The Pros And Cons Of The Sneak Attack

The end of the war was drawing near, and the Pacific was now the United States’ main focus because a quick defeat of the Japanese was needed. Now, new president, Harry S. Truman, was faced with a huge decision. Should we drop the atomic bomb on Japan? Yes, there were other options, but none would end the war as quickly. So, on August 3, 1945 the world’s first atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, and on August 9, 1945 another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. I think it was not only a military necessity, but entirely justifiable, because the Japanese were determined not to surrender, it saved lives, both American and Japanese, in led to a fast end of the war, and was the right thing to do.

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.

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)

During World War II, President Harry S. Truman ordered for an atomic bomb to be dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6th ,1945. The second and last atomic bomb to ever be dropped was in the city of Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945. Many Americans believed dropping the atomic bomb was necessary to end the war in a more timely manner, however, many others believed dropping the atomic bomb was too extreme of a measure to take against Japan. With the creation of the atomic bomb, the United States had a weapon of mass destruction that no one else yet had. Therefore, with the power the atomic bomb possessed, some people believed its use should only be used as a last resort. If Japan would not surrender during this war, then the United States would have a valid and necessary reason in using the power of an atomic bomb. For the other Americans that believed in the immediate drop of the atomic bomb, dropping it would end the war sooner, which would then decrease the amount American soldiers who would be killed during the war. Whether dropping the atomic bomb on Japan was the most ethical decision that President Truman could have ordered is still debated.

This thought brings me to my next motive of why Truman might have dropped the bomb. I do not think Truman was unaware of the lasting effects of the atom bomb, but by the time these facts were presented to him, piled upon facts about the actual bomb and the projects supporting them, it was to late to change his decision. He needed to save face for America (which brings me to the next motive of pressure) even if it public opinion was not his main concern. Truman did not want to look soft upon the Japanese, something further consideration and negation of the plan to bomb would have caused in some officials eye's. Also, Truman and much of the rest of the nation did not like seeing the U.S. as moral failures like many other nations. Who knows what the reaction to the President's decision would have been like if he had decided to let an invasion with hundreds and thousands of our men involved take place.

Dropping the atomic bombs was not any easy choice. There were many people involved in the decision, however the president, Truman was completely responsible for the dropping of the bombs. Truman was the only person who could give the ‘ok’ for dropping the bombs. The president did have a council of war advisers who could help him look at the cost and benefits of the bomb, the cost, and time it would take to get ready for use. By the time Truman took over his presidency the bombs had been undergoing a lot of progress. Truman was never told about the bombs being built for use until he took over as president. The dropping of

If I had been in his shoes, I would hope I would have had the courage to make the same decision. No one wants to see innocent people die, especially civilians. Sometimes, you have to outweigh all of your options and even though these options were not good at all. Truman definitely chose the lesser of two evils which saved countless lives. You can never please everyone. Somebody will always have something to say whether it is positive or negative. I understand that this is what makes the world go around, people having their own opinions. I could not imagine the pressure Truman was facing, knowing all of the lives which are at stake. Many people say Truman was wrong for using the atomic bomb. My question to them would be, is it better to send our young men in on a ground invasion and lose maybe a million or more of our men, or drop a bomb and save our men? We did not start the war, but we sure finished it. We did not ask to fight in this war. We tried staying out of it, but we were dragged into it. September 11, 2001, we were attacked when terrorists flew planes into the twin towers in New York City. Instantly, America is at war. The difference this time, we are not fighting a country, but a group of terrorists who were extremely difficult to find. If it had been a country like Japan, then I would have hoped that we could the bombed them the same way we bombed Japan. But you can’t bomb a group of people who are all over the world. I support Truman’s decision in using the bomb. If we have to use this type of force again in order of saving many of our men and women, then that would be the lesser of two

Therefore, The United States dropped it in order to finish the war. They wanted to prevent more deaths and if the atomic bomb didn’t stop them, nothing would’ve stopped them. For example, after Truman dropped the bomb he released a letter and sources from CNN quoted “that the decision to use the two nuclear bombs saved the lives of 250,000 Allied troops and 250,000 Japanese by helping to prevent an invasion”. Although it was rough because they didn’t know the long term effects on that the atomic bomb would have on the cities. If the U.S. didn’t drop the bomb the war could’ve gotten worse and be more deadly in the long run.

Dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified under the information they had at the time. When criticizing the actions of the Truman administration one needs to consider the effect of knowledge in hindsight. Truman was working under the knowledge that dropping the nuclear bombs would bring a short and fast victory to the Pacific front of the Second World War. As the war had already ended in Europe by this time, leaders were looking to end the campaign in the Pacific as quickly as possible. From a cost benefit perspective dropping the bombs on Japan meant that very few American lives were lost, and the cost of building the bombs compared to the cost of a minimum six month continuation of fighting.Additionally, there was no testing

Did we make the right decision in dropping the atomic bombs on Japan during WWII? Till this day ordinary citizens and commanders question if the bombing was ethical. The utilitarian approach supports the argument considering without the bombs millions of lives would’ve been at risk. However, dropping the atomic bombs kept the deaths significantly lower on both sides. I believe the right decision was to drop the atomic bombs on Japan. I’m briefly going to talk about why Truman decided to drop the bomb, why there wasn’t another alternative, and what some felt after the bombing.

“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 my belief the two biggest issues that play a role in making and educated on wether to drop the bomb or not, would be time and money. The U.S. had already spent billions of dollars making these bombs, and couldnt afford to waste anymore money on the war. Sending troops to invade would have cost the U.S. alot of money that they didnt have, mind you they still were facing the great deppression. Not to mention the time that had gone into making these intricate atomic bombs, and the time that had already been wasted fighting the war. The war lasted about six years and could have been longer if Truman hadnt dropped the bomb because of the Japanese ethics and warfare perspective.

President Truman decided to drop the atomic bomb was not well received by some and thought to of had an inhumane decision. Truman said his decision to drop the bomb was from a military point of view and continuing the war was not an option. The fact is he introducing the age on nuclear war, but would have come in the near future or not? Some feel that Japan was about to surrender, and bombing was not the best choice.

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

In my opinion, the United States was justified in the use of the Atomic bomb to force Japan’s surrender in WWII. The Japanese was asked to surrender many times during the war, American soldiers and civilians were harshly effected from four years of war, yet the Japanese military refusing to give up the fighting. The US took other routes and schemes to force Japan to surrender, yet even after firebombing Japanese cities, Japan still had a strong army of 2 million. I think Truman took the right precautions in making the decision and had rational reasoning to use the bomb. It was somehow in a twisted way better to use the atomic bomb because if we did go into war with Japan, the US having made the army come into their country and fighting; more citizens, and innocent people would have been killed with all the combat, Japan realizing this knew that they