Why Did President Truman's Decision To Drop The Atomic Bomb

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August 5th, 1945 marked the day the world was changed forever when thousands of lives were taken in a scorching blink of an eye. Deep into what seemed a perpetual World War II, the Japanese city of Hiroshima was the first example of the new US technology, the atomic bomb, that could kill thousands more easily than ever. Carried out by the Enola Gay, the bomb ironically nicknamed Little Boy decimated an estimated 130,000 citizens and the city of Hiroshima itself. Three days later a second bomb named Fat Man was dropped on the city of Nagasaki killing around 65,000 people. Around 7,000 miles away in the comforts of the White House in Washington D.C., president Harry Truman was the one who decided to order the bombs to be dropped. To his death bed Truman never once regretted the decision to drop the …show more content…
This was a primary mission when Roosevelt was in office as he realized the importance of the Soviets weakening the Axis Powers. He tried to convince them to join in war at the Yalta Conference with no success but with the knowledge that the Soviets wanted to invade Japanese controlled Manchuria. When Truman came in office they pushed this information aside instead of realizing the vulnerability in Japan this could produce. Because of the information they knew, all they had to do was wait for the Soviets to take action before the US did anything. The US ended up acting first with the bombing of Hiroshima and the Soviets used the better strategy of waiting for us. The Soviets attacked Manchuria and took it from Japanese hands. The Japanese surrendered not too long after the loss of Manchuria, causing many to believe that losing this land made the Emperor lose his Bushido code. The Soviet invasion could have very well been the tip of the iceberg that caused Japanese surrender, and the US did not need to use the atomic bombs as quickly as

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President Truman's Decision to drop the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki During World War II the war in Europe ended after the unconditional German surrender at General Eisenhower's Headquarters in Reims, France, May 7, 1945. "After the unconditional German surrender in Europe the war shifted to Asia and the Pacific. As the war continued against Japan the Allied forces captured islands such as Iwo Jima and Okinaawa close to Japan brought the Japanese homeland within range of naval and air…

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1. Identification and evaluation of sources The investigation, examining Truman's decision regarding the atomic bomb, that is his resolve to drop the destructive forces upon the Japanese city of Hiroshima and Nagasaki whilst still in his beginning months of presidency will attempt to answer the question: What factors influenced President Harry S. Truman to deploy the atomic bomb? The primary sources that will be analyzed are the writings of distinguished military writer historians Thomas B. Allen…

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President Truman had to make a very controversial call, it was to drop two atomic bombs on Hiroshima. Many people think he made a rash and harsh decision, but when you look at the facts that is all wrong. President Truman made a calm and calculated decision by dropping those bombs, he made a definitive statement to not only Japan but too the world, he saved millions of lives in the process, he chose the better of two bad options. President Truman didn’t decide to bomb these cities easily. He had…

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In early August 1945 atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These two bombs quickly yielded the surrender of Japan and the end of American involvement in World War II. By 1946 the two bombs caused the death of perhaps as many as 240,000 Japanese citizens1. The popular, or traditional, view that dominated the 1950s and 60s put forth by President Harry Truman and Secretary of War Henry Stimson was that the dropping of the bomb was a diplomatic maneuver aimed…

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the United States dropped the first atomic bomb the world has ever seen on a Japanese war industry city, Hiroshima. Three days later came another bomb upon the city of Nagasaki, also a war industry city. Over 100,000 lives were lost to the catastrophic bombs. The decision to drop the bombs is one of the most controversial choices made by a United States president. Historians have argued on what President Truman actually tried to achieve with the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Some say it truly…

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Why did the Truman Administration decide to drop the atomic bombs on Japan in 1945? There has been much debate as to why Truman elected to drop the atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the summer of 1945. Historians have long debated the true purpose to which the atomic bombs were designed to fulfil upon there deployment. The Alperovitz thesis of the 1960 was accepted for many years. The thesis revolved around the idea that the atomic weapons were deployed as diplomatic tools to intimidate…

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