Truman's Utter Destruction with the Atomic Bomb

At this time period of time, President Harry Truman needs to take into account that the Japanese are unlikely to surrender without some heavy persuasion. The Japanese have already attacked at Pearl Harbor, and there is no sign that they will stop anytime soon. Japan is attempting to create more allies to form a strong and dangerous coalition that will threaten the United States and its allies. Fortunately, scientists in the United States have been working on an atomic bomb and now would be the perfect opportunity to utilize it to end the Japanese empire. Rather than authorizing a ground invasion of Japan or negotiating the Japanese terms of surrender, President Truman should use the atomic bomb against Japan to cause a swift surrender of the Japanese empire for the purposes of maintaining global power and preserving the lives of as many American soldiers as possible.

Had he chosen a different alternative , the world as we know it today might not have been the same and the balance of powers of the world would be extremely different. “The losses in Hiroshima and Nagasaki assuredly were horrific, but they pale when compared to the estimates of 17 to 24 million deaths attributed to the Japanese during their rampage from Manchuria to New Guinea. The historian Gavan Daws accurately described "Asia under the Japanese" as "a charnel house of atrocities." During the months of war following the attack on Pearl Harbor, reliable estimates establish that between 200,000 to 300,000 people died each month either directly or indirectly at Japanese hands. The historian Robert Newman tellingly reveals that "the last months were in many ways the worst; starvation and disease aggravated the usual beatings, beheadings and battle deaths. It is plausible to hold that upwards of 250,000 people, mostly Asian but some Westerners, would have died each month the Japanese Empire struggled in its death throes beyond July 1945." (Yes: Truman’s Simple Decision). It was clear that the Japanese war machine had to be stopped, the atomic bomb was the fastest way to draw the war to a close and prevent the deaths of thousands of Americans. While the instantaneous destruction of entire cities and their occupants is without a doubt horrendous, It was the by far the best of a multitude of other

deciding how to end the war against Japan; he could continue bombing the Japanese with

President Truman must have kept in mind the personal political implications of his decision to drop the bomb. With polls showing that Americans overwhelmingly supported the "unconditional surrender" of Japan and with his knowing the strong anti-Japanese sentiments of the American people, I must have felt that I had little political risk in dropping an atomic bomb on Japan."(Harry Truman) President Truman must have also considered his difficulty in explaining to American voters why the government spent two billion dollars to develop a superior weapon if he personally decided not to deploy it, especially if the war had dragged on with additional American casualties. Here is an entry from Truman's diary, "I have to decide Japanese strategy - shall we invade Japan proper or shall we bomb and blockade? That is my hardest decision to date. But I'll make it when I have all the facts."(Ferrell)

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

In 1945, World War Two was coming to an end. Following Adolf Hitler’s suicide, and Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945, the war in Europe was finally over. The allies began began postwar planning for future, as well as establishment of post-war order and peace treaties issues. America’s war wasn’t done yet as they were still fighting Japan, eventually pushing them back to their main island. The Japanese’ plans of defending themselves was a group of final decisive battles on the Japanese mainland utilizing all people in Japan to fight to death against the Americans. Fearing costly land battles,

The first option, invasion of Japan, was debated the heaviest. Truman, and several of his advisors, sighted the huge estimates of US casualties as the main reason for his hesitancy to proceed with bombing, blockades and ground attacks. In the excerpt of Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of the Atomic Bomb against Japan, J. Samuel Walker argues that “even without the use of the atomic bombs, the war would probably have ended before the American invasion of Kyushu became necessary” (p. 277). He predicted that the destruction,

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa battles Maddox by arguing all the “what if” scenarios that could have possibly been better alternatives to using the atomic bomb. He questions why Truman didn’t accept a provision in the Potsdam ultimatum that would allow the Japanese to retain a constitutional monarchy. If Truman were to permit that provision it would have cut off Japan’s reliance on Moscow’s mediation and instigate Japan’s surrender months sooner (Hasegawa p. 245). Hasegawa proposes that Truman had an undisclosed reason for not accepting the provision. He knew that Japan would refuse his terms and wanted the rejection to justify the use of the atomic bomb (Hasegawa p. 246).

I believe that the Presidents decision was based dually on military necessity and on the Nation's reputation. Truman was not a dumb man; he was inexperienced and quickly expected to make important decisions based on very little information that he had been recently made aware of. I believe that his first thought was to just end the War. I do not think he felt the need

There are four main reasons why Truman ordered the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I will now discuss each reason in more detail with factual evidence that justifies his decision. By April 1945 the Japanese armed forces had been eliminated from everywhere apart from their home soil and parts of northern Manchuria in China. The Americans had already taken some of the Japanese homeland, Okinawa approximately 300 miles south of Kyushu had been taken.

In the conclusion of World War II, Harry Truman was forced to make a tough decision about using atomic weapons. President Truman had four options: first, to continue predictable bombing of Japanese cities; second, invade Japan; third, reveal the bomb to an unpopulated island; or last, drop the bomb on a populated Japanese city. Truman chose to drop the atomic bomb on a populated area of Japan, Hiroshima. The first atomic bomb was dropped on August 6th of 1945.

As the war continued and violence escalated, bombings caused enormous destruction and high death tolls, leading inevitably to the use of the atomic bombs. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki represented a culmination in the destructiveness of bombings, not a significant deviation from previous bombing practices. The alternatives to the use of the atomic bomb were likely to have caused equal suffering for the Japanese people. The use of the atomic bomb was no less moral than these horrific wartime practices. Harry Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan was justified by Japan’s refusal to immediately surrender. Harry Truman gave the Japanese time to surrender in order to preserve the existence of their people. They did not comply and as a result endured the consequences. (Walker) Yet an alternate perspective states that it was quite unnecessary to drop the Atomic Bombs in that Japan was practically an already defeated opponent. If a conditional surrender were to be issued by the United States to Japan in

During WW2 Truman, the United States President at the time, was asked to make one the toughest decision in History. Choosing between dropping an atomic bomb or invading are both choices that will result in a lot of deaths. The huge diffrence between the two was who died wether it be the Japanese with the bomb, or the American soldiers with the invasion. Trumans decision was supposed to end the war sooner, hence reducing the amount of agony,deaths, stress or any other negative effects that could result in the continous war. Truman's decision on dropping the Atomic Bomb's was an efficient course of action for the Americans, but was deffinantly not the most educated decision. If I had been placed in Truman's shoes and had to make this

Walker lists out the possible selections Truman had available: the US army to land a mainland invasion on the Japanese islands of Kyushu and Honshu, try to convince the Soviets to join in at Potsdam, or the use of the atomic bomb. With the mainland invasion, there would be high casualties and an enormous amount of money spent. If the Soviets joined, the U.S. would have to honor promises from the Yalta conferences over the control of several ports and islands and thus would “expand Soviet power, presence, and influence in China”.(Walker,42) Finally, the use of atomic weapons would be unethical, killing thousands of civilians and creating diplomatic tensions with other countries especially the Soviet Union. Before the atomic bomb was tested, Truman’s main goal was to ask the neutral Soviets to join in and create a two front war so we could force an unconditional surrender on Japan. However, the successful atomic test at Trinity gave Truman more muscle to negotiate with Stalin. Although after the atomic bomb was readily available, the war wouldn’t end so swiftly. Walker gives some additional supporting sources that indicates a Soviet invasion was necessary to “seal the deal”:

President Truman has to make one of the hardest decisions of all time. He had to decide whether it was better to use a weapon of mass destruction, or let the war end on its own. Ultimately, his decisions to use the atomic bomb and end the war was the correct and most ethical decision. This decision was an ethical one because America gave the Japanese ample warning, it saved countless America lives, and it was payback for Pearl Harbor.