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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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