How Did Truman's Decision To Drop The Atomic Bomb Dbq

Atomic Bombing LEQ It was August 6, 1945 and little did the Japanese community of Hiroshima know that the first atomic bomb, known as Little Boy, would be dropped on their city that morning. The weapon of mass destruction devastatingly murdered about 130,000 people and left thousands more injured. A second bomb, known as Fat Man, followed suite only three days later on Nagasaki killing an upwards of 70,000 civilians. A few days later, the Japanese surrendered and World War Two ceased to continue. The one man accredited to the droppings of both bombs was United States President Harry Truman. He never regretted his decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki even though he could have chosen alternatives for winning the Second World War. President Truman was not justified in his decision to drop the atomic bomb and could have chosen better methods such as waiting for the Soviet Union’s aid, continuing conventional war tactics and modifying the terms of surrender for the Japanese. Further, President Truman’s decision to …show more content…
With over 200,000 casualties due to his mindset, he failed to account for the other opportunities he had to guarantee America’s success in the war. Other alternatives that could have been substituted for the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki include receiving assistance from the Soviet Union, intensifying existing war strategies and compromising on Japan’s capitulation. With all these in mind, President Truman had no right to put atomic bombs to use on the Japanese population. It is a shame that Harry Truman missed all these opportunities to end World War Two earlier than it did just because he saw it more fit to drop atomic bombs on a civilian population. This does not justify his actions though as mankind can never unseal the great magnitude of nuclear