The United States decision to deploy the atomic bomb on Japan was a military measure to stop Japan’s military, because even though the Japanese were weakened by the United States military, they kept fighting relentlessly. Also, and most importantly, the United States decided to drop the atomic bomb on Japan to save American lives. After Japan’s invasion of Manchuria, China, the United States, along with Great Britain, and the Netherlands, decided to take measures to curb Japan’s access to vital resources, including oil. In 1941, Japan was dealing with a critical oil shortage. Oil is crucial to Japan’s military and industrial needs. In July 1941, the United States in response to Japan's occupation of French Indochina, put on hold Japanese assets …show more content…
Otherwise, the Japanese would have kept fighting and many more American lives would have been lost. Through the radio address President Harry S Truman gave to the nation regarding the United States’s use of the atomic bomb against Japan (Document G). Truman’s point of view, as the person who is in charge of the decision making of the United States, and whose goal is to protect American lives, is that in order to save the lives of Americans, the deployment of the atomic bomb was something that needed to occur. If it wasn’t for the atomic bomb, the Japanese would have kept wiping off thousands of lives. Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest battles during WWII. In the battle of Iwo Jima, which took place from February 19 to March 26, 1945, a total of 6,821 Americans were killed in action. The battle of Iwo Jima is another example that shows the numbers of American lives wiped off by the Japanese military. The Japanese military had to be stopped in order to save American lives. According to Document E, the invention of the atomic bomb gave the United States a more efficient way to end war against Japan, which meant the end of devastation received by the Japanese and saving American lives. On the contrary, some may argue that the United States’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan was a diplomatic measure against the USSR. According to General HH Arnold, Commander of the American Army Air Force during WWII, Japan was already too weak before the United States dropped the atomic bombs (Document B). He believed that the use of the atomic bomb was unnecessary to get Japan to surrender, because they were on the verge of collapsing. However, this did not keep the Japanese from fighting relentlessly against the United States. In addition, in Document C, Eisenhower remembers telling President Truman Japan’s collapse would take place promptly. Also, according to Eisenhower, the USSR cannot