Essay on The Decision of the Century

One of the most controversial and heavily scrutinized issue of the twentieth century was President Harry S. Truman’s decision to unleash atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The motives behind Truman’s actions are shrouded in controversy as top military officials publicly denounced the use of such a disastrous weapon. There is overwhelming evidence supporting both sides of the decision, as historians are split in opinion. The United States had been using conventional bombing to try to push Japan over the edge to surrender, but with countless Japanese civilians loyal to their country, invading Japan proved to be more problematic than first thought. Harry S. Truman made the ultimate decision of dropping the atomic bomb in hopes that it would end the war, but the amount of casualties caused by it has historians questioning if it was morally right, “The bomb was unfortunate, but it was the only means to bring Japan to a surrender,” historian Sadao Asada states (Bomb 9). Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justifiable because they would ultimately lead to the end of the war and would demonstrate U.S. supremacy.

He faced many important challenges and decisions. The war in Europe ended when Germany surrendered on May 8th. The United Nations signed a charter. Roosevelt participated in the Potsdam Conference to discuss treatment after the war with Churchill and Stalin. Soon after this, President Roosevelt passed away and Truman took office. In order to end the war in the Pacific and prevent the loads U.S. casualties that would happen from an invasion of Japan, Truman approved the dropping of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered, however, Truman’s atomic bomb was one of the most controversial decisions of any American

Imagine yourself making the toughest decision in your life, whether sacrificing a million of our men and thousands of war ships and plans, verses several thousand of Japanese civilian populists. This decision was on the shoulder of Harry S. Truman, the United States President, who had to make this decision by deciding whether or not to drop a newly designed weapon. The atomic bomb was tested in the sands of New Mexico, where it proved to be very successful. Harry S. Truman made a very successful decision, because he wanted to end the war quickly, show others that the United States had power, and the retribution of Pearl Harbor.

Truman dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. This action was an attempt to make the Japanese army surrender, which was almost impossible considering they had a mindset of ‘Bushido’, or no surrender, so a large action was needed to be taken. To share the responsibility and power, Truman made the decision with a group of opinions and people. “The Interim Committee, created in May 1945, was primarily tasked with providing advice to the President on all matters pertaining to nuclear energy” (“The Decision”). Truman had realized that nuclear power was too much responsibility for one person to have.

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States of America. He became president because Franklin D. Roosevelt died during his term; Truman was Roosevelt’s Vice President at the time. Truman found himself facing some of the greatest challenges met by any 20th-century president. He discovered in July 1945 that some scientists working for the United States government had successfully tested an atomic bomb in New Mexico. President Truman wanted to use the atomic bomb to end the war in the Pacific, but with fewest U.S. catastrophes. This decision was one of the most momentous decisions of the 20th century and extremely perplexing when analyzed.

When Truman was sworn in as president World War Two was just about over due to Hitler committing suicide and Germany’s surrender. Although Germany had surrendered and the war with them was over, the war with Japan was further away from the end (“Foreign Affairs”). Military planners estimated that the war with Japan would call for an allied invasion of Japan and would take at least another year and cost at least another 200,000 American casualties. When Truman learned of the success of the testing of the atomic bomb in Potsdam the idea of possibly ending the war sooner grew on him. He decided he would use the threat of an atomic bomb to persuade Japan to surrender, but Japan

President Harry S. Truman 's intentions of the atomic bomb were to bring an end to the war, the Japanese had made it clear that there would be no surrender on their side. In Truman 's diary entry from the Potsdam Conference, he discussed that the bomb would only be dropped and used on "military objectives and soldiers and sailors", the innocent women and children where not their target. Although he did state “Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless, and fanatic, we as the leaders of the world for the common welfare cannot drop this terrible bomb on the old capital or the new.” Truman was aware of the affect the atomic bomb had, and how dangerous it was; making it known that dropping such forces on the people of Japan would cause major damage. He also mentioned that there would be a warning to the Japanese government to and save the lives of their people, even though they had

n mid-July, President Harry S Truman was notified of the successful test of the atomic bomb, what he called “the most terrible bomb in the history of the world.”   Thousands of hours of research and development as well as billions of dollars had contributed to its production.   This was no theoretical research project.   It was created to destroy and kill on a massive scale.   As president, it was Harry Truman’s decision if the weapon would be used.

Boom! Boom! Seventy thousands Japanese citizens were perished instantly after the first atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Japanese still refused to surrender to Allied forces. On August 9, 1945, with the dropping of the second atomic bomb in Nagasaki, where eighty thousands people were vaporized, Japanese surrendered unconditionally and the World War II ended (“The Decision to Drop the Bomb” 5-6). But was it a right decision of Harry S Truman to end

When the Japanese choose not to surrender President Truman makes the decision to use the atomic bomb rather than risk the 1,000,000 projected lives lost in a man to man combat war. Hiroshima was a chosen as

Only a handful of people knew about the bomb or the research on the use of atomic energy for military purposes. Now Truman had been informed about the best kept secret of World War II.

On August 6, 1945 President Truman made the biggest decision that would change many people’s lives forever, which was dropping the first atomic bomb on a city in Japan called Hiroshima. The atomic bomb had a code that only certain people from the U.S knew; the code name was called “little boy” (Hall). The atomic bomb caused a lot of damage to Japan, killing between 60,000 and 80,000 people in that second that the bomb was dropped (WW2 People’s War). The atomic bomb affected many people’s lives in many ways. Many people believed that it was wrong that President Truman dropped the bomb because there could have been another way to fight back. President Truman was very indecisive to whether or not to drop the bomb on Japan. President Trumans, final decision was the only right thing to do because the atomic bomb had many benefits for the U.S. such as ending World War II, saving many people’s lives and showing what the United States was capable of.

So then came Truman who was told to do two things, be President of the United States and finish the war with the Japanese. America had a whole army of soldiers already to invade Japan in operation downfall, but when they had their first combat atomic bomb ready they could finally “test” the bomb in combat and not lose any American lives. Thus resulting in the bombing of Hiroshima.

Harry Truman was the 33rd President of the United States of America. He was a farmer, business man and in his later life, a politician. During the First World War he served with France as an artillery officer. Even though he states that his strong values for honestly and decency, his experience from serving in the war later affects his decisions in regards to the safety of America. His Vice Presidency was only 82 days, during this time he only spoke to Roosevelt twice. He had no knowledge that the US was in the works of making an atomic bomb. The bomb was created in order to show the Russians that the US has power and to stop the spread of communism.

After performing a successful test in New Mexico proving the atomic bomb worked and was effective, it was now put on Mr. Truman’s shoulders whether the United States should invade Japan or drop the bomb instead.