On August 6, 1945 – the day of the Hiroshima bombing – President Harry Truman announced to the United States why the bomb had been dropped: It was “to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction that the ultimatum of July 26 was issued at Potsdam” (Harry Truman). Though this is what President Truman directly said to his citizens, this was not the main reason for dropping the bomb. The U.S. needed Japan to surrender as fast as possible so they could drive Japan back to their own land. The United States needed to establish dominance over Japan. This would also prove America’s power and swift execution to the Soviet Union. In other words, the U.S. wanted to flex its muscles and show the Soviet Union they were not weak. If the U.S. could drop
