Truman Turning Point

At this time period of time, President Harry Truman needs to take into account that the Japanese are unlikely to surrender without some heavy persuasion. The Japanese have already attacked at Pearl Harbor, and there is no sign that they will stop anytime soon. Japan is attempting to create more allies to form a strong and dangerous coalition that will threaten the United States and its allies. Fortunately, scientists in the United States have been working on an atomic bomb and now would be the perfect opportunity to utilize it to end the Japanese empire. Rather than authorizing a ground invasion of Japan or negotiating the Japanese terms of surrender, President Truman should use the atomic bomb against Japan to cause a swift surrender of the Japanese empire for the purposes of maintaining global power and preserving the lives of as many American soldiers as possible.

On July 26, U.S. President Harry S. Truman and Allies issued a final ultimatum to Japan, known as the Potsdam Declaration. The Potsdam Declaration is a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces. The Proclamation Defining Terms of Japanese Surrender consisted of thirteen conditions that the Japanese had to abide by. Japan was warned numerous times from the United States about the potential threat of an invasion or the use of a new weapon. “Japan would be warned that the new weapon would be used against Japan unless surrender was forthcoming.” Premier Kantaro Suzuki had rejected Truman’s final warning by stating that it was unworthy of public notice. January of 1945, a reporter for Newsweek wrote, “This intense hatred was first aroused by the sneak attack on Pearl Harbour. I remember men who, when they came to the Pacific, had no particular hatred of or desire to kill Japanese. When treachery affects you, or somebody you know, you grow to hate violently.” President Truman was disturbed over the unwarranted attack of Pearl Harbour and the murder of their prisoners of war. Japan had, not only attacked Pearl Harbour, involvement of the Bataan Death March, and the bloody battles in the Pacific. Leaflets were also dropped over Japan to let the people acknowledge that if Japan would not surrender, the U.S. is willing

World war 2 had basically the highest death toll all of them are estimated because there is no way to know the exact number of deaths but it had plenty for sure. The deaths were far more brutal too with the use of those extreme weapons since it was the latest war as well. “The backstory of weapons employed in World War 2 on land, sea and air was the intense focus of the scientific /tech communities to create the means for the greatest devastation. Earlier wars may have planted the seeds for lethality, but this new war that engulfed the planet was a quantum leap into the future of weaponry.” This quote says that world war 2 was the biggest jump into the future of weaponry. Therefore it is proven that this was the most extreme war of its time and any time for that matter. “The result was a 4% died-of-wounds rate for British and American troops, (this rate was later reduced to 2.5% in Vietnam) and death rates from disease markedly fell below the killed-in-action rate. During WWII, morbidity from such diseases as tuberculosis (anti-tuberculosis agents did not begin to appear until 1949), rheumatic fever, hepatitis and tropical diseases was high and the prime reason for residual disability and time lost from duty.” Sickness was a big factor as well as certain death by weapons not as much but it affected many for

Some people would say that the bombing was necessary to end the war, but in the same breath would say that it was inhumane. Other standpoints say that Japan was already on their way to surrender.

Technology has allowed for the furtherance of warfare, from the invention of gun powder to the splitting of the atom. These findings have propelled the leap of numerous nations’ in the ability to wage war against each other. Of these discoveries, the splitting atom spawned an invention that would hurl the world from conventional warfare into the nuclear age. These ideals were the brainstorming of some of the greatest minds in America and abroad. These scientists began to formulate the creation of the atomic bomb, a device that would change the world in ways that had never been imagined before.

Japan during the 1940’s was a nation that prided itself on the concept of never surrendering. It was something that they took fierce and obsessive pride in. Their culture dictated that they are never to give up, even if they fought until every single man,woman, and child living in Japan was slaughtered, they would never surrender. This doctrine was one of the key deciding factors that influenced Truman in making the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Several weeks before the Atomic bomb was dropped, The Untied States of Military issued a warning to the Japanese government. “It warned the Japanese to surrender immediately or face ‘prompt and utter destruction.” (Yes! Harry Truman’s Simple Decision) Unfortunately, a mere two weeks before the first atomic bomb dropped, the Japanese prime minister publically dismissed the warning and refused to surrender. Even after the bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese government refused to stand down. Even though they had suffered over 225,000 civilian casualties in the attack, the Japanese military refused to surrender. It took until the second bombing of Nagasaki to finally force the Japanese to surrender on American

On May 1945, a long-awaited V-E Day finally came and brought an end to the war in Europe. But, the war in the Pacific was still continuing against Japan since they are being reluctant to surrender despite the continuous indiscriminate bombardments The United States began to consider about using the atomic bombs as the only way to end the war immediately. On the other hand, many argued that Japan’s staggering losses were enough to force Japan’s surrender. In the end, President Harry S. Truman didn’t hesitate to use this nuclear weapon and bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki with only three days interval between the two bombing. As a result, Japan has surrendered, but if I were to make a decision, I haven’t used atomic bombs because it was unnecessary since Japan has virtually lost already.

known to man. After FDR died on April 12, 1945, the decision to drop the bomb was left

How has the results of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing affect the lives of the survivors?

On August 2, 1938, in the heat of World War II, Albert Einstein, a physicist born in Germany, sent a letter to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States. The letter suggested America to build an atomic bomb before the Nazi Germany does. However, it took more than two months for the letter to reach Roosevelt. On October 19, 1938, Roosevelt agreed, replying, “I found this data of such import that I have convened a Board … to thoroughly investigate the possibilities of your suggestion regarding the element of uranium” (“President Roosevelt's response to Dr. Einstein”). As a result, America held a secret program, code named Manhattan Project, and started to build new, destructive weapons in a laboratory in Los Alamos,

Although Truman realized that “an atomic bomb explosion would inflict damage and casualties beyond imagination,” he believed it would be the most effective approach in destroying the heartless nation of Japan (doc 1). Harry Truman also concluded that an invasion of Japan could cost as many as 1,000,000 American casualties. Therefore, if the US used atomic bombs against Japan, Japan would hopefully surrender, thus decreasing the number of American casualties. In agreement with Truman, Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, explained that the destruction of HIroshima and Nagasaki “stopped the fire raids, and the strangling blockade; it ended the ghastly specter of a clash of great land armies” (doc 3). An end to the massive number of bombs dropped, the blockade (?), and the horrific menace between Allied and Axis powers, caused the death toll in the Pacific to adequately decrease. In addition to saving thousands of American lives, it was in the United State’s best interest to force the Japanese to surrender, and to put an end to the immense fighting that occurred in the Pacific.

The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945 was a definite turning point in the Pacific War of World War II. Earlier that year, Germany had been defeated and the world then turned its attention to the Pacific war. Most history books state the argument that the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan was necessary to stop the war in order to save thousands of lives of American troops that were planning to invade Japan. "Had the bombs not been employed (so the "wisdom" goes), an enormous number of American troops would have perished in an inevitable amphibious operation against the Japanese mainland."(McManus 1) This paper will demonstrate that Japan was willing to

This investigation assesses President Harry Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It will determine whether or not his decision was justified. This investigation will scrutinize the reasons that made Harry Truman feel inclined to drop atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Preventing further casualties along with the desire to end the war are two argumentative points that will be analyzed to determine if they were strong enough to justify the dropping

In the late July of 1945, Japan’s Militarist government refused the demand for surrender that was put forth in the Potsdam Declaration by the Allied forces. General MacArthur, along with other top military commanders, agreed to continue the bombing of Japan that was already in effect, followed up with an invasion, which was codenamed “Operation Downfall”. President Harry Truman was advised that such a massive invasion will cause the U.S to lose up to one million soldiers. To avoid the risk, President Truman decided to use the bomb to end the

After the Japanese dropped the bomb on Pearl Harbor, the United States took serious offense to it. The Americans dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because of them dropping the bomb on Pearl Harbor. America dropped the bomb because President Harry Truman commanded that if the Japanese made any attack on us, we would attack them. This bomb badly affected Japan. At least 140,000 Japanese people died, including 20,000 soldiers by December of 1945. At least 90% of the deceased were killed within two weeks of the bomb being dropped. 92% of 76,000 buildings were destroyed. (“Hiroshima Committee”)