Dropping of the Atomic Bomb
Uploaded by freewheelin32 on Apr 30, 2012
“The Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower said this in an interview; he of course was talking about the atomic bombings on Japan. Perhaps the most controversial and heavily scrutinized issue of the twentieth century was President Harry Truman’s decision to unleash atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the summer of 1945. While the sequence of events preceding that fateful summer morning of August 6,1945 are fully understood, the motives behind Truman’s actions are shrouded in controversy. Top military officials publicly denounced the use of such a horrendous weapon, while the obvious advantages to the bomb, traditionalists argue, was a shortened Pacific War. Para lactic views between traditional beliefs and revisionist theories suggest that the issue is still very much unresolved. This will always be a heated debate due partially because of the overwhelming evidence supporting both sides and the diverse views from highly respected officials at that time. But the question remains, why did Truman drop the atomic bomb? Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb was not a military necessity because the Japanese were on the verge of collapsing, and America had avoided diplomacy despite knowing Japanese intentions. The truth of the matter is that the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan to intimidate Russia. The atomic bomb shouldn’t have even been considered in the first place because it was being developed for defense, because of the rumors that Germany was trying to make a super bomb. Another reason why the atomic bomb shouldn’t have been considered in the end of World War II was that very little was known about the atomic bomb and the long-term effects it would have on survivors from the blast. Finally it shouldn’t have been used because it was morally wrong to use such a devastating weapon on a city of civilians.
On April 12, 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage and Harry S. Truman became the president. After the defeat of Germany on May 7, 1945, there were pressures on both the leaders of Japan and the U.S. to end the war. The two nations were involved in a bitter fight which began with Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The war was coming to...