Atomic Bomb Persuasive Essay

Harry S. Truman and His Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb Harry S. Truman once said, “Carry the battle to them. Don’t let them bring it to you.” In World War II, that is exactly what he did. While Japan was breaking treaties and fighting with allied countries, the United States was developing a powerful weapon that would cripple Japan and end World War II.

Introduction: On December 7th, 1941, Japanese aircrafts bombarded the American fleets in a Pearl Harbor naval base, near Honolulu Hawaii. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a strategic scheme to take out the American fleets after the Nine-Power Treaty failed, due to Japan’s violation of it. The attack had devastating consequences and caused America and Japan to be at each other's throats. As a result, President Roosevelt declared war on Japan and unleashed two major bombings putting Japan to its knees and forcing them to sign a surrender document, later on, putting America and Japan at peace.

In fact, it did, however Japan would never conform to surrender even after the first bomb was dropped.   Thus, a choice was given to Japan, surrender or, USA will need to drop another bomb. Ultimately after the second bomb, with Tokyo probably being next. Japan gave up and surrendered.

The atomic bomb being dropped was justified due to the fact the Japanese had attacked the U.S. at a military base named Pearl Harbor. In hope of crippling the united states navy and getting an edge on the United States. When the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service had launched their attack on pearl harbor, which after approximately 2 years since the war had started and this was the first direct attack on the United States. Up until the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States was not participating in the war. The staff of History.

Orthodox history represents the atomic bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 as a significant tuning point because it brought WW2 to an end and the US wanted revenge for Pearl Harbour. On August the 6th 1945 in Japan, the US military dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the US wanted Japan to surrender as quickly as possible, so they could bring WW2 to an end. Then four days later, the US dropped another bomb on Nagasaki. The action of the US created a turning point as it ended the war and brought insight to the world and why nuclear weapons shouldn’t be used in any war. The consequences of the horrific bombing were that thousands of people in Japan died or were left with severe injuries and diseases from the radiation.

The dropping of the atomic bombs on World War II on the city of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a very important part of World War II. The atomic bomb ended the war between America and Japan. This was just one of the important events during the battle in World War II. The Battle at Pearl Harbor, where the Japanese attacked U.S. soil was also why the americans bombed Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Some believe that the United States was correct in dropping these bombs on Japan because of the attack on Pearl Harbor while others believe that it was very wrong to dropped the bomb.

Since Japan was a rising power they saw one country in the way from keeping their empire secure, the United States of America. Hence the attacked pearl harbor. Japan did this without thinking about the consequences that would later come. Unfortunately for Japan, the U.S. decided to end the war with two nuclear bombs, little boy, and fat man. These two bombs devastated Japan and caused them to surrender.

The alternative for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his advisors was doing nothing and letting Nazi Germany develop atomic power and going on to use it to conquer the world. The United States of America wanted to end World War II on both the Atlantic and Pacific fronts and needed the quickest possible method to do so. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s advisors concluded that hundreds of thousands of American lives would be lost on an assault on the island of Japan. The U.S. Armed Forces was over 16,000,000 strong and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s main motive for dropping the atom bombs was to save American lives.5

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States, being in office from 1945 to 1953. Truman demonstrates uses of both expressed and inherent powers throughout his presidency. During the years of his first administration, Truman attended the Potsdam Conference alongside Churchill and Stalin to discuss post-war matters regarding the decision to split up Germany. Throughout this time period of war filled with tension among nations, Truman approved the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan in efforts to end the war in the Pacific and prevent any possible future casualties that Japan may inflict on the United States. The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, and the second was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9.

On August 6 1945, the first nuclear bomb to be dropped on foreign land was discharged from Enola Gay on Hiroshima, Japan. This atomic bomb, named Little Boy was dropped as a staggering assault trying to influence Japan to surrender, and decimated Hiroshima as more than 70,000 individuals were killed in a split second. As Hirohito, emperor of Japan declined to acknowledge the United States' terms of surrender, the second nuclear bomb, named 'Fat Man' was dropped over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Numerous individuals despised the utilization of the nuclear bombs, as the mass murder of regular, innocent citizens was accepted to be a highly inhumane and barbaric resolution for a political war.

The dropping of the bombs were necessary and fair due to the refusal of the Japanese to surrender, the millions of lives saved by a quick end to the war, and the warnings given to the Japanese. To begin, the Japanese soldiers have it ingrained in their brains that it is dishonorable to surrender. The author of Drop the Bomb as agreed by saying that “the Japanese have demonstrated a willingness to fight to the death”. During the war there were many times for the Japanese to surrender, but it was never done. With this in mind, they would have continued to drag out the war, which shows that dropping the bombs sped up the war which lessened the casualties.

On September 2, 1945 more than 250 allied warships were at anchor bay when the treaty was signed (“Japan Surrenders”). To most all Historians the signing of that treaty marked the end of World War II. Fairly soon after the World War II the cold war began. “The communist Soviet Union and Capitalist U.S. headed two camps” (Langley 82).

The U.S. viewed bombings as a necessity because Truman gave the Japanese a chance to surrender when he issued the Potsdam Declaration. In his message, Truman warned the Japanese that if they would not unconditionally surrender that they would be struck with “prompt and utter destruction.” Similarly, by bombing the Japanese it would spare up to 1 million American lives along with 250,000 British casualties because U.S and allied soldiers didn’t have to attempt to invade the heavily guarded Japanese territories. Another reason the United States needed to bomb Japan was dominance. The secretary of state thought it would put the U.S. in a dominant position in the postwar and have power over the Germans.

Japan was planning on surrender, before the bomb was dropped. One reason was, Japan was getting ready to negotiate a peace settlement, yet Truman still decided to drop the bomb. The U.S. saw they were going to surrender (they knew). The U.S. was able to set up spying devices, and were able to hear some of the plans Japan was negotiating.

An invasion on Japan was being planned next year, leaving a opening of time for which American and Japanese lives to be killed by one another during the war. However, the invasion didn’t happen because on September 2, 1945, Japan officially signed to unconditional surrender. The dropping of the atom bomb forced japan to surrender just like the U.S wanted.