Hiroshima and Nagasaki represent the only time in history that nuclear weapons have been used. From this event, a lot of debates have restricted over the ethical, political, and military justifications for using the atomic bomb. In August 1945, U.S. President Harry S. Truman announced over a radio broadcast the official stance for dropping atomic weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: “We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans.”
General George C. Marshall was the U.S. Army Chief of Staff during WWII, the highest ranking U.S. Army officer. He had known of the atomic bomb project in Oct. 1941. In 1942 the a-bomb project became the Manhattan Project.
For his
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the question of whether we should drop this new bomb on Japan, in his judgment, involved such imponderable considerations as to remove it from the field of a military decision." (quoted in Gar Alperovitz, The Decision To Use the Atomic Bomb, pg. 364).
When Harry Truman learned of the success of the Manhattan Project, he knew he was faced with an extraordinary and dangerous decision. The capacity to end the war with Japan was in his hands, but it would involve releasing the most terrible weapon ever known.
For President Truman, his top priority was to end the war as quickly as possible with the fewest casualties on the United States. For many, this had become the primary purpose for using the atomic bomb once it was completed. There are four reasons why Truman chose to use the bomb:
Ending the war at the earliest possible moment - The primary objective for the United States was to win the war at the lowest possible casualties. Truman was looking for the most effective way to end the war quickly, not for a way to not use the