The disagreement whether it was necessary for the United States to drop the bomb on either Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been going on for about half a century. Many have argued that Harry S. Truman did the right thing while others disagree that it was a horrible decision. There is technically not a right or wrong answer because no one knew what could have happened if the United States did not drop the bombs on either cities. There can only be disagreements over the decisions a leader could make in order to protect its people from being killed. Not knowing what could happen if the bomb was used on people Truman still decided to drop it on both cities. The first atomic explosion to ever be witnessed was the atomic bomb, which was named Trinity, in the desert that was near a city called Alamogordo in New Mexico by the Manhattan Project scientist. It is said, “a blinding flash of light, perhaps brighter than any ever before seen on earth, followed by a huge, billowing mushroom cloud”(1) was the first atomic explosion to leave a crater in the barren desert. The Manhattan Project was a development project during World War II that was known to be scientific and technological and produced nuclear weapons in hidden laboratories throughout the nation. After Truman heard about the explosion he demanded a final warning to the Japanese to surrender by August 3 if not they would face total demolition. On August 6, Truman realizes that the Japanese failed to surrender so he ordered the air
The U.S demanded Japan to give up the war or the U.S would end the war in mass destruction.Japan refused to give up their fight in the war and that gave Truman the decision to use the bombs. Japan had no idea of any new weapons that had been made by the U.S during WW2. 1945, the first of two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima. On the 9th of August, the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki which killed many Japanese. The Japanese had officially given up their war with the U.S.
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)
Some say the decision was moral and some say it was immoral. The people who think the bombing was immoral was because they think that the atomic bomb is the last thing for destruction on God’s scale. It is immoral to God’s creation of mankind. As the author of Nippon Times (Tokyo) said, a nuclear bomb “strikes at the very basis of moral existence” (Document 4). The author said that it is ethically wrong to bomb innocent humans and destroy mankind. But although the Japanese had to face poor conditions, the American lives were saved by President Truman. The decision was indeed justified on the United States standpoint but unfortunately the decision was immoral on the Japanese
Intense moral justification was needed in order to make the decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki however, President Truman was ultimately the man who made the final decision to launch ‘Little Boy’ and destroy Hiroshima, Nagasaki and their civilians, thus forcing an end to the war. Although there were many alternatives presented to President Truman, it is unknown as to whether they would have actually succeeded in ending the war or producing less casualties. Truman made the decision to drop these bombs in the heat of war but his justification of having a military target appeared extremely unrealistic, as both cities were full of innocent civilians. The morality of the bombs have been debated over the years, however the publication of the actual damage to civilian life caused a strong voice opposed to the usage in the 60 years following the action.
The first atomic bomb that Japan was to get a glimpse of was on August 6th, 1945, during World War II in the city of Hiroshima. The explosion annihilated 90 percent of the city; without hesitation killed 80,000 people. More than tens of thousands of people would have eventually died due to radiation exposure. Within three days of the attack, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb in another location known as Nagasaki, killing an estimation of 40,000 people. Hirohito, Japan’s emperor announced his country’s unequivocal surrender in WWII in a radio address on August 15th, in allude to the calamitous power of “a new and most cruel bomb.” President Truman had to make one of hardest pre arrangements that he had ever faced. Truman based this decision off of the results of to justify the cost of the Manhattan project, in response of
President Roosevelt knew that America was making these highly deadly bombs, but they were top secret, no one knew, so he made the choice to keep from telling anyone, including his Vice President Truman. When President Roosevelt died Truman was swore in right away and was immediately told about the atomic bombs. After the atomic bombs were finished, successful and ready, the United States Generals started saying that we needed to use them on Japan because they felt that was the plan whole time. They voiced their opinion but left the decision to President Truman. Truman had to decide if he was, or was not making a good decision before he made it. Therefore, he made a committee to help him decide, so the decision was not all on him. The committee came up with four different options for Truman to choose from. Option one was that they just “conventional Bomb the
(Document F)” General Marshall truly believed if the bomb wasn’t dropped it would have cost many lives and Truman agreed with him and made the decision to drop them. A soldier from World War II stated, “... We cried with relief and joy. We were going to live. We were going to grow up to adulthood after all (Document C).” United States soldiers were relieved to hear the news of the bombs being dropped and soon to come after the Japanese surrender because they didn’t give up that easily. They had too much pride it was a huge part of their culture. They’d fight until every man, woman and child are gone before surrendering. Therefore, United States citizens and soldiers feared the worst before the bombs were dropped. When they heard the news of Japan’s surrender the fear disappeared because they were going to live to see another
During World War II Americans dropped atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing nearly 200,000 people. This resulted in Japans surrender in World War II. J. Samuel Walker analyzes this historical event in his book Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs. Over the past 70 years’ extensive research has been conducted and there is an understanding that Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bombs is inconclusive. It is impossible to determine that the use of the bomb was the quickest way to end the war. An analysis of President Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb reveals one challenge: was the decision to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki a show of good judgment.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki altered the course of world events by starting the Cold War, ushering advancements in technology, and by influencing cultures worldwide. Occurring on August 6 and August 9 in 1945, the bombing of the cities set of a series of events that would forever change history. The United States and the Soviet Union emerged from the war as superpowers with seemingly limitless power. Their ideologies, however, contrasted greatly, and the once allied nations would turn against each other, setting the entire world into a period of uncertainty. The atomic bomb, alone, would influence countless decisions, technologies, and policies in the following years and strike fear and awe into many around the world.
August 6, 1945 defines a pivotal moment in world history. At 8:15am, the United States
Was Truman actually justified in dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima? The atomic bomb on hiroshima was devastating. It killed thousands of people in the process of finishing the war. Truman and the rest of the country were rushed in finishing the war but didn’t want to lose any more men than they had to. In the writer’s opinion Truman was not justified in dropping the atomic bomb because of how many lives were lost and how inhumane it was to drop the bomb.
President Roosevelt was in office during most of the war, and was re-elected into office in 1944. He dropped his former Vice-President, and chose Harry Truman, a U.S. Senator, to be his Vice-President. Unfortunately, Roosevelt’s health was declining fast, and only a few months after being sworn into office, he passed away. Harry Truman was sworn into office on April 12, 1945. He was left with great important decisions to be made for America, including how to end the war with Japan. And on August 6, 1945 the first ever atomic bomb (Little Boy), a bomb that continuously splits atoms creating a chain of energy, was dropped on Hiroshima, killing over a hundred-thousand Japanese civilians. Another atomic bomb (Fat Man) was dropped on August 9, 1945, over Nagasaki, killing tens of thousands of people. This lead to Japan’s surrender to the U.S., which ended the war.
The first event that took place was an immediate unconditional surrender was made to the leadership of the Japanese Military. Some say, Truman held knowledge of the bomb and had japan known about the severity of the bomb their decision not to surrender might have changed. I however believe it was a smart play on Truman’s part, knowledge of the bomb might have caused more issues within the effort of surrendering than we know. Regardless on August 6, 1945 “a plane called the Enola Gay dropped an
The atomic bombing of Japan was an unjustified decision that many considered was inhumane. Through the use of atomic bombs, many innocents were harmed in one way or another. Berger described the atomic bombing of Hiroshima as "a terrorist act" and that it was "evil". While Berger 's argument was extreme, the U.S. still remains unjustified because they did not know exactly how much damage the bomb would actually cause. Bombing Japan, the U.S. harmed thousands of civilians and displayed the effectiveness of the atomic bomb despite having other options to end the war.
Would you kill a thousand to save millions? Well the drastic actions taken by the United States did save millions. There were two actions that had to occur to save the millions and end the war, the dropping of the two atomic bombs being the first of their kind were to be the most powerful bomb ever invented using atomic and nuclear forces so create it and packed over 20,000 tons of TNT and was about ten feet long. The bomber that transported and dropped them was called the 'Enola Gay’. The two Japanese cities’ that were struck by such creations were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In this essay I will be discussing on how the actions taken by the United States of America were completely justified in dropping the two bombs as is established a future power image, saved millions, ended the war and ended the axis of evil.