How Did Harry S. Truman's Decision To Use Nuclear Weapon

In 1945 April 12 Harry S. Truman becomes the head of the state. When Truman became the president he was rather unaware about the existence if the Manhattan Project and did not knew that the project was in any way related to atomic bomb. Moreover even though he had the freedom to change his group of advisers on foreign policies from previous president he did not do so. Some historians believe that Truman`s decision to use nuclear weaponry against Japan was the legacy of previous the United States president Franklin Roosevelt.
This commitment to following the path designed by Roosevelt was explained by Barton J. Bernstein where he wrote: “Acting on the assumption that the bomb was a legitimate weapon, Roosevelt initially defined the relationship of American diplomacy and the atomic bomb. He decided to build a bomb, to establish a partnership on atomic energy with Britain, to bar the Soviet Union from knowledge of the project, and to block any effort at international control of atomic energy. These policies constituted Truman`s inheritance-one he neither wished to abandon nor could easily escape. He was restricted politically, psychologically, and institutionally from critically reassessing this legacy.” Perhaps it is possible to say that Truman`s decision to use nuclear weapon was …show more content…
More people have been killed with regular bombs and weapons in German cities in Russian front or in Tokyo. No mass killing, especially of civilians, can leave anyone happy. On the other hand seeing a militaristic Japan rise again in a few years, this time armed with nuclear weapons and without any doubt to use on America, would have been atrocious. With the unconditional surrender, Japan enabled one of the greatest transformations of the nation from militarism to pacifism. In the end it is one thing to justify the first bomb but was there the need to use the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, as if first bomb was not