Harry Truman And The Atomic Bomb

Improved Essays
When we think about killing innocent people the first names that come up to us are Osama Bin Laden with 911 and Adolf Hitler in the holocaust; however there is one person that killed innocent people by sending an atomic bomb in 1945. This person is U.S. President Harry Truman, he tough that by sending the atomic bomb the war with Japan would stop. Throughout history people wonder if the decision that President Harry Truman was the right one. Harry Truman took a barbarous decision of sending an atomic bomb against two cities of japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing approximately thousands of innocent people. It all started with the Manhattan Project and with a desired to end war and protect the United States.
The atomic bomb initially started
…show more content…
casualties of up to 1 million” according to the website of History. To prevent this for happening, President Truman decided over the moral opinions of Secretary of War Henry Stimson, General Dwight Eisenhower and some of the scientist of the Manhattan Project to use the atomic bomb. They were hoping to bring the war to an end. Above all, the Secretary of State James Byrnes a proponent of the Atomic Bomb believe that the bomb “would not only end the war, but also put the U.S. in a dominant position to determine the course of the postwar world” referring to the website of History. In other words he agreed that sending the bomb would help the United States in not only win against Japan also it would move the U.S. into a leading position in the postwar world.
In the book of Created Equal, it tells the readers that President Truman was hoping to send the message to the Soviet Union that the United States “would be the dominant power in the postwar world” he wanted to avoid “an invasion of Japan that would have cost the lives of many America soldiers”. However scientist that help in the development of the atomic bomb gave another option to President Truman, they wanted to do a demonstration of the atomic bomb to the Japanese in an isolated place just to scare them but no cause any harm to

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    The bombing of Hiroshima, Japan in 1945 proved to be a controversial ending to the Second World War. There were several reasons why the bomb was dropped, but it still remains that the main reason given to the public was to end the war. However, the US used this opportunity to initiate a sense of power over the Soviet Union in order to discourage the spread of communism. President Harry Truman spoke of this bombing at the White House to inform the American public of his reasoning for this atomic bomb, and how it will be known for much more than “the size of the enterprise, it’s secrecy, [or] its cost.”. The immense amount of destruction and devastation seen by the innocent people of Hiroshima is unbearable to come to terms with.…

    • 1517 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On August 6, 1945, and August 9th, 1945 the American Government dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two nuclear attacks claimed a combined death toll of an estimated 135,000. The American Atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were strategically justified as using the atomic bomb would satisfy the U.S.’s end of war military and political agenda. This essay will explain in precise detail the tasks and challenges the USA needed to complete in order to bring a formidable conclusion to WW2, through reaping the benefits of the Atomic Bomb. Militarily, the atomic bomb was purposed to create a psychological effect, avoid the massive American invasion of Japan,(codenamed Operation Downfall).…

    • 1286 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In his essay he argues one of the reasonings for the use of the bomb was to scare the Soviets and to prevent an invasion of the Red Army in Manchuria. He also uses diary entries from Stimson and Byrnes to prove his argument. “And at the end of May, according to Szilard, Byrnes saw the bomb as a way to make Russia more manageable in Europe”(Alperovitz, 411). Then using the primary sources such as Stimson’s journal entries it is clear to see his second thoughts over the use of the bomb. He states “In many quarters it [America’s development of the atomic bomb] has been interpreted as a substantial offset to the growth of Russian influence on the continent”(Stimson, 1945).…

    • 1359 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    So United States had to act so they could get the victory. From that point of view, It’s seems like they just wanted to win the war but on the other hand as I said before, they ended it very quickly. You can almost say that the United States saved a lot of the Soviet Union’s lives when the dropped the bomb. The Soviet Union did not have to invade Japan because after the bombs Japan surrendered. To conclude this essay, I think the United States did the right decision.…

    • 1270 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although the alternative of waiting for help from the Soviet Union would have been helpful, Truman believed that it wouldn’t necessarily put an end to the war. However, the decision to drop the atomic bomb was based on multiple crucial factors. One reason was that Truman was determined to end the war as soon as possible. Many American troops were being killed or injured and America needed some relief from war. Another reason was that the United States wanted to get revenge on Japan for the attacks that were made in Pearl Harbor.…

    • 1372 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Beside President Truman motivations which was to end the war, he was still new to this idea of the atomic bombs. Stimson Secretary of War brief him on the topic and advised Truman to drop the bombs. Stimson reasoning for doing this was to first end the war with Japan and secondly to scare the USSR. Since Truman wanted to know more so that he make the right decision and with Stimson they help formed the Interim Committee. It included high ranking military officials and top scientist from the Manhattan Project as advisor like Oppenheimer, Fermi, Lawrence, and Arthur Compton.…

    • 1049 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In 1945 during World War II President Truman made one of the most important decisions of his presidency, dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After much careful thinking, he reached the conclusion to deploy the two bombs known as “Little Boy” and “Fat Man.” Truman knew that due to the Japanese honor tradition of Bushido, or way of the warrior, there would be no end until one side surrendered. Because of the circumstances Truman was in at the time, he made what he thought was the correct decision. There did not seem to be a better solution, and a land invasion would have caused the loss of many more American as well as Japanese lives. President Truman was justified in dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because…

    • 1117 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The atomic bomb was more devastating than the fire-bombings the United States dropped on Japan even though the fire-bombings had a higher death toll. But, why did the United States believe that the atomic bomb would end the war? The simple reason would be that the atomic bombs did not end the war. Top military officials agreed that the atomic bombs played no decisive role in ending the war . It was more likely that the United States wanted to test out the new weapon they had made and its effects on a real city, which is why Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen as the real world testing grounds.…

    • 1231 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    America 's decision to use weapons of mass destruction can not be justified (Barnes). America could have chosen a more reasonable location to drop the bomb, and to minimize the amount of civilian deaths. The city of Hiroshima was a chosen target, because it had been preserved from conventional bombing during the war specifically to emphasize the power of the Atomic Bomb. It was ¨located in a much larger area subject to blast damage¨ and hoped to avoid looking bad if the bomb was off-target, like Nagasaki. Not to mention that they wanted the debut of the atomic bomb to be ¨sufficiently spectacular¨ and for the whole world to see America’s power (Wellerstein).…

    • 1709 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Atomic Bomb DBQ Essay

    • 1374 Words
    • 6 Pages

    It is highly likely that had Germany launched the Atomic Bomb campaign before the United States, nuclear warfare would have had a different meaning. Germany could have used this weapon with malice, with the intention of mass destruction. The fear caused by the use of the Atomic Bomb by Germany would have been fear of the country itself, instead of fear of escalating threats if the war did not end. The United States used the bomb to essentially cease fighting, with the goal of making this last statement and hoped that in turn the other countries would follow suit in never letting war get back to such a desperate and severe stage again. Additionally, the scientists involved in creating the bomb urged President Truman to use the bomb quickly, “It was their recommendation that the bomb be used against the enemy as soon as it could be done”(Source1).…

    • 1374 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays