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Apush Dbq Atomic Bomb

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Grey Thaw Contemporary US History Period 8 Atomic Bomb Persuasive Essay March 27, 2024 The Atomic Bombing was Unjustified General Curtis LeMay stated, The war would have been over in two weeks. The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war at all. Some sources address allegations that state that the war would have been over in weeks if the bomb hadn't been dropped. The allegations are supported with facts about the population of Japan's military, how the Soviet Union was involved, and the unconditional surrender terms. All of these point to the idea that President Truman was not fully informed and had not decided to wait for Japan to surrender or an invasion of his homeland. This decision was made hastily with only the presumption …show more content…

They wanted to sue for better terms. This would mean they would have better terms to negotiate a peace agreement rather than the unconditional surrender that Truman offered. These terms could have been changed and Truman's advisors urged him to change such terms (Video Clip 5). Japanese citizens and their government alike wanted to make sure that the emperor's status would not change. They wanted to be guaranteed that they would be able to keep the emperor. Which was planned for the entire time. Truman did not change the terms and refused to show that the Japanese could keep the emperor. The wish of the Japanese would have been granted, although it wasn't exposed. His decision to tell Japan that a secret could have ended the war with them signing the unconditional surrender terms. They had ideas of signing for peace and the Soviet Union joining would have solidified the idea that Japan was not going to win. Truman used unconditional surrender as a mental tactic, rather than a logical peace agreement. The United States primarily used psychological weapons in the bombing of the two Japanese cities. The atomic bomb was more of a psychological tool rather than a purely military weapon (Tucker, …show more content…

This was meant to force the Japanese government to make a decision quickly. To save its citizens or to continue the war? Many scientists on the Interim Committee had recommended dropping the bomb on a major city or industrial center (Video Clip 2). Although they had agreed earlier that psychological factors were necessary for the possible demonstration. The demonstration was to be used to show other countries the powers that the United States possessed and possibly to prevent future war. There were many things that the committee didn't agree on and because of this it leads to conflicts in retellings of what happened. There are significant discrepancies regarding important decision-making factors. The results of an invasion of Japan, as well as the lives that could have been taken, have constant conflicts between sources. Spencer Tucker has stated that there could have been up to 1 million US casualties in an invasion (Tucker, 5). Whilst J. Walker explained that dropping the atomic bomb may have been necessary to save thousands of lives but not hundreds of thousands of lives (Walker,

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Firstly, Truman had to look into the different options of attack. One option would be to blockade Japan into surrender. Blockade would not work as this tactic, used in Germany failed and Germany did not surrender until action was brought into Germany itself. Another option was also one used in Germany, to bomb Japan’s munitions industries.

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But he had no compelling reason to do so. The bomb provided a promising way to bring about a prompt Japanese surrender without the disadvantages of other alternatives, and in Truman’s mind, its use did not require a lengthy consideration” (Walker pg. 96). After the bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, people decided that the bombs were actually required. The people thought that if the bombs weren’t dropped, thousands of American lives would have died while America invaded Japan. The problem with this logic is that many people died in those bombings.

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On August 6, 1945, the U.S. made history with a fatal blow to the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended WWII. To this day there is a controversy on whether the dropping of the atomic bomb, ordered by President Harry S. Truman, was justified or not, but in fact, it was. Thousands of Japanese would perish, but this act would, in turn, saved American lives and end the war. Throughout various battles, the Japanese consistently crossed lines of ethics of warfare, and in an attempt to bring justice and an end to the war Truman put forth a plan to bomb Japan. President Truman warned Japan of the upcoming attack and gave demands, but in the end, the Japanese denied those negotiations which led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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645 Words | 3 Pages

Truman’s decision to bomb Japan was right for many reasons. One piece of evidence that shows Truman made the right decision is when Japan captured our American troops and kept them as prisoners, they beat and starved them and even went as far as executing them, he talks about this in his radio report to the American people. " against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war" (DocF). A second piece of evidence that shows Truman made the right decision is he was just trying to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans. He talks about both of these pieces of evidence in his radio to the American people. "

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The United Sates wanted to quickly gain Japan’s surrender to diminish US fatalities. It is believed that the US needed to use these bombs to gain American supremacy footnote 2. Shortly after the rain of brutality over Japan, Truman issued a statement, “If they do not

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443 Words | 2 Pages

Moreover, after the first bomb was dropped in Hiroshima, the Prime Minister, Kintaro Suzuki announced to the Japanese Cabinet that they had no choice but to surrender (Blum 2). However, they would not have time to do so since the second atomic bomb was dropped that same day in Nagasaki. This leads me to question Truman’s real motivation behind his decision. Why would you drop a bomb on a country that was on the brink of surrender? Even more questionable, why would you drop a second without giving adequate time for a

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345 Words | 2 Pages

The dropping of the bombs were necessary and fair due to the refusal of the Japanese to surrender, the millions of lives saved by a quick end to the war, and the warnings given to the Japanese. To begin, the Japanese soldiers have it ingrained in their brains that it is dishonorable to surrender. The author of Drop the Bomb as agreed by saying that “the Japanese have demonstrated a willingness to fight to the death”. During the war there were many times for the Japanese to surrender, but it was never done. With this in mind, they would have continued to drag out the war, which shows that dropping the bombs sped up the war which lessened the casualties.

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The Potsdam Ultimatum was also rejected by the conceited Japanese government officials because they didn’t want to have to surrender. Truman made the ultimate decision to save U.S. lives over the Japanese. The final supportive piece of evidence was that we had the necessary technology. Our Boeing B-29 fighter planes helped to drop the 5 ton atomic bombs, and evidently ended the war. To sum it up, the Japanese needed to be stopped, and from their past actions, the U.S. knew that they weren’t going to surrender on their own power.

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Moreover, the bomb was dropped unexpectedly and quickly: “It was [the committee’s] recommendation that the bomb be used against the enemy as soon as it could be done. They recommended further that it should be used without specific warning... “ (Document 1). The advisors' recommendation that the bomb be used against the enemy without specific warning provides evidence that the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan was not solely based on the military necessity to force the Japanese to surrender.

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1215 Words | 5 Pages

Japan was showing no sign of backing down. Truman wanted to guarantee the surrender of Japan. He also wanted to end the war before the Soviet Union entered Japan because he knew Joseph Stalin was not interested in a peaceful ending ( Nichols 2 ). He knew an invasion like the one in Germany where the Nazi armies were crushed between the U.S. and British forces and the Soviet troops was not going to occur in Japan (Nichols 1). Truman had no choice but to allow the bomb dropping since Japan refused to surrender on July 28, 1945 (“Potsdam and the Final Decision to use the Bomb” 6 ).

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Firstly, the American government was actively rounding up American citizens who had Japanese descent for fear of them being spies for Japan. For this reason, I believe it this choice was not made in the best interest of the Japanese people and it was easy for President Truman to look at the Japanese causalities as numbers, rather than people. Secondly, I feel this choice was made to completely demoralize the Japanese people from going to war again as punishment for Pearl Harbor. To support this point, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not military bases they were populated cities filled with noncombatants. I feel President Truman made this choice to end the war as quickly as possible with the smallest number of American casualties with the bonus of getting vengeance for Pearl

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1440 Words | 6 Pages

Truman had other options than the atomic bomb and one of them is Operation Downfall a.k.a the invasion of Japan. Operation Downfall would have been a go if we never used the atomic bomb. Invading Japan would’ve been lunacy because America just finished defeating Nazi Germany and would have to know invade Japan with an exhausted military. Japan would also be a difficult country to invade due to their code of honor. “Japanese soldiers brought antique samurai swords into battle and made suicidal “banzai” attacks according to the Bushido principle of death before dishonor or defeat.”

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863 Words | 4 Pages

However, the Japanese were committed to fight to the bitter end of the war and see it all the way through, regardless of the fact that the United States demanded unconditional surrender from the small country of islands. This further emphasizes that since the Japanese were not simply going to give up, Truman came to the conclusion that in order to save millions of lives, he had to take thousands. President Truman decided to drop the atomic bomb on Japan to warn the world about the new found power of the United States, force an unconditional surrender of the Japanese, and save millions of lives. With the controversy over whether or not Truman should have dropped the bomb, some consider the decision irrational and unnecessary.

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797 Words | 4 Pages

The US used the A-bomb to save its soldier, which could have been lost. Japan planning to surrender to the Russian but only if there can keep their emperor making The atomic bomb pointless. With many military leaders on point, agreeing that dropping the atomic bomb was unnecessary. Only president Truman could have made the choice to try to save American lives but in saving them, he will be kill millions of innocent people. Imagined being in President Truman shoes try to make the choice of whether or not to press the big red

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581 Words | 3 Pages

President Truman was treating people even worst by putting them through the torture of the bomb and the resulting effects of the bomb. Time became a major factor into the decision, and dropping the bomb was a result of that fear. On the other side of the argument, the Japanese did bomb Pearl Harbor which was the catalyst that got America involved in the first place. We as a country should not need to compromise with the nation who started the battle.

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