The History of Modern World
On August 6 and 9, 1945, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were
destroyed by the first atomic bombs used in warfare, killing over
150,000 Japanese and inflicting radiation poisoning on more still.
Five days later on August 14, Japan surrendered. The need to defeat
Japan and to end the Second World War is the most commonly held view
about dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some argue
however that this was not the main reason for dropping these two bombs
in 1945.
On April 12, 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died and so as Vice
President, Harry S. Truman became the thirty-third American President.
Roosevelt had failed to inform his vice president of the atomic
project, called the Manhattan Project. Now the war was over with
Germany, it was time for the “big Three” leaders, Churchill, Stalin
and Truman to decide what action needed to be taken against Japan, who
although on the brink of defeat, refused to end the war in the
Pacific. Truman was the least prepared to decide about where to go
from here. By July 25, Truman had come to the conclusion that the
Japanese would be given the option to surrender unconditionally
(knowing that they would not), if they did not surrender immediately,
they would face “prompt and utter destruction”. The Japanese did not
respond.
Hiroshima was the primary target of the first U.S. nuclear attack
mission, on August 6, 1945. The B-29 Enola Gay, piloted and commanded
by Colonel Paul Tibbets, was launched from Tinian airbase in the West
Pacific, approximately 6 hours flight time away from Japan. About an
hour before the bombing, the Japanese earl...
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...ere was a political
motive in dropping the bombs because of the power of the Russians,
Truman wanted to prevent any spreading of communism from Stalin and
stop him from expanding into Asia. However I think that the main
reason was to save the lives of Americans. With the only other
alternative, a land invasion, Truman would be risking the lives of
around two million soldiers and sailors and also worsening the
conditions for the prisoners of war held by Japan. Truman told
students at Columbia University in 1959 that, “ dropping the atomic
bomb was no “great decision”. For your information there were more
people killed by the firebombs in Tokyo than by these bombs. It was
merely another powerful weapon in the arsenal of righteousness.” “It
was just the same as getting a bigger gun than the other side to win
the war.”