The Soviet Declaration Of War

In addition to the desire to end the war and thus the casualties to the American troops, Truman had other reasons for considering the approval of the atomic attacks. Truman was enlightened by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson in a meeting on April 25, 1945 on the capability of the bomb, and the enormous expense incurred in developing it. This was one reason that Truman’s conclusion was to use the bomb against Japan, as there had to be a justifiable explanation for the expense incurred. Also, if he had not employed the use of the atomic bomb, he would not be able to justify to the American people why he had chosen not to do so, as there were so many American lives lost. It was alleged after the

The United States was well educated on the horrifying effects of the nuclear bomb created. But despite the knowledge of the atomic bomb, America carried on its plans to target Japan (Document 1). World War II did end after the Nagasaki bombing, but many argue if it was necessary to bomb these Japanese cities or were they ready to surrender?

Although WW II ended over 50 years ago there is still much discussion as to the events which ended the War in the Pacific. The primary event which historians attribute to this end are the use of atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although the bombing of these cities did force the Japanese to surrender, many people today ask "Was the use of the atomic bomb necessary to end the war?" and more importantly "Why was the decision to use the bomb made?" Ronald Takaki examines these questions in his book Hiroshima.

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

The Japanese understood the Ultimatum as if any circumstances they choose not to surrender, the termination would lead the country to face the brutality and a major lost which was stated above. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson had established a decision that the atomic bomb would be the “least abhorrent choice” that will be dropped above the city of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as its priority and weighs the value the lives of honourable soldiers attacked without a trace. Also the military advisers

Hasegawa explores other possibilities, perhaps involving Stalin in the Potsdam Proclamation so Japan would finally give up hope of the Russian mediation. Thus, Japan would be forced to face the terms presented by Truman and give a clear status of surrender. Hasegawa attributes the Japanese surrender to the soviet invasion rather than the atomic bombs anyway. “An alternative was available, but they chose not to take it” (Hasegawa p. 247). Hasegawa believes that there were multiple routes Truman could have taken and avoided nuclear warfare, instead, his actions were motivated by

Document 1 shows that President Truman knew the extensive damage the atomic bomb would cause and never once doubted the importance of using it. He stated the bomb was a “military weapon” that was essential to ending World War II. Supporters of the decision to drop the atomic bomb also argued that death is an “inevitable” outcome of war. In Document 3, for example, Henry Stimson called war “the face of death,” and states that although a hundred thousand lives were lost, it was the “least abhorrent alternative.” According to Stimson, if World War II didn’t end, the “fire raids” and the “strangling blockade” would have continued, resulting in more deaths than the atomic bomb caused.

Japan had already admitted to being defeated and knew they were ready to surrender. “The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were

    There were many causes for the United States dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of these causes was because we wanted to increase the chances of Japan surrendering so that

The Truman administration did not want to give Japan a conditional surrender and let them maintain their emperor because they feared that there would be a backlash from the American public who felt that the emperor was a war criminal. President Truman was also sold on this and there was really no moving him to change his mind. Herbert Feis in 1961 wrote that, “I think it may be concluded that the fight would have continued into July at least Unless…the American and Soviet Government together had let it be known that unless Japan laid down its arms at once, the Soviet Union was going to enter the war. That, along with a promise to spare the Emperor, might well have made an earlier bid for surrender effective” (Alperovitz 23). If the United States would have done this we could have been on the move to reconstructing the Japanese nation. Leaving the Japanes Emperor would have helped the Japanes feel some what better about the American invlovment at that time. On August 9 the Russian army invaded Manchuria and completely handled the

On August 15th Japan surrendered, and on September 2nd, 1945 they signed the “Instrument of Surrender”. Hospitals were filled with patients who had not seemed sick before. People vomited, bled from their gums, and spots had begun to appear on their skin. Later Japanese doctors discovered that the people were dying from radiation that came from the atomic bomb. {look up: conspiracy theory} When considering using the atomic bombs, President Truman took into account the lowest possible cost for ending the war, he also wanted to end the war quickly. Truman once stated, “When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast.” After the Pearl Harbor invasion. The U.S. started with “Operation Downfall,” invading Kyushu, many casualties where estimated, but this war proved to be even more deadly than predicted. General MacArthur thought that dropping more bombs, and using air power by itself would protect American lives, while also bringing forth a quicker surrender from the Japanese. When I look at both sides of the 1945 Japan bombing I really tried to stay open about the different viewpoints. The fact that the U.S., Britain, and the Netherlands crippled Japan was interesting to find. I felt that the Japanese did not want to compromise, and in some way bit the hands that fed them. It seems these allies had allot of power. The Japanese seemed to only

America's decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan was only done to assert our position over the Soviet Union, and Japan's surrender was only an extra accomplishment of the attack. During the years 1939 to 1947, numerous conferences were held to discuss diplomatic matters, and the strive towards getting Japan to accept an unconditional surrender. The Japanese had already been weakened, and the military predicted that they would eventually be forced to surrender in a short amount of time. Even the scientists who worked on the atomic bomb agreed that it was unnecessary to drop the bomb on Japan, since their surrender would be evident in the near future. Therefore, the United States' decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan had nothing to do

“On August 6, 1945, the world was changed forever with the denotation of an atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, followed three days later with the use of another bomb over Nagasaki”1. The United States use of atomic weapons on Japan in 1945 was an event that triggered the fear of many individuals because it was during the period of war. The use of atomic weapons by the United States however, was justified because they had to end the war quicker, they intended to do minimal damage, and they had no other alternative.

The Japanese saw this as an incredible insult to their ruler, and therefore refused surrender (Lawton). The only reason why America could follow through with the term of “The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction” (“Potsdam Declaration”) was because it had made the terms of the Potsdam Declaration completely disgraceful and unacceptable for Japan. Clive A. Lawton argues “Many Japanese politicians would only agree to surrender if Emperor Hirohito remained on the throne”. Had the U.S. revised its treaty terms in order to keep Hirohito in power and leave at least some of the Japanese military intact, Japan would have likely surrendered quicker and the bombs would not be needed.