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To What Extent Was Truman Justified After Ww2

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As World War II came to a close in 1945, the Allies were searching for a swift way to bring about its definitive end. Harry Truman decided that the prime way to accomplish this was to drop atomic bombs on two cities of Japan, hoping for a quick surrender. Harry Truman’s actions in order to obtain unconditional surrender from Japan cannot be justified, due to the ethics of the situation. The Allies had decided to accept only “unconditional surrender”, or surrender with no compromises, from the Axis powers in 1943. By May of 1945, Italy and Germany had unconditionally surrendered, but Japan was still fighting the war. At the Potsdam conference from July 17 to August 2, 1945, the Allies gave an ultimatum to Japan, saying to “surrender or be destroyed” (Kennedy, 599). Japan refused to unconditionally surrender, but indicated that they may have been willing to seek conditional surrender. …show more content…

However, unconditional surrender was never made, even after the bombs had been dropped. This is because the Allies accepted Japanese surrender with the condition that “Hirohito...remain on his ancestral throne as nominal emperor” (Kennedy, 599), making the demands for unconditional surrender pointless. The Allies could easily have compromised on the demands before the bombs were dropped, allowing countless lives to be spared. There is also controversy that the dropping of the bombs was not just to end the war. It is argued that some of the motivation for America to drop the bomb on Japan was to intimidate the Soviet Union; that “the atomic bomb could be read as a strong message for the Soviets to tread lightly” and that these bombings “may have been the first shots of the Cold War” (ushistory.org). This being the case would make the bombings worse, as taking the lives of so many harmless individuals should not have occurred just to make a

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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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In the United States, it is often taught that the use of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the deciding factor for the Japanese to surrender during World War II. However, upon closer inspection that may not be the reason why. For example, by the time both cities were destroyed Japan had already lost dozens of cities to American fire bombs and conventional raids. As a result, the only difference between the cities that were previously burned and Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the type of weapon used. Therefore,the Japanese government was aware and accustomed to loosing cities and large number of civilian lives.

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The Japanese military was weak and did not have a good chance of winning the war, but that did not stop them from surrendering. “After the Hiroshima attack, a faction of Japan’s supreme war council favored acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, but the majority resisted unconditional surrender” (Japan Surrenders). The Japanese wanted to fight until death. The U.S. dropped bombs in Tokyo killing thousands of people and almost destroying the whole city. The U.S. was surprised they did not give up.

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The U.S. gave Japan many chances to surrender and they never backed down. The Potsdam declaration was one of the many times when Japan didn't want to surrender and on July 26th, 1945, the U.S., Great Britain, and China made the choice to give them the unconditional surrender or they would be devastated. According to Trumanlibraryinstitue, the declaration said something along the lines of “We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces, & to provide proper & adequate assurances of their good faith in such action”. Potsdam goes here). Still with this warning there was no surrender made.

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During the final stage of the world war II, in August 6,1945 the united states dropped automatic bombs on the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war in Europe concluded when Nazi Germany signed the instrument of surrender, the Japanese facing this same fate refused to sign and accept the allies demand for the unconditional surrender and the pacific war continued between the United kingdom and china. The U.S warned the Japanese armed forces for unconditional surrender and the Japanese response for this ultimatum was to ignore it. On August 6 an American B-29 bomber dropped an automatic bomb ‘’little boy’’ in Hiroshima, this explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city, killing 80,000 people, after ten hours of the explosion , president

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In 1945, Emperor Shōwa Hirohito was the Emperor of Japan, and he was faced with a decision to decide his country's survival. The Japanese were losing to the Allies who were inching closer to Japan everyday. Then the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, killing thousands of people. The big six leaders in Japan assessed the situation and still refused to surrender. The three politicians wanted to surrender, but the three military leaders wouldn’t accept.

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Japan had to accept unconditional surrender; if they disagreed with that request, America would drop the bomb. What made the Japanese surrender was the retention of their emperor; anything else couldn’t have forced a Japanese surrender, including the attack of the atomic bomb. As Japan's Prime Minister Suzuki spelled out on June 9, 1945. “Should the Emperor system be abolished, they [the Japanese people] would lose all reason for existence…. [and have] no choice but to go on fighting to the last man” (Butow).

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Opponents presented numerous arguments against the utilization of atomic bombs. Critics argued that the use of the atomic bombs was unnecessary due to the fact that the Japanese began seeking surrender terms in April 1945. The Allies were demanding terms of unconditional surrender, which concerned that Japanese. The Japanese were ready to surrender and their only reservation was the preservation of their imperial system. The Japanese sought assurances that their emperor would not be tried as a war criminal.

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Chief of Staff for President Truman Admiral William E. Leahy states,” At present a surrender of Japan can be arranged with terms that can be accepted by Japan and that will make fully satisfactory provisions for America's defense against future trans-Pacific aggression.” This statement is from a close advisor to the President who is aware of all the factors that went with Truman’s decision and still agrees that it was a wrong decision.

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But were the atomic bombings necessary to stop Japan's threat to world peace and to avoid a bloody invasion of Japan? It is believed that Japan would have surrendered by the end of 1945 as their military had already been almost completely defeated and diminished by Allied troops after Germany’s surrender in May, of the same year. With their already weakened military and the realization that Japan

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Japan was losing the war. On July 26, 1945, the U.S. gave Japan an ultimatum to surrender. Japan said no to the ultimatum and was refusing to surrender. The bombs forced Japan to surrender and end the war much quicker. The bombing of Hiroshima killed about 70,000 people on impact.

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Furthermore, the Japanese were willing to die rather than surrender. As John Connor says, “The willingness of the Japanese to die was more than the empty bravado” (535). The Japanese would rather die in a battle than survive; therefore, they were training young boys ages 14 or 15 to meet the Americans with a little more than sharpened bamboo sticks (536). Of course, some believe that the United States could have ultimately ended the war without using the atomic bomb (Alperovitz 537). For one thing, the United States tried to elude to the idea that we had such a power that was never used before in conversation at Potsdam (Conner 535).

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Still Japan refuses to surrender despite the great amount of destruction and casualties that came out of the bombing in Hiroshima so the United States dropped their last atomic bomb in the city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945). They sent out warnings the day before to let people know that they should evacuate, in the end it resulted with less casualties but it was still a lot of collateral damage and destruction (Gorman, Pacific Theatre). Finally, Japan surrendered and the Second World War came to an end on August

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In fact, it did, however Japan would never conform to surrender even after the first bomb was dropped.   Thus, a choice was given to Japan, surrender or, USA will need to drop another bomb. Ultimately after the second bomb, with Tokyo probably being next. Japan gave up and surrendered.

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