World War II The Greatest Military Powers At The Time

The Japanese people had a mentality of “total war” and if a conventional war were to be brought to their homeland, the Japanese were ready and prepared to fight, which would have resulted in many casualties on both sides. One possible consequence of a conventional ​war would have been a prolonging of the war. Rather than spending months, even years, fighting a war in Japan and suffering many more losses, the prospect of simply dropping a bomb over Japan and ending the war was more appealing (Wainstock 73). Truman wanted to minimize the amount of time needed to force an unconditional surrender because Russia was to join the fight against Japan within 90 days after VE Day. If Russia joined the fight against Japan, the other countries would be obligated to give her a portion in determining post­war Japan, which would result in the communist influence being spread over to Japan and eventually the entire Pacific. Truman also made this grueling decision because he had to show the power of the US to prevent future quarrels with Russia and other

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

Another key thing to remember is the war could have ended sooner. In document two, we learned that President Truman didn't want to drop the atomic bombs, but it would hopefully lead the war to an end. “He did not like the idea. But was persuaded that it would shorten the war against Japan and American lives.” We needed to get Japan to surrender. They didn't want to surrender unconditionally and refused. Japan didn't surrender until September of 1945, The war could have gone on longer.

World War II was considered as one of the deadliest war in the history. Many innocent civilians died due to the aggressiveness of the Axis powers because of this actions the Allies wanted to overthrow the Axis powers in response to its aggression and to establish a peaceful post-war. The United States decided to join the war along with the Allies after Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, which destroyed a lot of United States battleships. President Truman should have dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because of Japan’s bombing attack of United States naval base on Pearl Harbor which resulted in the United States to declare war on Japan, to end the inhumane actions of the Japanese soldiers to its

In 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and in the act of “revenge”, we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, devastating the Japanese people. Harry Truman was not justified in his decision to use the atomic bombs against the Japanese and caused them to be victims. For, the Japanese already accepted that they were defeated and ready to surrender, Truman's goal of ending the war did not happen and instead started another war while horror swept the entire world, and it was very inhumane, many innocent Japanese lives were taken.

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.

The factors were that he could have lost a lot more soldiers to end the war with Japan or he could just drop a bomb and end all of Japanor at least most of them because he knew the japanese were ruthless and did not give up they would risk everything to win the war. Then because he knew that the soviets would join into the war and try to take over the land’s of Japan once they were done with them in the war if they managed to join. The pros of truman's decision were that he managed to end the war with the Japan with the least amount of casualties up until that point. The cons were that Japan was nothing after words then they also gave others the idea of nuclear weapons. Then they could have also put the U.S into number one on their list to attack so they could get there bombs or at least understand how they work to remake them in their own country or use them for their own reasons. Another pro can be that since they used the bombs on Japan others could have thought of not going into

During the war that raged on between the allies and Japan before, losses for Japan at both Iwo Jima and Okinawa had been great, their navy was being defeated and becoming less effective and the air corps they had, was destroyed. Knowing this President Harry Truman at the time had many strategic alternatives for ending the war: invade the Japanese mainland, hold a demonstration for Japanese dignitaries of the destructive power of an atomic bomb, drop it on any selected industrial Japanese

In reference to the foreign policy, in the mid-20th century after World War II, United States was in Cold War with Soviet Union. The United States referred as the Capitalist West and the Soviet referred as the Communist East. The two power nations clashed in many ways. Thus, Soviet accused America’s atomic bomb as leverage to control the Soviet and the world. These differences made each nation distrust each other. President Truman then, feared that the Soviet will continue its expansion, had the Congress passed the National Security Act of 1947. It gave the President increased power, where to conduct foreign policy. The Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency was created, both agencies collaborated on the monitoring

     In addition, after dropping the bomb there were many consequences that he had to think about. People were one of these consequences; Stimson knew the problems people could have after dropping the bomb. All the concerns were very important to think about but Truman had to decide about the best way to end the war. All thought it wasn't the best for the people because it means many dead and whole destroyed areas. Truman was thinking about the best way to end the war with less American lives. If he waited to make Japan surrender it would be a long time and many will still be loss. He thought that the Japanese were ready to fight any time and it didn't matter to them how many people they lost or they will lose.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a bombing attack on the American naval base in Pearl Harbor. This attack on the U.S. brought America into World War II. One Japanese general commented “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” (Yamamoto) Japan’s surprise attack on the U.S. created a much larger enemy than they intended. After the attack the U.S. embarked on a bloody and hard fought campaign through the pacific, which ultimately led to the Dropping of two atomic bombs and the surrender of Japan. Although many lives were lost the American decision to drop the bombs was justified because it ended the war quickly, saved american lives, and showed the world the power of the U.S. The Pacific War was a long and drawn out process that was moving very slowly for the United States, was struggling to pull off any major naval victory and from the mistakes made of the U.S. basically leaving the Japanese unattended while they were fighting the Germans in Europe. The American decision to drop the Bombs was justified because the U.S. wanted to end the war quickly and not to have a costly invasion of the Japanese Homeland as well as showing power to the world. Truman wanted to end the war as fast as he could because we had been in conflict for 4 years now and the American forces were very weary and tired of war, the U.S. dropped it for the other reason of

Also not too long after becoming president, Truman learned that the United States was developing a nuclear bomb capable of mass destruction. After the bomb was successfully tested Truman was faced with the decision on the best way to end the war, and he was required to make a decision on whether or not use this weapon on japan to bring a quicker surrender and end to the war. His moral dilemma was should he risk possible a million soldiers invading Japan or use the atomic bomb with an enormous destructive power. The allies had demanded an unconditional surrender by the Japan. The demand did say refusal would result in mass destruction, but not mentioning by any new weapons.

To begin with, President Truman had no choice and wanted to save American lives. According to History Extra, “All a commander or political leader can hope to assess is whether a particular course of action is likely to reduce the loss of life. Faced with the Japanese refusal to surrender, President Truman had little choice.” This develops why the bombs that were dropped in Japan were a good choice. President Truman wanted to make sure that Japan knew that the US was very strong and smart

Historians like Gar Alperovitz and Martin Sherwin have known for many years, based on declassified U.S. government documents that Japan was going to surrender in 1945 even if the atomic bombs were no dropped and that no invasion would ever have been necessary. Their only condition was that the United States "guaranteed the safety of the Emperor Hirohito", and in the end the Truman administration agreed to this rather than prosecuting him as a war criminal (Sherwin xviii). At the time in the summer of 1945, all the top military and civilian officials of the administration except Secretary of State James Byrnes had already advised Truman to accept the Japanese surrender on this condition. Yet when the Potsdam Declaration was issued in July 1945, Truman and Byrnes removed the condition that would have allowed the emperor to remain in power. As Herwin put it, "for forty years, the American public had been misled about the decision-making process", as indeed most of it still is even today (Sherwin xv). From secret documents declassified over the last thirty years, Alperovitz and Sherwin also proved conclusively that Truman, Byrnes and Winston Churchill regarded the atomic bomb as an instrument of diplomatic coercion to win concessions from the Soviets in Eastern Europe and Asia, and that they dropped it on Japan as a demonstration of resolve that they had the will to use it on Russia. Americans like to see themselves as the "good guys" in history and still regard

World War II end it, while the Cold War just started. As an old realist like Niccolò Machiavelli would say “the end justifies the means.” The thinker would had agree with President’s Truman decision if only Japan would had been stronger and ready to keep on fighting and a an outcome of understanding would had come out. The poor excused, if payed attention, if Japan does not provide absolute surrender, although its people have sworn loyalty to the Emperor at that time, they would be attack. United States officials Byrnes and Baruh influenced Truman in using Japan, although he denies it, as an experiment arena for the atomic bombs. David McCullough wrote a biography of Truman and he mention how the Secretary of State, Stettinius was truly not an expert of foreign policy and did not know what he was doing.