How Did Harry S. Truman's Decision To Use The Atomic Bomb

In the brutal and deadly Pacific Theater of World War ll, President Truman had to make a crucial decision on whether or not to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. Some believe that Truman’s actions to drop the atomic bomb were unethical and inhumane; however, Truman was justified in his decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan due to the fact that they are our enemy, saving American lives is the first priority, and the atomic bomb will ultimately prevent Russia from gaining control of Asia.

In World War II, President Truman had to decide whether to use a powerful new weapon called the atomic bomb. This decision is still being debated today. Truman made the right choice to drop the atomic bombs because it helped end the war faster and saved lives in the long run (Document E). One reason is that the president said using the bomb would end the war quicker and save lives. If they didn't use the bomb then the U.S. had to invade Japan, it could cost up to a million American lives (Document D)

Initially, the bombs were created as a defense mechanism but Truman was unprepared for a presidential role when he unexpectedly replaced Roosevelt. Before Truman made the initial choice to drop “Little Boy,” Japan was severely close to surrendering to the United States. “The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons…” (Doc 2) Admiral William D. Leahy was against the dropping of the atomic bomb because of the overall success of United States troops.

There are four main reasons why Truman ordered the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I will now discuss each reason in more detail with factual evidence that justifies his decision. By April 1945 the Japanese armed forces had been eliminated from everywhere apart from their home soil and parts of northern Manchuria in China. The Americans had already taken some of the Japanese homeland, Okinawa approximately 300 miles south of Kyushu had been taken.

The final reason Truman was justified is the United States provided clear terms for Japan not to get bombed and warned them with a leaflet. Source 7 states,” You should take steps now to cease military resistance otherwise, we shall resolutely employ this bomb to promptly and forcefully end this war.” This is a very clear statement of what the US wants Japan to do to not be destroyed by the bombs. Japan's leaders did not listen to the U.S.'s warnings, so they accepted the destruction.

President Truman was informed about the Manhattan Project after he became President. Once, the success of the project was secure, the United States has the capacity to end the war with Japan is in our hands. President Truman’s primary goal is “to win a complete victory and to keep the U.S. casualties to a minimum” (Walker 50). Japan on the other hand is not willing to surrender without a fight, even though American forces took over Okinawa and Iwo Jima and were continuously bombing Japanese cities. Japan has denied unconditional surrender, although the refusal is certain to result in total destruction. Thus, President Truman should be advised towards the use of the atomic bomb to quickly bring an end to the

The Japanese way was “to fight to the death,” so the only way to defeat the Japanese was to bomb them. With Japan’s heavily guarded enemy lines, there was no way that the U.S. would be able to invade them without the tragic loss of numerous soldiers. As a result, Truman gave the Japanese a chance to surrender, but they turned it down, so Truman gave the command to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I support the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki because Japan refused to an unconditional surrender, it would save many allied lives, it would establish U.S. as a dominant power, and end the war.

There was no stopping Truman with the judgement he made on using the atomic bombs to end the war quickly. With the success of developing the atomic bombs, it was time to find targets to potential destroy. When it came to choosing what Japanese city to bomb first there had been four cities chosen as possible targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Nagasaki, and Niigata (Kyoto was the first choice until it was removed from the list by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson because it was a religious city). The cities were chosen because they had been relatively untouched during the war. The best option that President Truman wanted to bomb was Hiroshima. The reason why Hiroshima was considered a target was it held a center for shipbuilding and armaments manufacturing.

President Harry S. Truman had the power to end war with Japan, but it would involve unleashing the most terrible weapons ever known. The world changed when the United State dropped the first atomic bomb on Japanese city, Hiroshima seventy thousands of Japanese citizens vaporized. Three days later another bomb was dropped on Japanese city, Nagasaki eighty thousands Japanese citizens perished. The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, lead many historians and policy analyst to questioned if president Truman was correct in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan. In my opinion, President Truman was correct in his decision to drop the atomic bomb.

Many debates have been provoked based on President Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The debate is not solely based on the bomb being dropped, but more on the actual necessity and intention of the bomb being dropped.

Was it necessary for Truman to drop the Atomic Bombs on Japan in World War II? On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped by a US aircraft on Hiroshima. This atomic bomb was dropped to force Japan into surrender, this bomb alone destroyed Hiroshima and over 90,000 people were instantly killed in the explosion and an additional 100,000 people perished from burns and radiation sickness. On August 9, 1945 only three days later, the second atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki resulting in an additional 80,000 casualties of the Japanese population. The people of Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945 soon after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many people opposed to the use of the atomic bombs because people argued that Truman 's decision to use atomic bombs was a barbaric act of cruelty. People also argued that the US government had other ulterior motives to drop the atomic bomb that were necessary for America 's ideals. Necessary motives like presenting The Soviet Union a strong message for the Soviets to watch their step around America. A conventional way of warfare for Japan 's surrender would have costed many more American lives. Truman and others believed that the atomic bomb was necessary to save American lives but also Japanese lives. These actions from President Truman marked the end of the most destructive war in history. The two sources that will used and evaluated in this paper are is The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb by Dennis D. Wainstock (1996)

The United States’ use of the atomic bomb in Japan is still a controversial topic to this day. President Truman had to consider many factors that would influence his ultimate decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There were many justifications as to why the use of the atomic bomb was the best option at the time. One of the main reasons was that dropping the bombs would end the war much quicker and hundreds of thousands of U.S. casualties would be spared. Another thing that Truman considered was Japan’s refusal to surrender.

“Truman stated that his decision to drop the bomb was purely military. Truman believed that the bombs saved Japanese lives as well. Prolonging the war was not an option for the President,” (ushistory.org 1). President Truman and the United States government made a fair decision by dropping the atomic bomb on the Japanese citizens in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during 1945. The bomb allowed the United States to appear more powerful and led to them influencing the rest of the world. The dropping of the atomic bomb was also a just response to the previous atrocities committed by Japan to other countries including the United States. In the long run, the bomb saved more lives that would have been lost in the war, since the bombs caused the

To what extent was Harry Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki justified?

The decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the hardest decision for President Truman to make. He had the power right there in his hands to end the war but he would have to unleash the most powerful weapon known to man, at this time. Everyone was very tired of fighting but the Japanese would not give up so Truman decided to drop it. Even though we told Japan that if they did not surrender we would completely demolish some of their cities, they did not listen and they did not surrender. Maybe they did not think about what kind of weapons we would use because