On August 6, 1945, American forces dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Just three days later, on August 9, was Nagasaki’s turn. Instantly, the cities were left in ruins, and death took its toll. It is estimated that about 70.000 people died immediately in each city. What followed was destruction and increasing death rates due to the radiations. Although there may be many reasons for President Harry Truman’s decision to drop the nuclear bombs, the primary one must have been terminating the war avoiding additional U.S. losses. Japan was a part of the Axis, a military alliance with Germany and Italy created in September 1940. During 1941, America became more and more involved with the nations fighting the Axis. President Franklin D.
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at Pearl Harbor was the core reason for driving the President Harry Truman, successor of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to make his final decision of using nuclear weapons to finally and permanently defeat it. Further charges, suggesting that there were other options for ending the war besides the bomb, and that Harry Truman knew it, have faced rebuttals claiming Japan was anything but on the verge of surrender. And within the historiography, consensus continues to elude scholars on such basic issues as why the United States used the bomb (Bonnett, 1997, pag …show more content…
Additionally, as Truman saw it, bombs were meant to be used. The use of the weapons was going to justify such expensive program. Certainly, the scientists who created it must have known the power of this new weapon. As a matter of fact, even President Truman considered it the most terrible thing ever created. However, Stimson projected that the costs of the invasion due to the terrain and the expected resistance were likely to be high (Bonnett, 1997, pag. 192). Truman, advised by Stimson, and after meeting with General MacArthur, was even more convinced that the use of the nuclear bomb was necessary. In fact, he stated, “Let there be no mistake about it, I ... never had any doubt that it should be used.” (Lacy, 2015, pag. 64). Evidently, if there had been so much research on uranium and plutonium in order to create an atomic reaction that transformed mass into energy, why not experimenting it on the hated Japan. In fact, the bomb had not yet been tested on such large scale, and this could really be a turning point for America in the eyes of the
at Pearl Harbor was the core reason for driving the President Harry Truman, successor of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to make his final decision of using nuclear weapons to finally and permanently defeat it. Further charges, suggesting that there were other options for ending the war besides the bomb, and that Harry Truman knew it, have faced rebuttals claiming Japan was anything but on the verge of surrender. And within the historiography, consensus continues to elude scholars on such basic issues as why the United States used the bomb (Bonnett, 1997, pag …show more content…
Additionally, as Truman saw it, bombs were meant to be used. The use of the weapons was going to justify such expensive program. Certainly, the scientists who created it must have known the power of this new weapon. As a matter of fact, even President Truman considered it the most terrible thing ever created. However, Stimson projected that the costs of the invasion due to the terrain and the expected resistance were likely to be high (Bonnett, 1997, pag. 192). Truman, advised by Stimson, and after meeting with General MacArthur, was even more convinced that the use of the nuclear bomb was necessary. In fact, he stated, “Let there be no mistake about it, I ... never had any doubt that it should be used.” (Lacy, 2015, pag. 64). Evidently, if there had been so much research on uranium and plutonium in order to create an atomic reaction that transformed mass into energy, why not experimenting it on the hated Japan. In fact, the bomb had not yet been tested on such large scale, and this could really be a turning point for America in the eyes of the