On August 6th, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Two days later, the Soviet Union invaded Japan, sweeping through their Northernmost main island. The next day, we dropped another bomb on Nagasaki. With each bomb, tens thousands of people were killed instantly, and many more from the aftereffects of the bombling. We all know about this, but what most people don’t know about is the why we dropped it instead of invading Japan or just doing normal bombing and increasing the naval blockade.
When Truman became President, he said to a group of reporters: "Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now… I've got the most terribly responsible job a man ever had." He was talking about the Atomic bomb, which he learned about soon after Roosevelt died.
Truman authorised the use of the bomb in early August, hoping for a quick end to the war. However, he had other options than dropping the bomb. One of these was to wait for the Soviet Union to help the United States invade the largest islands. This was not a good option because if they invaded, according to the statistics that they had of casualties of the recent invasions of islands, they would lose a potential of 31,000 men in the first 30 days, or possibly 7 times higher, according to other estimates.
A second option was to increase the conventional bombings on Japan and
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The first reason we dropped it was to end the war as soon as possible. When Truman decided to drop the bomb, he was not looking for an excuse to use it. One might say that he was looking for an excuse to use it because he wanted to show Russia how powerful we were, and he did want to show Russia that we were very powerful, but this was not just an excuse to use the bomb, it was to impress Russia with the United States superior knowledge, since Russia controlled most of Eastern
This weapon was called the atomic bomb. After it was fully developed and tested, Harry S. Truman made the decision to drop this deadly weapon on two cities in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. President Harry S. Truman was justified in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan because he saved American lives, crippled Japan's remaining resource cities, forcing them to surrender, and established dominance as a world power. During a meeting in June of 1945, Truman met with Henry Stimson, Secretary of War, and Admiral William Leahy. They
Sure, Truman may have realized that he might be able to “put down” the Soviet Union and force the Japanese to surrender, sort of a kill two birds with one stone. However, implying that this was the impelling reason for President Truman wanting to drop the bomb is absurd. Two major pieces of evidence used in this argument are the fact that the Soviet Union’s entry into the war almost certainly pressured the Japanese into surrender, and that General Dwight D. Eisenhower asked Secretary of War Henry L Stimson personally to not drop the bomb while at Potsdam. With the Soviet Union’s entry into the war, it was only likely that Japan would surrender. If they didn’t, that would still lead to Operation Downfall, and that was not an option President Truman wanted.
During harry S. Truman's presidency he was faced with one of the most world altering decisions in the war against japan. The use of atomic weapons would set an example of the united states of america’s military strength,power and knowledge of a very destructive technology. It was necessary for president Truman to drop the atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for these reasons. American soilders were tired from the four years of fighting and a surrender from Japan was not in sight.. In (Doc L) it says the bomb saved more lives than killed people in the end, President Truman needed to retaliate for their attack on Pearl Harbor and the bomb would just end the war more quicker.
Looking at the statistics and charts during the war, the Unites States was already winning the war and the body count and death rate was way lower than the japanese where. If the U.S army stuck to the Island hopping campaign or operation downfall than the war would've still been won by the U.S. History would've turned out way different if the president did not give the order to fire the bomb. Maybe we could of had more allies. President Truman was not justified because of the way that he didn’t really have a plan,There were so many other operations and plans that could've works only if they tried or thought more clearly.(option #1: Invade Japan (operation downfall) President truman could have took many different paths instead of dropping the bomb and ending the war and frightening the Russians.
Harry Truman gave many warnings before he put in place the dropping of the atomic bomb. He wrote a press release announcing the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6th,1945 defending using the atomic bomb. He stated that “japan began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid manyfold, and the end is not yet (Doc 8)”. Truman was tired of his country suffering from this long World war he put
These lives of innocent civilians were lost on top of countless amount of people who were affected by radiation. No matter how good their reasoning for using these types of weapons, President Truman should not have used them. An argument to drop the atomic brom, from a military standpoint, is that using these weapons could put America superior over other nations. Dropping these atomic bombs would make other countries fear the United States army. With other countries fearing the United States, that could result in Americans being more safe, because no country would want to mess with our military.
The Declaration gave Japan the opportunity to surrender voluntarily under certain conditions or be completely destroyed by the Allies military power (Doc B). The Japanese did not fully understand the full scope of the threat, so they merely disregarded it. This ultimatum was rejected by Japan and was one of reasons why the United States’ decided to drop the bomb. President Harry Truman was determined to destroy all their supplies and ability to make war (Doc C). Hence, Hiroshima was chosen because of its military importance and Nagasaki was chosen because it was a major ship building city and had a large military port.
It is Japan, early morning, August 6th 1945. Japan has just been bombed by America. After evaluating whether or not dropping the bomb was right or wrong, it is obvious that the U.S. destroyed Japan out of malicious intent and anger toward the Japanese, but this gave America no right to drop the bomb on innocent civilians. America had also destroyed big parts of their industry and economy with their incendiary bombs, but Japan refused to surrender or show any sign of weakness. Many experts have argued that dropping the bomb was unethical and wrong.
Second, America dropped the bomb not to win the war and save American lives, but to show its power to the Soviet Union. First, it was not necessary for America to drop the bomb to win the war because the United States had already won a comprehensive victory in the Pacific. The United States had an absolute advantage in the number
Truman the War Hero On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb called Little Boy hit Hiroshima, Japan, killing thousands of people. The war hero Truman making the right decision, ended the war with Japan leading to an American victory. Truman made the right decision because the U.S. did not want to lose anymore troops, Japan would refuse to surrender, and waste of money for America. To begin, Truman made the right decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan because he did not want to lose any more American troops. The United States has lost 416,800 military troops (Research).
There are many reasons why it could be argued that the dropping of the atomic bomb was justified. One reason is that Japan was warned, they were given plenty of opportunities to surrender such as the Potsdam declaration. The Declaration was issued to Japan by President Truman and the Allies of America after America had tested the Atom bomb on July 26th. The declaration was a proposition of surrender to Japan that linked directly to the dropping of the atomic bomb.
As Dwight D. Eisenhower remarked to Harry S. Truman in July of 1945 in document C, “it was my personal opinion that no power on earth could keep the Red Army out of the war unless victory came before they could get in” (Doc C). The private conversation between Eisenhower and Truman means that what was said was not censored and was Eisenhower speakly freely to the president, which provides a sense of honesty. Eisenhower expressed his concern of the growing power of the Soviet Union and president Truman also held similar beliefs. In 1941, he is quoted as saying, “ If we see Germany winning, we ought to help Russia and if we see Russia winning we ought to help Germany and that way let them kill as many as many as possible” Truman holded no love for the Russians and the desire to show off to the Soviets played a minor role in the decision to drop the bomb. The main reason for dropping the atomic bomb was to force the surrender of the
New to the presidential office, Truman was presented with the decision of whether to drop the atomic bomb, a choice that today is viewed as controversial, but which at the time was well-received by an American population tired of war. The unexpected death of beloved president FDR placed a difficult burden on Truman to fulfill the expectations of the public when he was inadequately prepared or informed. Thus, he refrained from interrupting the existing plans put into place by the predecessor he admired so greatly, and allowed the momentum of the atomic bomb to continue. Additionally, the amount of resources devoted by the American and British governments to the development of the atomic bomb made Truman reluctant to halt the operation at its
President Harry Truman gave an executive order in 1945 to drop to atomic bombs in popular downtown cities in Japan. With the guidance of many scientists and political leaders President Truman made the extremely tough decision to drop the bombs. After listening to arguments from both sides President Truman came to the conclusion that dropping bombs would be the best thing to do for this war. It would also show that the United States had an extreme military power. Many American politicians were for the idea of dropping the bomb, because they believed that it was the only way to end the war and get Japan to surrender.
However, the Japanese were committed to fight to the bitter end of the war and see it all the way through, regardless of the fact that the United States demanded unconditional surrender from the small country of islands. This further emphasizes that since the Japanese were not simply going to give up, Truman came to the conclusion that in order to save millions of lives, he had to take thousands. President Truman decided to drop the atomic bomb on Japan to warn the world about the new found power of the United States, force an unconditional surrender of the Japanese, and save millions of lives. With the controversy over whether or not Truman should have dropped the bomb, some consider the decision irrational and unnecessary.