Presidents of the United States have faced many dilemmas. Recently President Obama made the decision to violate a nations boarders to capture or kill this nation’s most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden. President Roosevelt’s first crisis was the Great Depression and his New Deal programs started the nation down the path to recovery. He also had to declare war on Japan because of the unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. These are just a few examples of fairly easy, high profile decisions made by the most powerful men on Earth. However they pale in comparison to the one that faced President Truman in 1945. His actions would not only affect the United States but the entire Earth. Many have debated the use of the atomic weapons
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Many brave men put a halt on their lives to answer their nations call to eliminate the evils that the Axis powers had committed. The “day that will live in infamy” created a massive influx of men wanting to join the war and make the Japanese pay for their actions. The conflicts in the Pacific Theater of Operations inflicted horrifying losses. For comparison, the invasion of Normandy cost 2,499 dead American’s and 1,914 other Allied nations for a total of 4,413 dead. The total for wounded or missing in action came to 7,844 with the complete casualty total being over 12,000 (D-Day Museum, 2015). Just the invasion of Saipan inflicted 16,525 dead or wounded Americans. The U.S. Marines invaded the small island of Iwo Jima that is on 7.5 miles square and this battle cost 6,821 lives (D-Day Museum, 2015). As you can see the invasions of Pacific islands cost more in human lives than did the invasion of a few beaches. This is not to lessen the heroism shown on Normandy, but the tenacity of the Japanese in their defense of occupied islands. The last major invasion prior to the attempt to land on Kyushu and then Honshu the main island of Japan was Okinawa. Many saw this invasion as a prelude to the invasion of the Japanese mainland. The Battle of Okinawa lasted 82 days and the direct battle casualties came to 12,520 dead or missing and 36,613 wounded. This does not count the non-battle casualties that came to a little over 33,000. …show more content…
These were islands that the Japanese only occupied and not their homelands. The Japanese people saw death in battle as an honorable death and continually showed their desire to die instead of accepting defeat. The defending force left on Okinawa by the Japanese consisted of 75,000 soldiers and approximately 25,000 impressed locals. Of this defending force, more than 92,000 perished with a little over 7,000 surrendering and the majority of them were impressed civilians (Frank, 2010). There is no reason to believe that the defense of their own island would not have been even more tragic. Additionally the United States would have begun to intensify their bombing missions in preparation for an invasion. Tokyo alone over a twenty four hour, period suffered somewhere between 80,000 to 100,000 deaths. In the following six months of bombing civilian deaths rose too nearly 300,000 and over 8 million were displaced or homeless (Giangreco, 1998). Acting Secretary of State Grew, who once served as the American ambassador to Japan, told President Truman that the “Japanese are fanatical people and are capable of fight to the last ditch and the last man” (Walker, 2004). This would mean the deaths of an enormous amount of locals had the United States
Many brave men put a halt on their lives to answer their nations call to eliminate the evils that the Axis powers had committed. The “day that will live in infamy” created a massive influx of men wanting to join the war and make the Japanese pay for their actions. The conflicts in the Pacific Theater of Operations inflicted horrifying losses. For comparison, the invasion of Normandy cost 2,499 dead American’s and 1,914 other Allied nations for a total of 4,413 dead. The total for wounded or missing in action came to 7,844 with the complete casualty total being over 12,000 (D-Day Museum, 2015). Just the invasion of Saipan inflicted 16,525 dead or wounded Americans. The U.S. Marines invaded the small island of Iwo Jima that is on 7.5 miles square and this battle cost 6,821 lives (D-Day Museum, 2015). As you can see the invasions of Pacific islands cost more in human lives than did the invasion of a few beaches. This is not to lessen the heroism shown on Normandy, but the tenacity of the Japanese in their defense of occupied islands. The last major invasion prior to the attempt to land on Kyushu and then Honshu the main island of Japan was Okinawa. Many saw this invasion as a prelude to the invasion of the Japanese mainland. The Battle of Okinawa lasted 82 days and the direct battle casualties came to 12,520 dead or missing and 36,613 wounded. This does not count the non-battle casualties that came to a little over 33,000. …show more content…
These were islands that the Japanese only occupied and not their homelands. The Japanese people saw death in battle as an honorable death and continually showed their desire to die instead of accepting defeat. The defending force left on Okinawa by the Japanese consisted of 75,000 soldiers and approximately 25,000 impressed locals. Of this defending force, more than 92,000 perished with a little over 7,000 surrendering and the majority of them were impressed civilians (Frank, 2010). There is no reason to believe that the defense of their own island would not have been even more tragic. Additionally the United States would have begun to intensify their bombing missions in preparation for an invasion. Tokyo alone over a twenty four hour, period suffered somewhere between 80,000 to 100,000 deaths. In the following six months of bombing civilian deaths rose too nearly 300,000 and over 8 million were displaced or homeless (Giangreco, 1998). Acting Secretary of State Grew, who once served as the American ambassador to Japan, told President Truman that the “Japanese are fanatical people and are capable of fight to the last ditch and the last man” (Walker, 2004). This would mean the deaths of an enormous amount of locals had the United States