war in the Pacific. Also displayed in this area are a pen set given to Truman by Dwight Eisenhower and a pen given to Truman by Winston Churchill.
At the end of the timeline visitors come to a round room featuring two key artifacts. In the center of the room is the green safety plug from the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. The green plug was removed from the bomb and replaced with a red activating plug. Against the wall is an origami crane. The crane was made from folded clear cellophane. The crane was folded by Sadako Sasaki, a victim of radiation exposure from the Hiroshima bombing.
Key document: Henry Stimson to President Truman, April 24, 1945
Key artifact:
