Why Did We Use The Atomic Bomb?

On July 16th, 1945, President Harry Truman attended the Potsdam Conference in Potsdam, Germany. Truman received the news that the Manhattan Project had been successful; the United States had detonated the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico. The Manhattan project started in 1941 as a race with germany to develop the first atomic bomb. The project cost about 2 billion dollars and 120,000 people worked on it. Truman did not want to risk the lives of American soldiers if the allies were to invade Japan. Consequently, he ordered the use of the atomic bomb. The Manhattan project had long been underway. Julius Robert Oppenheimer aka the “father of the atomic bomb”, led a committee to discuss possible targets of the atomic bomb. Hiroshima, Japan became the most desirable first choice; it was home to the Japanese 5th Division, the 2nd army headquarters of the military, and stationed a crucial port and communications center. Moreover, the mountains that surrounded Hiroshima would contain and amplify the blast for more detrimental results. Home to superb war ship and weaponry production, as well as a critical seaport, Nagasaki became second victim of the bomb. In preparation for the bombings - and long before the decision was made to employ them - the United States flew missions over Japanese cities. Their goal: to normalize flights over Japan. This tactic aimed to make the
Perhaps the sight and experience of being hit by the first nuclear weapon ever used was just unfathomable and didn’t register to the emperor as certain defeat. Or, perhaps, the Japanese were going to refuse to surrender and choose death before dishonor even in the face of nuclear annihilation President Truman initially halted the Nagasaki operation, but interpreted the Japan’s slow response as a refusal to surrender. Truman then gave the go ahead to drop the second atomic bomb, Fat Man, on Nagasaki,