During World War II Americans dropped atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing nearly 200,000 people. This resulted in Japans surrender in World War II. J. Samuel Walker analyzes this historical event in his book Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs. Over the past 70 years’ extensive research has been conducted and there is an understanding that Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bombs is inconclusive. It is impossible to determine that the use of the bomb was the quickest way to end the war. An analysis of President Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb reveals one challenge: was the decision to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki a show of good judgment. The most important question surrounding this issue is: should the United States have dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II? In his book Walker does not conclusively say if the use of atomic bombs was or was not necessary. On one hand it was necessary to save American troops lives and to end the war as quickly as possible. But, on the other hand if the United States did not drop the bomb they would have invaded Japan instead and that was all unnecessary because Japan was on the verge of surrender. While making this decision Truman had many advisors. One of them was Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson. Stimson created the “Interim Committee” this group was comprised of military, business, and political leaders. The members of this
This essay we will be discussing the pros and the cons of President Truman’s ethical decision to drop the bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. There were many people against dropping the bomb on Japan as well as people in favor of bombing. I believe that President Truman made the correct decision when bombing the country of Japan. President Truman had to make decisions based on what would be right for the people of the United States and what is also helpful to the United States military. There were many decisions that were deemed either ethical or unethical made by President Truman going into the dropping of the atomic bomb.
Few events in world history have made a global impact on humanity as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The decision to drop the bombs made by Harry S. Truman, the newly sworn in commander-in-chief after the death of Franklin Roosevelt, has been one scrutinized not only for the destruction of the act, but also in itself for the actual motive of the decision. Was the decision to use the Atomic Bombs one to quickly end the war to save American lives, or did Truman do his best to prevent Soviet influence in East Asia, to try and scare the Soviet Union from making any kind of territorial claims in Japan? Because there is ample evidence for both points of view, it's impossible to declare one to be the case. While both sides have good evidence, it's likely Truman made his decisions not only to end the war quickly, but to also avoid massive casualties on both sides, and to intimidate the Soviets. This was the genius of Truman's actions, it was able to end the war that was destroying the globe's nations for nearly six years, while also preventing another war from occurring in the future, and to keep peace in the process. As far as today, there has been no atomic warfare
1. Long after World War II and the use of the atomic bombs against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a great debate remains. It seems that there are two main potential arguments as to why the bombs were detonated and whether or not they were even necessary to begin with. The first theory surrounds the notion of the national security interests of the United States. In this theory essentially, Truman’s actions had been defended and justified as necessary in order to quickly end the war with U.S. causalities kept to a minimum.
Did we make the right decision in dropping the atomic bombs on Japan during WWII? Till this day ordinary citizens and commanders question if the bombing was ethical. The utilitarian approach supports the argument considering without the bombs millions of lives would’ve been at risk. However, dropping the atomic bombs kept the deaths significantly lower on both sides. I believe the right decision was to drop the atomic bombs on Japan. I’m briefly going to talk about why Truman decided to drop the bomb, why there wasn’t another alternative, and what some felt after the bombing.
Many debates have been provoked based on President Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The debate is not solely based on the bomb being dropped, but more on the actual necessity and intention of the bomb being dropped.
Was it necessary for Truman to drop the Atomic Bombs on Japan in World War II? On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped by a US aircraft on Hiroshima. This atomic bomb was dropped to force Japan into surrender, this bomb alone destroyed Hiroshima and over 90,000 people were instantly killed in the explosion and an additional 100,000 people perished from burns and radiation sickness. On August 9, 1945 only three days later, the second atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki resulting in an additional 80,000 casualties of the Japanese population. The people of Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945 soon after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many people opposed to the use of the atomic bombs because people argued that Truman 's decision to use atomic bombs was a barbaric act of cruelty. People also argued that the US government had other ulterior motives to drop the atomic bomb that were necessary for America 's ideals. Necessary motives like presenting The Soviet Union a strong message for the Soviets to watch their step around America. A conventional way of warfare for Japan 's surrender would have costed many more American lives. Truman and others believed that the atomic bomb was necessary to save American lives but also Japanese lives. These actions from President Truman marked the end of the most destructive war in history. The two sources that will used and evaluated in this paper are is The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb by Dennis D. Wainstock (1996)
In 1945, President Harry S Truman ordered an atomic bomb to be dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to ultimately put an end to the Japanese American war. The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were tremendously significant in the history of war for America. Although there is great understanding as to why the bomb was dropped, there is also various controversial debates as to other options that could have been carried out. J. Samuel Walker wrote the book Prompt and Utter Destruction Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan, to display the various beliefs people had on the different ways to put an end to the war, and also the reasoning behind the use of the atomic bomb.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are generally seen as successes in Truman’s presidency, although there are a large number of people who see it as a failure as well as a horrendous crime against humanity. However, by making the decision to
The atomic bomb was initially created during the time period directly preceding, and including, World War II. Although the United States was the first nation to actually utilize this devastating weapon in a combat situation, it is significant to note that several other nations, including Russia and Germany, were also rapidly attempting to manifest the technology that could produce this devastating weapon. The U.S. utilized this weapon against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki within two days of each other to conclude the war with the triumph of the Allied powers. Japan was largely chosen as a target since it represented the last of the efforts of the Axis powers which included Germany and Italy to win World War II. The widespread destruction sown in both of the aforementioned cities, however, quickly led to Japan's surrender and the end of the war.
America's decision to drop two nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had a profound effect on millions of lives of both Americans and the Japanese. Not only did it carry a significant amount of casualties but many American lives were spared. By entering into WWII, there were so many innocent lives that were lost including millions of civilians so when this monstrous war was coming to an end in 1945, I believe that President Harry S. Truman acted on a prompt decision in order to spare many more American lives. As stated in U.S. History in Context, Historians writing closer to 1945 tended to accept President Harry S Truman’s interpretation of events, that an invasion of Japan, which had been badly wounded but was hardly defeated in August 1945, would have cost over one million American lives and many more Japanese (History in dispute, 2000). The same article advises that the atomic bomb, a new weapon developed in such secrecy that Truman, who succeeded to the office on President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death in April, knew
In an attempt to frighten the Communist Soviet Russia, two unnecessary bombs were dropped on Japan. The actions of the President of the United States (U.S.) at the time, Harry Truman, to deploy a nuclear weapon on a near-surrender Japan and two populous cities were viewed as unjust and hasty by the American people. Dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not necessary.
Was the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the American Government unavoidably necessary? This is what Samuel J. Walker intends to uncover in his publication. His argument is that the justifications made by the American Government after the dropping of the Atomic bombs were gross exaggerations and that the reasoning behind their ultimate decision is complicated. He contends that because of their lack of knowledge of the actual damage that the force of the
This investigation assesses President Harry Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It will determine whether or not his decision was justified. This investigation will scrutinize the reasons that made Harry Truman feel inclined to drop atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Preventing further casualties along with the desire to end the war are two argumentative points that will be analyzed to determine if they were strong enough to justify the dropping
Would you kill a thousand to save millions? Well the drastic actions taken by the United States did save millions. There were two actions that had to occur to save the millions and end the war, the dropping of the two atomic bombs being the first of their kind were to be the most powerful bomb ever invented using atomic and nuclear forces so create it and packed over 20,000 tons of TNT and was about ten feet long. The bomber that transported and dropped them was called the 'Enola Gay’. The two Japanese cities’ that were struck by such creations were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In this essay I will be discussing on how the actions taken by the United States of America were completely justified in dropping the two bombs as is established a future power image, saved millions, ended the war and ended the axis of evil.
The disagreement whether it was necessary for the United States to drop the bomb on either Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been going on for about half a century. Many have argued that Harry S. Truman did the right thing while others disagree that it was a horrible decision. There is technically not a right or wrong answer because no one knew what could have happened if the United States did not drop the bombs on either cities. There can only be disagreements over the decisions a leader could make in order to protect its people from being killed.