Deadline

Have you ever been unaware of an important deadline that your boss really cared about, and had to ask for some assistance at the very last minute?

Fear not, you are not the only person to whom this has happened.  One of the worst cases has to be this one, which additionally happened while the boss was off on an important business trip:

The reason for this haste is that I was informed only yesterday that, weather permitting, it is likely that the weapon will be used as early as August 1st, Pacific Ocean Time, which as you know is a good many hours ahead of Washington time.

The memo was sent on July 31, 1945. The time is not given, but 9AM in the morning in Washington would be about 1AM in Japan, so technically it was already late. It was in this way that Henry Stimson, Secretary of War,  asked his boss, President Harry S Truman, to confirm the copy for an enclosed press release to be used when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan.

Truman was still in Potsdam, finishing up the final Big Three conference. It was a few days after the Potsdam Declaration threatening Japan with total destruction, so Truman certainly had some idea of the timing involved. Little Boy had been delivered by the USS Indianapolis, and the bombing orders, with four potential targets, were already issued.

In any case, the bomb was not dropped until the following Monday, August 6. While it had to be a little embarrassing for Stimson, it's also the case that a lot was happening that week.  Even though earth-shattering events might be all around us, we're still human.