Essay On Truman's Decision On The Atomic Bomb

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Truman’s Decision on the Atomic Bomb: Was it Really Necessary? President Harry S. Truman would make one of the most controversial decisions ever in United States’ history, the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This event occurred in August of 1945, when the United States was nearing the end of the deadly World War II. This presidential decision would change the course of history forever. I firmly believe that this choice was the right call for him to make to protect the best interests of the United States’ people because of the potential loss of live in Japan and the harmful military tactics that the Japanese military was using. In my opinion, the dropping of the atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima …show more content…

Near the end of the war, the Japanese began desperate, and started using many war methods that were very dangerous to United States soldiers and ships. One of these war methods was called kamikaze, or pilots purposely crashing their planes into enemy ships. During the end of the war, more than 2,500 kamikaze attacks were flown, killing more than 4,000 Allied soldiers. One American sailor who was on the deck of a ship when a kamikaze attack described the scene by saying, “[The plane] cartwheeled the length of the carrier and plowed into the planes we had on the [flight deck]. […] All the guys manning the guns were dead. Standing up. Pointing their guns. They never left their posts.” This shows how deadly kamikaze attacks were on American troops. Another war method of the Japanese that was damaging to the Allied Powers was that the Japanese often fought to the death, since they believe it was more “honorable” to die fighting, than to be captured. This led to almost 50,000 Allied casualties on the island of Okinawa, which lasted almost 3 months. If this intense fighting had continued, the Allied Powers would have a lot more lives than the estimated 40 million that they lost in this conflict. In conclusion, the Allied bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an absolute military necessity because it helped to end the war quickly, and save

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