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Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb
Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb
Effects of atomic bomb ww2
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As stated in document A, President Truman believed that it was his duty as president to use every weapon available to save American lives. By making the decision to employ atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it successfully brought an end to World War II. Now, while these bombs did ultimately spare thousands of American lives, it did also put an end to about 200,000 lives as shown in document E. Document A stated that Admiral William Leahy, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, opposed using the bomb because it killed civilians indiscriminately. He believed that an economic blockade and conventional bombing would convince Japan to surrender. As an opposite end of the spectrum though Truman’s advisor, James Byrnes thought that the use of “the A-bombs would not only cause Japan to surrender, but also impress the Soviet Union, and hopefully stop its expansion” (Doc C).
During harry S. Truman's presidency he was faced with one of the most world altering decisions in the war against japan. The use of atomic weapons would set an example of the united states of america’s military strength,power and knowledge of a very destructive technology. It was necessary for president Truman to drop the atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for these reasons. American soilders were tired from the four years of fighting and a surrender from Japan was not in sight.. In (Doc L) it says the bomb saved more lives than killed people in the end, President Truman needed to retaliate for their attack on Pearl Harbor and the bomb would just end the war more quicker.
"There was a very strong possibility that the Japanese government might choose to resist until the very end"(Doc B). The argument for dropping the atomic bomb is strong because Truman knew that the war was going to cost and last way more if he didn't just use the bombs to end the war with them. This shows that he had all the right to just stop this madness and end the war quickly, easily, and fast. He knew that Japan wasn't going to surrender most likey so he was sick of his troops dying for no
President Harry Truman used of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan during the Second World War. It is viewed as one of the most controversial decisions in wartime history. It was a very difficult decision for President Truman, but it was truly necessary in order to end the six-year war. Being the President of the United States brings many duties and one of the most important duties as commander- in- chief is to protect the American citizens and soldiers that the President serves and in turn served the United States. There have been many that would argue that the bomb was used primarily as an act of vengeance toward Japan.
The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Harry S. Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb is one of the biggest and deadliest controversial turning points in history. America’s president, Truman, decided that on August 6, 1945, the atomic bomb would be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II. President Truman’s choice to drop the bomb on Japan was considered one of the most debatable turning points. The settlement to drop this bomb was a wrong decision because this bomb killed more than 70,000 innocent people with 10,000’s dying later. Also, bombing a country that was going to surrender in a few months would not be necessary, and last but not least, the atomic bomb could give ideas for the world to start nuclear warfare.
America and the Soviet Union were in a race and whoever created an atomic weapon and used it first was believed to be better than the other. He wanted to publicize his power and destroy the Japanese in the process. The strategy of the war was to destroy the Japanese military by any means necessary, but the total manpower of the US was greater than the Japanese so bombing was not the only option. Truman wanted handle the Russia situation in a way that displayed the US as a dominant entity. This means the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were ploys of diplomatic intimidation rather than ending the war.
President Harry Truman was justified in dropping the atomic bomb since it saved millions of American lives by ending the war as soon as possible, and established the United States as the greatest country in the world. With the bomb, America could “attack those that have hurt [America]” and save many American lives (Truman, Doc A). As part as revenge for Pearl Harbor, America was able to redeem itself against Japan with this bomb. It would make a statement to the world and force an unconditional surrender from Japan, as fast as possible. That would end the war and potentially save millions of young American soldiers.
The United States joined WWII after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. After, losing countless American lives, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Harry Truman had to step into power and make the executive decisions. Truman would end up making a decision that would end up saving thousands of American soldiers and would introduce to the world the most powerful weapon it has ever built. At the end of the second World War, President Harry Truman made the decision to launch the Atomic Bomb, ultimately beginning the modern nuclear age. The battles at Okinawa and Iwo Jima would cause many American soldiers to lose their lives and President Truman had to make a decision on whether or not to send American soldiers to invade the coasts of Japan and try to seize their country that way or, the United States would test out a prototype weapon that they had been secretly creating for months.
According to John Correll from his article, The Invasion that Didn’t Happen, he states that “Operation Olympic and Coronet had a projected casualties of 1,202,005”, if the US would have gone with the invasion instead of using the atomic bomb. The Atomic Bomb was necessary not only in ending the war but also preserving the lives of the American troops as if the US planned to go with the invasion that was similar to D-Day, the war would end but with many casualties of American Troops. Furthermore, President Truman stated that, “Having found the bomb, we have used it for the Japanese who caused Pearl Harbor and those who tortured American Prisoners.” Building on Truman’s thoughts, the atomic bomb was the only way to end the war as Japan deserved its actions committed against the US and the US could not bear to lose anymore troops. Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb was justified as it was utilized in order to end the war while preserving the lives of American
When the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima no one really knew what the overall outcome would be as this was the first attack of this sort ever used. The eventual reported outcome of loss of life was in excess of 135,000. There were tens of thousands more wounded and a portion of Japan left uninhabitable. Ultimately, the US use of nuclear weapons against Japan was revered to be more as a showing of the US advancements in the Arms Race than it was to bring about a cessation to the war and save US troops from having to continue ground assaults in the Pacific Theatre. This was the justification Truman used to justify his decision to himself, congress and the American people.
In August of 1945 Truman had to make a huge decision, this was whether to drop the atomic bomb or not to. Truman ultimately decided in the end to drop the bomb on Nagasaki on August 6th, 1945. Truman should have dropped the Atom bomb because it ended a bloody war and began an era of peace for the world, and because a land invasion of Japan would have resulted in countless American deaths. Dropping the bomb ended an insanely bloody war. More than 70 million people were killed during World War 2, and invading Japan would have caused even more people to die (Fallen).
I would of chose to use the atomic bomb on Japan. I agree with the decision Truman because if they were already doing option 1 and it wasn 't working, they already had tried. Option 2 with Germany and too many wouldn 't got hurt/killed. Option 3 they don 't know if it would work out since they 're where going to do it in an area where they 're hardly any people do it wouldn 't really do any damage to Japan. I don 't think the other 3 options would have worked to make Japan give up.
Critics argued that it was inhuman and questioned the government’s decision to keep the atomic technology a secret from other countries. In December of 1946, The Atlantic published an article titled, “If the Atomic Bomb Had Not Been Used” featuring Karl L. Compton. Compton was a scientist involved in the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb. In the article, Karl claimed that the use of the atomic bombed, “saved hundreds of thousands—perhaps several millions—of lives”. To prove that the atomic bomb saved lives, he compared the firebombing of Tokyo with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
President Truman and his associates believed that if they dropped the bomb they would receive surrender from Japan. Thus, saving millions of American lives, and ending the war. Nevertheless, by saving American lives they would sacrifice thousands of Japanese civilians. They had other idea to have Japan to surrender, but were willing to take the one that would have the most consequences. They were thinking too much about the US instead of creating actually peace within the nations.
They were working together to defeat the Nazi terror that had descended over Europe, and understand the vast secrets of the atom. While the work these researchers were conducting was incredibly exciting and innovative, the implications of the weapon they were developing began to raise eyebrows. The first major question about the project arose in the early stages of the bomb’s development: How destructive would the bomb really be? The answer to this question was very unclear prior to the first test of the bomb, in fact, one researcher suggested that the bomb might destroy the entire world if it ignited the nitrogen in Earth’s atmosphere. This suggestion would later be proved to be very unlikely, with the later official estimates ranging from 300 tons to 45,000 tons of equivalent TNT.
