Do you think President Truman was correct in his decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Question

Please help, I need some input like right now.. It would also help if you cited a source if you used one. Thanks so much in advance for taking the time to answer this question, I appreciate it!!

Answer 1

Yes it was.

Quite often a justification used is the number of our soldiers lives it saved.

Most estimates I have heard said the Americans to Japanese killed would be 1:6 and the number of dead US soldiers would be quite large. So, we save both American and Japanese lives there.

Also, at the time we were firebombing Japan. We would launch an air raid and drop incendiary bombs over a population living in wood/paper houses, guess what? Lots of fire and lots of death. Again, reports I have heard put the number of dead in just one of those fire bombing raids at a numbers comparable to those killed in Nagasaki.

Those killed by the atomic bomb are no more dead than those killed in the firebombings of Tokyo or Dresden.

You do not have to believe it was a noble thing but the bombs did end the war early. As Sherman said, war is all h-e-double-toothpicks there is no use in trying to reform it, the nastier it is the sooner it gets over.

Answer 2

Of course.
Leaving aside the matter of relative death rates that an invasion would have resulted in, the use of the two bombs was the right decision for a number of reasons:
1. World War II was the most barbaric war in recorded history, if not from the standpoint of individual acts, then from the standpoint of official policies of the combatants (including the allies).It was being fought on the basis of "unconditional surrender"--we weren't going to enter into any form of negotiated settlement.
2. A "demonstration" explosion in an unpopulated area would have accomplished nothing. The Japanese would have been unimpressed. Actual use was a necessity.
3. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were entirely different----Hiroshima was a Uranium bomb, while Nagasaki was a Plutonium bomb.---we needed to see if both would work.
4. After Hiroshima, the Japanese government had days to respond and did not do so. They knew full well what was necessary (see #1 above).
5.Looking ahead to the postwar world, one eye was on the Soviet Union, and in a sense, both bombs were meant as demonstrations for them. Also, it must be remembered that The USSR was going to declare war against Japan in the immediate aftermath, and if we had waited and then invaded Japan along with the Soviets, the USSR would have had valid territorial claims in Japan, would have benefitted from the Japanese technological skill and work ethic, and might not today be extinct----we might.

Answer 3

Yes.

1. The democratic President, Harry Truman, was totally correct and justified in his decision to use the two atomic bombs against Japan.

2. First of all the atomic bomb was was new and untried. It had never been used before as a weapon of war and its implications wasn't yet totally realized.

3. The concept of using only one bomb to take out an entire city was amazing. Tokyo had been fire-bombed with thousands of bombs dropped with several sorties of missions each losing bombers and American crewman. The same went for the bombing missions over Germany. Hundreds of missions flown, hundreds of crewman died or captured, thousands of bombs dropped to raze one city. Only one mission and one drop for the atomic bomb - it made sense.

4. More people died in the fire-bombings of Tokyo and other Japanese cities than died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

5. The Japanese home islands were going to be invaded just like Iwo Jima or Guadacanal or the Philipines. Do you know how many Americans and allies would have died in the invasion of Japan? Too many! Dropping the atom bombs made perfectly good sense, it saved millions of American lives.

6. The Japanese were a tough, ruthless, and intractable foe. They did not surrender after all the fire-bombings. They did not surrender after the first atomic bomb dropping. They hesitated after the second atomic bomb dropping. The Japanese government finally capitulated after Josef Stalin threatened to invade Japan with a million Mongolian soviet soldiers. The Japanese finally sued for peace to the Americans.

Answer 4

I believe his decision was one of the most difficult decisions ever made, but I also believe his judgement was justified. After the Day of Infamy, I think the Japanese had it coming.
Anyway, on August 6, we bombed Hiroshima. On August 9, we bombed Nagasaki. Ten days later, on August 19, the Japanese surrender delegation arrives in Manila to recieve the instructions of General MacAuthur. It ended a war that could have lasted a long long time.

Answer 5

The primary argument for dropping the bombs was the terrible cost on American lives an invasion of the home islands would have cost. There is also evidence that they were dropped to show them off to the soviets.

At the time there was a movement in Japan to sue for peace. The Japanese army and navy were no longer a threat and we could have simply waited them out. The soviets might have taken a few more of the northernmost islands but it would have been more humane.

I feel that we should not have planned to invade, or drop the bombs. we should have simply waited their process out and Begin negotiations. If required, drop the bomb on an uninhabited area as a demonstration.

Today to our shame, the US is known as the only power to use the bomb.

Answer 6

I look at it this way.
If there was any 'right' reason to drop those bombs, then logically, given other scenarios, there are other 'right' reasons to do so again.
And I don't mean 'right' just from OUR point of view.
So if you are willing to grant any right reason, you must accept that there will be others - whether you will personally agree with these or not.
All this ballyhooing about WMD's -
and you want to have a world where dropping nuclear bombs on whole populations can find justification?
I do agree that we were showing off out new 'toy' then. But,
WE WERE WRONG WRONG WRONG.

Answer 7

absolutely..and even today in hindsight it has been proven that germany was only weeks away from developing their own atomic bomb..what do you think hitler would've done with that?..war is always a terrible thing and people die..but in the long run truman saved many,many lives and ended the war..

Answer 8

The act of dropping bombs to kill fellow human beings is the most barbarious act ever a man has committed in the history of civilisation
Even barbarians killed one or few whom they faught with
Here millions were killed, who were not even known to be enemies!!

But i am not sure if it was Pres Truman who ordered dropping of bombs!

Answer 9

No I don't.

The stock answer is that it saved many lives of the US military which would have been lost in a ground attack across the islands.

My view is that the US could have threatened to drop the bomb or, if that failed to bring a surrender, then dropped it in an area where losses would have been far less to demonstrate their capability.

Answer 10

Hiroshima, yes, as we had to show the japanese we were serious.

Nagasaki was strictly for show for the Russian's benefit

Sorry, no site to cite