Preview

How Did Truman's Decision To Prevent The Atomic Bombing

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
537 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did Truman's Decision To Prevent The Atomic Bombing
Atomic Bombing

President Truman’s decision of the atomic bombing has undeniably made a huge impact to world’s history events. Throughout decades, many individuals’ have encountered diverse explanations as to why it was necessary for the dropping of the atomic bomb. While others believe it was essential, some may think that it caused an enormous catastrophe, murdering millions of innocent civilians and produced a generation with an atrocious radiation poison. Years has passed by and it continues to be the utmost talked about event. The atomic bombing that took place in Japan can be argued that it was the greatest decision made by president Truman. There are majority of different schools of thought behind President Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bombing. Readings that have been encountered can conclude that President Truman’s decision was a great one. This event prevented future fatalities amongst the Japanese as well as the Americans, ended the world war II, and it was the only option handed to Truman. World War II has been fought for six years which started when Germany invaded Poland which was allies with United States along with the Soviet Union and Great Britain.
…show more content…
Japan was extremely focused on the emperor and felt like surrendering would be the last option for them since they did not want to appear weak. Japan was willing to give up all their women, men, and children if need be to fight back. The outcome of the war included two bombings in Japan for a sign of surrender. The money that was involved in the creation of the atomic bomb was tremendous. It was massive, if it wasn’t experimented on then it was believed that the Americans would be highly disappointed. After the Japanese attack, President Truman took that as a great opportunity to use the bombing. The outcome was successful because it caused an atrocious amount of deaths in

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    President Truman decided to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because the Japanese just did not surrender. However, it was the Japanese military leaders that did not want to surrender which led to the bombing on Hiroshima. The president asked the Japanese the first time to surrender by August 3rd and they did not and because of this being a war there is no sympathy. I believe that because of them not surrendering there is no other option. This war consisted of many people dying and there is no option but to surrender or get attacked. Japan if had the opportunity to attack, they would attack and this is true because of the constant resistance they have within the war.…

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    It was August 6, 1945 when the first ever atomic bomb dropped on the city of Hiroshima in Japan. Three days later another was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, Japan and this let to the surrender of Japan in World War II. The surrender would have not occurred so soon if it had not been for President Harry Truman’s decision to use the first ever nuclear attack on another nation. His decision changed history and the way the world worked. This meant that nuclear power was out there at the disposal of the United States for them to use whenever they saw fit. The decision Truman had to make was extremely difficult seeing as he was faced with a huge ethical dilemma whether to kill entire cities to save millions of American lives. The issue was not only was it ethically right but did he have enough justification to prove to the world that dropping the atomic bomb was the only way to end the war.…

    • 1495 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Twenty years after Harry Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bomb, scholars and citizens subscribed to the original version of the story: the President acted to avoid the invasion of Japan and lose anywhere from 200,000 to 500,000 American lives. Then in 1965, Gar Alperovitz published a the book “Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam”. He argues that the dropping of the atomic bomb “was not needed to end the war or to save lives” but was a message to the Soviet Union. Fifty years after the atomic bomb was dropped, Alperovitz said that the final answer to why the atomic bomb was dropped is “neither essential nor possible”. He also said,”What is important is whether, when the bomb was used, the President and his top advisers understood that it wa not required to avoid a long and costly invasion, as they later claimed and as most Americans still believe.” Alperovitz believes that if the bomb was not used, Japan might still have been made to surrender before the first American landing on the island of Kyushu.…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Harry Truman was a president who volunteered in WW1. Harry Truman was born in Missouri on May 8, 1884. He was commonly known for the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan, which caused many casualties with lives being lost on both sides such as in Japan and the U.S., however this ended the war even faster and ended the conflict with the pacific. In this paper I will argue that Harry Truman was wrong for dropping the atomic bomb on Japan; several reasons why it was wrong for Harry Truman to drop the atomic bomb was Russia got the idea of making nuclear weapons, Japan’s resources were already being wiped out and the amount of civilian casualties Japan had due to the bomb and radiation.…

    • 322 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During World War II the United States government propelled a $2 billion venture. This venture, known as the Manhattan Project, was a push to deliver a nuclear bomb. This venture was gone up against by gathering nuclear researchers from everywhere throughout the world. President Truman's choice to drop the atomic bomb on the urban areas of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the immediate reason for the finish of World War II in the Pacific.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The bombs caused survivors to have detrimental psychological ailments which followed them for the rest of their life. Because the atomic bombs were much more powerful that any other bombs dropped before it, the consequences were much more serious and widespread. Many survivors of the attacks describe the aftermath of the bombings as a sight of hell, or even a “nuclear apocalypse” with the flash of the bombs being so bright and the dust covering bodies, both dead and alive (Nicholls, 66). The radius of destruction caused by the barn spanned from the center of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to the the nearby countryside, taking thousands of lives and harming many more. Buildings were decimated, with many thousands of people dying under…

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It was an "ultimatum" to force the Japanese government to surrender or else the Allies of the United States and United Nations would attack Japan from all sides. On July 29, 1945, their leader Premier Suzuki scorned the ultimatum and actually told his people to increase the Japanese aircraft production. He felt he could still win the war against the United States by increasing his air strikes. After reflection, President Truman took into account that Premier Suzuki would not surrender freely. In fact, the 3,500 Kamikaze airplane raids from Japanese suicide bombers were proof that they were going to fight to the…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why Is Japan Surrend

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In “Why Japan Surrendered,” historian Robert A. Pape examines a new perspective on the topic. Pape’s new perspective investigates why the country decided to surrender when its military was still capable of fighting against an American invasion of the home islands. To examine Japan’s surrender, Pape focuses on three concepts that he claims caused the surrender. The concepts are the atomic bombings, the effect of the conventional bombings in Japan, and the offered terms of unconditional surrender. Pape reflects on Butow’s original thoughts regarding the conflict between the Japanese peace party and the militarists. Supporting Butow’s claims, Pape states that while the atomic bombings proved to be a “catalyst” to end the war, the emperor had the power to move Japan to surrender. Through the analysis of his findings and Butow’s arguments, the author can present an objective narrative of the surrender. Pape includes the combined military actions that the United States and the Soviet Union had on inspiring Japan’s choice to end the war. In conclusion, Pape considers that Japan chose to surrender because of the “military vulnerability” that faced them as the Allies closed in upon the home islands. Robert Pape provoked historians to analyze the use of the Allies’ military force as a cause and effect scenario that persuaded…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    President Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb was a difficult decision for one man to make. However, before he could ever make that difficult decision he first had to be told the weapon was even an option. The atomic bomb was a closely guarded secret that only a select few even at the highest levels in the government had knowledge of. So when the decision was made to use the bomb it was made to save the lives of not only American servicemen but those of the Japanese empire as well. That faithful decision did take the lives of many civilians of Japan but it also saved more that it ever took. President Truman sacrificed a few to save the many which is extremely hard to accept when the majority of those killed were civilians of all ages…

    • 210 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Atomic Bomb Dbq

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The US refused to be defeated by the Japs, or surrender to them. With the info I gathered from an article called The Atlantic at Hiroshima, the atomic bomb killed about 80,000 people, pulverized about five square miles, and wrecked an additional ten square miles of the city, with decreasing damage out to seven or eight miles from the center. At Nagasaki the fatal casualties were 45,000 and the area wrecked was considerably smaller than at Hiroshima because of the configuration of the city. Although this was seen inhumane, this reduced the amount of Japs that the US had to fight off and also gave the US a kind of reputation as to say don’t mess with us.…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The propaganda taught in grade schools was that the United States dropped the atomic bomb to save American lives and end the war. President Truman and some advisors stated after the war, that somewhere between five hundred thousand to one million American lives would be loss with an invasion of the Japanese homeland (37). So, in an attempt to bring the War in the Pacific to an end they used the atomic bomb. They also justified the use of the atomic bomb by claiming using the bomb would save an untold number of Japanese lives. The information which came from President Truman and his administrative sounded sensible and salved the conscious of America, but was it the truth? In his book, historian J. Samuel Walker provides a step by step analysis of events leading to Truman’s use of the atomic bomb to bring World War II to closure and extensive coverage of the relationship of the United States and the U.S.S.R.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Japan wanted to give surrender because they knew that they weren’t going to win this war. They also wanted to go out with some dignity intact though. What they wanted was that they wanted to keep their emperor in power. Their emperor did not’ have any sort of control over them, but some traditions were dear to them. Regardless, US dropped the bomb on the unsuspecting city of Hiroshima.…

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    America's decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan was only done to assert our position over the Soviet Union, and Japan's surrender was only an extra accomplishment of the attack. During the years 1939 to 1947, numerous conferences were held to discuss diplomatic matters, and the strive towards getting Japan to accept an unconditional surrender. The Japanese had already been weakened, and the military predicted that they would eventually be forced to surrender in a short amount of time. Even the scientists who worked on the atomic bomb agreed that it was unnecessary to drop the bomb on Japan, since their surrender would be evident in the near future. Therefore, the United States' decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan had nothing to do with forcing the Japanese to surrender; it was only done to intimidate the Soviet Union.…

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At 8:15 am on August the 6th 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima in Japan. In this essay I will be presenting my views on whether the Americans should have used the atomic weapons against Japan. I both agree and disagree that dropping the bomb was the right thing to do. Throughout this essay I will explain why I feel that both points and reason are correct. At the end I will put together and summarise my strongest points.…

    • 880 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The American people knew that dropping the bomb was a crucial piece to finish off the war. Because if they weren't they would know that in result that it would end in a Japanese victory. The Americans dropped the bomb to finish the war and thus was necessary as a means to win, but the consequences were extreme. Looking past the consequences in the Japanese defense it led to thousands of their people dying to a fiery inferno.…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays