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Truman Dbq 11 Analysis

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Truman was elected as president on 12 April 1945 within 3 months, following the sudden death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. During his first two months in office, Truman made the decision to drop the atomic bomb in Japan. “Nobody is more disturbed over the use of atomic bombs than I am but I was greatly disturbed over the unwarranted attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbour and their murder of our prisoners of war. The only language they seem to understand is the one we have been using to bombard them. When You have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast. it is most regrettable but nevertheless true.” The above quote was from Truman’s letter, written on 11 Aug 1945, to Samuel McCrea Cavert, the then General Secretary of the Federal …show more content…

The quote is a pro-nuclear bombing perspective as he feels that American lives are worth more than the Japanese population. Truman tries to convince people that the bombing helped to save American soldiers’ lives and he has done this for the American people. He shows no sympathy towards the Japanesecivilian lives to an extent that he is willing to destroy the Japanesecities. The above lines are similar to the previous quotes where Truman justifies this decision to drop the bomb. “President had to decide,” reinstates the supreme power that Truman believes he has in deciding the fate of Japan. The word “had to” implies that he had no other choice and it was his duty to do so. He portrays a positive imagery towards the young American soldiers justifying that he doesn't want to spill the blood of his own people unnecessarily as they are like “flowers' ' — innocent and unspoilt. However,his justification by comparing 250,000 American soldiers to that of a “couple” of Japanese cities reveals a dismissive attitude to the true extent of life lost in Japan. Thus to Truman, the dropping of the atomic bomb was necessary to bring an end to the war and prevent the loss of American armed forces

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