Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

After years of heavy American casualties, President Truman was feeling pressure at home to put an end to Word War II. Although the Allies forced Hitler and Nazi Germany to surrender, many Americans feared the war in Japan would drag on for a number of years. How could President Truman put an end to the most deadly war in history? The answer soon became painfully obvious with the invention of the atomic bomb.

President Harry S. Truman wanted a quick way out of the war, to prevent deaths of American soldiers, and to show the world we had nuclear weapons. He wasn’t thinking of the long term repercussions of his decision to drop the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The atomic bomb “Little Boy” was dropped on August 6th, 1945, on Hiroshima. The atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945, was named “Fat Man”.

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Nagasaki, Japan. September 24, 1945, 6 weeks after...

Ground Zero marker in Nagasaki, Japan

These atomic bombs had a variety of negative long term effects. These nuclear attacks have caused many historians to question Truman’s hasty decision.

Japan surrendered on August 14th, 1945. President Truman used the bomb on Japan to save American lives, and he successfully did this. He saved one million U.S troops. However, he harmed many innocent Japanese making the U.S look bad. Truman made a public statement on August 9th, 1945 regarding the bombings. He said “Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young...