The Japanese were seen as bloodthirsty savages willing to die rather than give up. Their defense of Okinawa and the thousands of kamikaze pilots only confirmed this fear in the eyes of the Americans. Truman felt the bomb would save more lives in the long run, due to avoiding another six or more months of carnage that the war was known for. Truman later said he estimated fighting losses numbered in the several hundred thousands, while bomb losses numbered in the tens of thousands since he intended to spare as many women and children as humanly possible. Using the bomb pretty much guaranteed that the U.S. would occupy Japan without the Soviets as well as sending a clear message to the Soviets to go slow and careful in Europe and it’s territories.
Moreover, other countries claimed the right of nuclear weapons to defend their citizens. Consequently, the tragic bombings became the example of an arm’s race instead of peace. Furthermore, since Japan was already on the brink of collapse the bombing was unnecessary, and peace talks would have taken place within a decent time frame (even after the cancelled Hawaii summit). The millions of deaths calculated by Operation Downfall [the codename for the Allied plan for the invasion of Japan near the end of the Second World War, which was abandoned when Japan surrendered following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki] actually show that only desperation and honour stood between Japan and unconditional
The bombing of Hiroshima, and later, Nagasaki were not justifiable military acts but war crimes. One of the major arguments about the bombing of Hiroshima had been whether the Japanese would have surrendered without the atomic bomb or not. President Truman said the atomic bomb was necessary to make Japan surrender quickly and prevent both more American and Japanese casualties. Others believed that there was no need for the use of the atomic bomb. The United States Strategic Bombing Survey issued in July 1946 declared “Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945 and in all probability prior
I do agree of dropping the bomb because it did save a lot of lives. Franklin Roosevelt was trying to find a way to end the war very fast. Then Truman had to end Roosevelt’s idea of winning the war fast. Truman wasn’t looking for a way to not use the atomic bomb. The United States wanted to end the war fast because we wanted the lowest amount of casualties.
The ones who believe this, do not comprehend the many different factors in war and how the route that was chosen was best for both parties that were directly affiliated with the bombings. The cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have been fire bombed if the atomic bombs were not dropped, causing similar damage and death counts to the atomic bombs. According to Kyoko Iriye Selden, "The most influential text is Truman's 1955 Memoirs, which states that the atomic bomb probably saved half a million US lives— anticipated casualties in an Allied invasion of Japan planned for November. Stimson subsequently talked of saving one million US casualties, and Churchill of saving one million American and half that number of British lives"(1). With this amount of casualties projected, a land invasion would have trumped the death toll of D-Day.
After multiple ideas along with deep thought, Truman along with the chiefs decided the most efficient, least costly and less bloody approach would to be dropping the atomic bombs on the Japanese home land. The essay states “evidence points to the conclusion that he acted for the reason he said he did: to end a bloody war that would have become even bloodier had invasion proved necessary” pg 175 Readings in United States History. The writer’s purpose of this essay is to educate the readers about the difficulty of this decision. I believe the writer did a fine job explaining the whole process. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing are two greatly important milestones in the United States history, and the essay “The Biggest Decision: Why We Had to Drop the Bomb,” by Robert James Maddox is a perfect essay to be read over and discussed in a class like this.
• Even though they were going to use the bomb the government kept recruiting people into the army. • Many people argued that if the government were going to use this amazing weapon why not just stop investing so much money into the military. E. Conclusion • The United States cannot be fully responsible for the bombing for Hiroshima but they do play a major role of the bombing. • Japan was warned that they would be bombed if they did not comply to American terms but because of this Japan refused to accept the terms and in return an atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima • President Truman had many other options that bombing Japan in order for them to surrender but since America is such a nationalistic country they wanted to prove to Russia their enemy before and after WWII that they were the stronger country. • Even though the bomb was dropped and Japan refused to surrender.
Truman declared to drop the bomb onto Japan mainly because he didn’t want any more of his men to be slaughtered and because Japan was not agreeing to negotiate anything. Although the atomic bomb was dropped onto the two cities of Japan, it was still an unnecessary attack because many innocent civilians were killed. Since Japan was still continuing the war (before the bomb dropped), many deaths would have been sacrificed on both sides, the Japanese and the Americans and that is to say that’ll be millions of sacrifices if the war continued between both countries. The total death of the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima are approximately around 300,000 lives. The nuke drop on Japan is a devastating event but there are also beneficial outcomes that come out of it for example: learning how the radioactive dust kicked up into the atmosphere by large-yield weaponry, was economically cheaper than to do a full scale invasion on Japan, and it shows how much power the country has in terms of
The Decision When Harry Truman learned of the success of the creation of nuclear weapons, he was faced with the most difficult decision in history. The capacity to end the war with Japan was in his hands, but it would involve unleashing the most terrible weapon ever known. Truman ultimately had to decide if the gains from ending the war would outweigh the destruction from ordering the bombs and leading the world into the nuclear age. After very careful deliberation Truman made the right decision on ordering the use of the atomic bomb. The decision prevented millions of American casualties, millions of Japanese casualties, and served as a deterrent to the USSR expansion.
Secondly the Bomb alone would cost 2 Billions USD to Construct, which was coming out of the peoples money and not the governments. Another reason is the Americans thought that the Japanese deserved the Bomb because the had been very cruel to prisoners of war, but the Japanese did not take as many lives as the two atomic bombs put together which I think was a disgrace. The reasons which I believe that were against the Americans was that if America had this huge bomb then other countries would obviously want it too, and maybe it may be used against America in the future, secondly the bombs the Americans dropped killed 220,000 people combined, and which half of them were innocent civilians. I believe that Americans were wrong to drop such a huge bomb on the Japanese even though there are many things I do agree with , the Americans believed the atom bomb was no ’great decision’ and it was just another powerful weapon and that it stopped the war and saved millions of lives which was