Why did the US drop the atomic bombs on Japan to end the war?

Question

what where tree reason president turman used for deciding to drop atomic bombs on japan?

Answer 1

1st: to save the lives of american GIs who didn't have to assault the japanese beaches.

2nd: to keep the soviets from gain hegemy in the orient similar to their eastern european bloc.

tree reason: truman, being the new prez on the block did not realize the power and significance of the wonder weapon. Up until now, he was kept in the dark as to its existence.

Answer 2

Simply put to save soldiers lives. To invade mainland Japan would have cost millions on both sides. There were 3 plans for dropping the bomb
1 demonstrate on a remote Island- rejected not impactful enough
2 warn them which city- rejected might move pow to city
3Suprise drop

However after the first drop I feel we could have stopped. We dropped the second as more of a test and to scare the Russians. The Japanese had contacted the allies through the Russian embassy to start the surrender process. However we dropped the second bomb on a non-militray city Nagasaki was a religous center. Japan would have surrendered if we gave them more time, but we did not want the Russians envolved.
Though the bombs were devestating and they get most of the attention they were nowwhere near the most deadly. The fire bombings of Tokyo killed more in one night that the bombs did. Lets face it war is ugly. And really war should be ugly. It has gotten too clean and too much like a video game for those who make the choice to fight. It is the grunts who still see the horrors of war. Higher up the food chain and the public just see video clips of bomb going through windows.

Answer 3

The other option was the planned Operation Downfall, similar to Operation Overlord (D-Day) which would be an invasion of Japan and was expected to cost the United States many many casualities. It was also dropped to intimidate the Soviet Union and prove the weapons of mass destruction we possessed. Dropping the bombs would end the war before the Soviets could join the war in the Pacific (It was decided at the Yalta conference that in 3 months they would enter the war in the Pacific on the side of the Allies)

Answer 4

To let Japan know that we 1. had the bomb, 2. were willing to do what was needed to end the war, 3. all the bad guys needed to be stopped, & 4. ending the war sooner would stop the additional loss of lives ie service men.

Answer 5

The Japanese government was preparing for a massive invasion. Their citizens were told that they must resist to the death to stop the Americans. Estimates of casualties in an invasion ranged up to one million! And that's just for the invading troops. The damage and loss of life among the Japanese would have been catastrophic.

At the same time, there was grave concern about the intentions of the Soviet Union. Stalin was being very aggressive about carving up Europe, and there were fears that he would do the same in Asia.

The bombs were calculated to bring the war to a quick end and to intimidate the Soviets. They accomplished both.

Answer 6

Did they need another reason, wasn't ending the war enough?
To understand why they chose such catastrophic means, you have to understand something about the Japanese psyche. They simply would not give up. The Allies would have had to send thousands and thousands of troops, to overcome the Japanese, each of whom would fight to the end. Surrender was not in their vocabulary. This would have cost thousands of Allied lives.
Even after the war ended (long after the war ended) there were reports of finding Japanese soldiers who had holed up in the hills and were still convinced the war was going on and refused to surrender.
Many Japanese committed suicide when Japan surrendered, as they felt it was a national disgrace and a blot that could never be erased.

Answer 7

Truman claimed dropping the bomb, rather than a land invasion, would spare the lives of hundreds of thousands of American troops.

While it may not have been made public at the time, dropping the bomb was also meant to be a show of US strength to the Russians.

Answer 8

They just wanted to try two types of atomic bombs .( uranium and plutonium) And,they found out that an uranium one dropped in Hiroshima was much storinger than that in Nagasaki. They must have known that Japan was going to be defeated without being atom-bombed.

Answer 9

Because to land on the island and fight "traditionally" to get Japan to surrender would have cost hundreds of thousands more lives. Though gruesome, it was a decision based solely on the lives lost for each option.

Answer 10

The Japanese made it very clear that they would not surender. That they had no intention of changing their ways. They were still a threat and would continue to be a threat... They ad made it clear that the only way to stop them was to wipe them out... they would fight to the last woman and child... this was not what was wanted... but to stope them ment invading... many millions would die... in the price of lives the least costly way was chosen.... it saved the japanese people... literaly...