That would have meant that fifteen thousand more men would have been taken away from their families. That is one of the many pros for the dropping of the atom bombs. This is one of the cons for the atomic bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Because of the atom bombs being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki millions of people were killed, and the radiation led illness, birth defects, and death. When the atom bombs were dropped most of the cities in the radius of the blast were leveled.
Truman made some decisions that ultimately had a huge effect in the build up to the cold war. When plans were made for the division of power after WWII, Truman originally opposed America ganging up against Russia and said he would keep the agreements that were made with them. But Truman wanted to appear decisive and tough and he was not prepared to accept any deal if he could not get the majority of it his way. When Truman went to the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, he went there only to advance American Interest and he believed that the atomic bomb was the way to do this. Though this treat he was able to have his way at the Yalta conference.
In order to end the conflict of the World War II, a weapon that surpassed all other conventional weapons of that time would need to be created. In 1939, rumors of Nazi Germany pursuit to manufacture an atomic bomb and insure their victory in the war terrified the scientist that sought refuge in America. It also heightened the urgency for America to create the atomic bomb first. Albert Einstein was the one of those refugee scientists that was alerted to Germany's intent and wrote letters
Later that year in Potsdam, many open disagreements took place because Germany had lost the war so Russia had promised to fulfil, Churchill had lost the 1945 election and Roosevelt died so Truman, who replaced him was angered by the large scale reparations imposed on Germany and the setting up of a communist government in Poland. He did not trust Russia, so kept him in the dark about him having the atomic bomb in 1945 before he dropped it on Japan to get them to surrender. By America using the atomic bomb, Stalin knew that it was possible for it to be used against them. Russia was therefore tricked by America preventing the Red Army from going to Japan. This threatened Russia and warned them that America was wary of them and could act on it.
The island of Okinawa was the closest island to the Japanese mainland, and the last island battle. Many higher-ups believed that Okinawa could be seen as a trial for an invasion of Japan, yet before the native soil of Japan could be assaulted, atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To what extent did the Battle of Okinawa affect the U.S.’s decision to deploy the atomic bomb? The decision to drop the bomb was solely up to the President of the United States at that time, Harry S. Truman. With the bomb came advances in technology, the possibility to end millions of lives, and the beginnings of the Cold War.
In World War II, the Americans dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, one in Hiroshima and the other in Nagasaki. The bombs caused insurmountable damage and together killed over 100,000 Japanese citizens. Although at times the decision has been questioned; it was necessary for President Harry Truman to drop the atomic bombs on Japan in order to end the war. On July 26, 1945, at the Postdam Conference in Germany, the three main allied powers (Britain, America and Russia) met and issued Japan an ultimatum. Japan was left with two choices; surrender unconditionally or “face prompt and utter destruction” (Wheeler 58).
In August of 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on Heroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Both cities were destroyed and approximately 200,000 people were killed. Japan surrendered just six days after the bombs were dropped on August 15, 1945. The use of the atomic bombs were not necessary to end World War II, however using the bombs ended the war much faster and saved the lives of many soldiers and civilians. Even after the surrender of Nazi Germany on May 8th, the war against Japan continued.
In fact, the debates behind using the atomic bombs against Japan began even before the decision was made. Many of the scientists such as Leo Szilard and Dr. James Franck, who made great contributions towards the creation of the bomb, campaigned against its use. President Truman said “We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Amercicans”. It is completely understandable that President Truman’s aim was always to save the lives as many American people, but was it necessary to do it by dropping the atomic bombs on Japan? And was the reason behind the decision to drop the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki purely to ‘save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans’?
To prevent going through an invasion, Truman made a hasty decision to drop the bombs. He saw the decision as an improvement to the country’s outlook. Another difference between the two as stated in an article titled, “Would FDR have dropped the bomb?”, there was much evidence that Roosevelt had been pondering possible alternatives to using the bomb on Japan, while Truman’s first instinct was to utilize the bomb at first chance only a few months after Roosevelt’s death (Mitchell
There are many statements and arguments that suggest that the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima was necessary to end World War II. Such as the Japanese were not surrendering, they still had fighting power as they had sunk U.S. Naval Ship Indianapolis only two days before the bombing Many of this argument can be counted as the only reason the Japanese weren’t surrendering is because they didn’t want to give up there emperor to the “unconditional surrender”, they practically had nothing left. They were sending their battleships and pilots out on suicide missions as they were desperate. Necessity of the bomb lies with the amount of people that would have been killed in a land invasion, although it was vastly exaggerated.