Truman Vs. Truman

On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, at 7:55 AM the Japanese Empire led a surprise attack on the US Naval base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, that would leave millions of Americans in shock, and heartbroken. Before the attack, the United States kept a low profile on International affairs, and concentrated on the domestic affairs at hand. This tragic moment in American history forever remembered. It is a mournful day for the American people, although, for the Japanese Empire it was an honorable day, one they would call a

At approximately 8 o’clock in the morning on the 7th of Dec 1941, the United States of America faced for the first time in history, an attack on US soil. The Empire of Japan had strategically planned and executed a swift blow to the state of Hawaii, located in the mid-Pacific Ocean. Hawaii was our first line of defense from any westerly attack of an Asian country. By the end of the almost 2 hour ordeal, our Naval and Air Corps assets’ were brutally crippled preventing the ability of the US to conduct an immediate retaliation. In this study we will cover many of the events that led up to that moment in time, the actual attack and show the result that were to follow.

As president Harry S. Truman states in his speech, “With this bomb we have now added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction to supplement the growing power of our armed forces… We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city” (Document D). This newly attained bomb would not only add to America’s destructive firepower, it would also have the power to end the war. It would ultimately destroy Japan and its ability to continue fighting the war against the Allied

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

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

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.

On December 7,1941 Japan raided the airbases across the islands of Pearl Harbour. The “sneak attack” targeted the United States Navy. It left 2400 army personnel dead and over a thousand Americans wounded. U.S. Navy termed it as “one of the great defining moments in history”1 President Roosevelt called it as “A Day of Infamy”. 2 As this attack shook the nation and the Japanese Americans became the immediate ‘focal point’. At that moment approximately 112,000 Persons of Japanese descent resided in coastal areas of Oregon, Washington and also in California and Arizona.3

President Truman helped in the process of putting an end to World War II by taking the decision of using an atomic bomb on Japan. He used the bomb to give a message to the Soviet Union that the United States was not afraid of using nuclear weapons if it was necessary. Also he wanted to find a quicker way to stop the war without losing troops.

America was finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel by April of 1945. With Stalin committed to entering war with Japan in alliance with the United States, and German troops dropping like flies, the last thing America needed was for Franklin D. Roosevelt to die. Entering his fourth term, Harry S. Truman accompanied him as the Vice President. Truman’s predecessor, as it turns out, was Henry A. Wallace, “an unapologetic (somewhat over enthusiastic) liberal, that had so infuriated the conservative wing of the Democratic party, the party bosses were desperate to be rid of him.”1 The drastic contrast in political views between Wallace and Truman made it clear that if put in any of the situations Truman eventually was, Wallace would

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

“As the war progressed and it became obvious that American technology was superior to Japan’s, the Japanese began utilizing kamikaze pilots to attack Allied ships in the Pacific to balance the power” (Document 3). The Japanese were sending their troops on these planes knowing they would not make it out alive, and the men knew it too. They were practically sent on suicide missions. They already did not value each individual life and while what we did to them may have seemed extreme, it protected our men.

The Japanese reluctance to surrendering in 1945 set the stage for the United States to enter a seemingly winnable, yet fatal ground invasion of Japan. In the hopes to limit American casualties, President Harry Truman and his advisors authorize the dropping of two atomic bombs in the hope that the loss of civilian lives in Japan would force a Japanese surrender; six days following the bombing of Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito extended his formal surrender to the United States. Truman later explains his controversial and cold-blooded decision behind dropping the lethal bombs by saying, “We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans." ("Public Papers of the Presidents: Harry S Truman, 1945", pg. 212).Thus, Heller creates Daneeka’s fear of the Pacific to echo the sentiments of American leadership, who care not about military or civilian losses in other countries or armies, but only for the lives under their own

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.

On August 6, 1945 an atomic bomb named Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion was huge, the city was destroyed, and tens of thousands of people were killed. Despite witnessing the terrible destruction of the bomb on Hiroshima, Emperor Hirohito and Japan still refused to surrender. “ When Emperor Hirohito made his first ever broadcast to the Japanese people on 15 August 1945, and enjoined his subjects 'to endure the unendurable and bear the unbearable', he brought to an end a state of war - both declared and undeclared - that had wracked his country for 14 years.He never spoke explicitly about 'surrender' or 'defeat', but simply remarked that the war 'did not turn in Japan's favour'. It was a classic piece of understatement. Nearly three million Japanese were dead, many more wounded or seriously ill, and the country lay in ruins,” http://www2.gvsu.edu. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, another atomic bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Again the devastation was

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