Truman's Role In Dropping The Atomic Bomb

They came, unwarned. On the 7th of December 1941, the Japanese executed a full-fledged attack on Pearl Harbor. They mercilessly created havoc, with attacks that caused the sinking of eighteen American ships, as well as 170 aircrafts. The casualties were dreadful, with 1,177 of those lost lives had been of the crewmen. The very next day, President Roosevelt declared war on Japan, and thus the United States’ involvement of World War II. Americans of every state were absolutely enraged and bent on their will for vengeance against the Asian country. Within the shadows of galvanized America, Robert Oppenheimer had set his infamous Manhattan Project into action. This project was so disclosed that only a limited number of men truly knew of its purpose. The clandestine project held prior securities to the point in which famous scientists had to use codenames in order to visit Los Alamos, even wives were kept in the dark, and only key scientists could bring their wives along with them. (Source D) This project had been the discreet creation of the Atomic Bombs. Time and time again, this topic had never really dissipated, its controversial who, what and whys prompting generations to debate its palpable purpose. Was the aim really focused for the “good of all?” Was it for America’s self-preservation and wish to promptly put an end to all of the suffering? Many Americans to this day still believe and argue for the usefulness of the atomic bombings, that the droppings were justified.

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.

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.

Many argue Truman’s opinion about using the atomic bombs to abolish the fighting. Truman had put together the best of the best scientist to create and

They also said that Truman should have chosen different ways to compel a Japanese surrender instead of dropping atomic bombs into two cities. The most obvious alternative is an invasion of American into Japanese mainland because Japanese was very close to defeat. And the World War II was close to the end. However, according to historians, the atomic bomb probably saved half of a million U.S. lives, not to mention the number of Japanese casualties than the invasion. Moreover, Japanese was close to defeat, but not close to surrender. Therefore, the decision of President Truman was necessary at that time. His decision was just for the good of America as well as was to save lives of both American and Japanese soldiers. If the war was prolonged, a lot of soldiers would die and the expenses would increase.

Perhaps the most controversial and heavily scrutinized issue of the twentieth century was President Harry Truman’s decision to unleash atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the summer of 1945. While the sequence of events preceding that fateful summer morning of August 6,1945 are fully understood, the motives behind Truman’s actions are shrouded in controversy. Top military officials publicly denounced the use of such a horrendous weapon, while the obvious advantages to the bomb, traditionalists argue, was a shortened Pacific War. Parallactic views between traditional beliefs and revisionist theories suggest that the issue is still very much unresolved. Why is the issue so hotly debated? Partially because of the overwhelming

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.

On August 6th 1945, the United States, led by Harry Truman, decided to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, forever changing warfare. This paper will be dedicated to why Harry Truman decided to use the atomic bomb on Japan and the effects that this decision had on humanity afterward.

A traditionalist believes Truman dropped the bomb to end the war, while a revisionist believes that he dropped it to stop or threaten the Russians. Really, Truman dropped the atomic bomb for both of these reasons. Weighing into the traditionalist side, the bomb is what truly made Japan decide to surrender, after Nagasaki. The United States was clearly trying to bring the war to a complete close since the war in the ETO had just officially ended. On the revisionist side, you see that a main issue at Potsdam was who would control Europe, and Russia wanted the lot of it. They already controlled all of eastern Germany and were determined to gain power over Poland as well. In The History Guide by Stephen Kreis, it is mentioned that, “The United States upheld the principles of self-determination,” meaning they would stop at nothing to stay in control. This shows they were most likely trying to get a step ahead of the Russians, and to keep the land they had in Europe if not gain more

The nature of the careers and by extension the feelings of the president as opposed to scientists was one of the factors that differentiated the finer points of their views on the usage of the atomic bomb. Truman was not aware of the true effects of dropping the atomic bomb, and therefore his decision lay as a purely military choice. Truman, as president, was obligated to protect, preserve and defend America, and the American lives taken by Japanese kamikaze pilots stood as a threat to homeland security. He viewed the bombing as no different than the firebombing of Dresden and Tokyo; essentially, a necessary step in protecting America, blind to the inevitable repercussions for the Japanese, such as radioactive sickness. J. Robert Oppenheimer, the lead scientist of the Manhattan Project, explains the viewpoint of the scientists. The scientists were unaware of the ill effects of the bomb as well, and felt deep regret as expressed by Oppenheimer that such a drastic scale of damage had resulted from the very thing that they had spent months

During the long battle of WW2, we were all surprised by the death of our beloved president Roosevelt on April 12th. Quickly we had Truman come into office and within 12 days we asked him for this okay for dropping the bomb. Truman had known about the bomb before hand, but on April 25th Stimson and Truman had the official answer after thinking long and hard what the right decision would be. “Truman and Stimson immediately began to see the diplomatic implications of the bomb...” (2. Walter, “Interview Transcripts: The bomb”) They decided

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.

The Japanese way was “to fight to the death,” so the only way to defeat the Japanese was to bomb them. With Japan’s heavily guarded enemy lines, there was no way that the U.S. would be able to invade them without the tragic loss of numerous soldiers. As a result, Truman gave the Japanese a chance to surrender, but they turned it down, so Truman gave the command to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I support the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki because Japan refused to an unconditional surrender, it would save many allied lives, it would establish U.S. as a dominant power, and end the war.

There was no stopping Truman with the judgement he made on using the atomic bombs to end the war quickly. With the success of developing the atomic bombs, it was time to find targets to potential destroy. When it came to choosing what Japanese city to bomb first there had been four cities chosen as possible targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Nagasaki, and Niigata (Kyoto was the first choice until it was removed from the list by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson because it was a religious city). The cities were chosen because they had been relatively untouched during the war. The best option that President Truman wanted to bomb was Hiroshima. The reason why Hiroshima was considered a target was it held a center for shipbuilding and armaments manufacturing.

This historical analysis of the diary provides the reader with entries that assist in clarifying the very indecisive person President Truman really was. When President Truman received confirmation from the Manhattan project that the bomb testing had gone successfully he recorded in his diary that the world would end soon because of this discovery. Only to enter into his diary a week later after some reflection, that they had discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world. This clarifies that President Truman although he wasn’t interested in the minor details of the bomb when he was briefed of the Manhattan project he did in fact understand that the atomic bomb was a weapon of mass destruction. Walker puts emphasis on President Truman’s diary entries to demonstrate the intent of President Truman's actions towards the use of the atomic