Entering into the atomic age The attack with the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was two of the most tragic events in world history. Due to the Manhattan project being successful, the United States developed a nuclear of mass destruction the world has ever seen or witnessed before. Since the project was successful, President Truman was faced with a hard decision whether to quickly end one of the most destructive war in history and swiftly end the conflict with the Japanese empire but that would involve the usage of the largest devastating nuclear weapon that was ever created at that time. The other decision that he could have made was to continue and prolong the war but that would lose even more American lives and also Japanese …show more content…
lives. Truman was faced with the most difficult decision of his life. United States won the battles of Iwajima and Okinawa, but United States still continued to drop bombs over numerous cities in Japan. Surprisingly, the Japanese government has rejected the ultimatum sent by Allied Powers to accept the unconditional surrender even though it candidly portrayed the price Japanese had to pay. In the end however, prolonging the war was not an option for President Truman. He decided that he would not want to prolong the war any further and gave the command to drop the atomic bomb, “Little Boy” on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Japan still didn’t surrender even after the devastating effects it had on the people and the city itself so another B-29 bomber was sent to drop the bomb on Nagasaki. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, another atomic bomb “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki. The emperor of Japan could no longer see his beloved homeland be destroyed anymore and the deaths of tens of thousands of people die due to the nuclear weapon so he gave the official declaration that Japan would surrender. Five days after the bombing of Nagasaki, on August 15, 1945 the Japanese people surrendered. During early 1939, the council of world scientists found out that the Germans found a way to make an atomic bomb.
German physicists learned that splitting an uranium atom would create a huge weapon of mass destruction and had devastating effects. The scientists were scared that the Nazi’s would be able to create this bomb and use it during the war. That would lead to United States defeat. After the escape from Nazi persecution, Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi and other scientists decided to tell President D. Roosevelt of what the Germans were doing. Instead of the Germans developing the atomic bomb first, Einstein urged the president to start a project on building the bomb. Roosevelt decided to move slowly on the project even though he thought it was an unnecessary need to build and use it during the war. At that time America started developing the atomic bomb and the project was made top secret. They could not allow any of the Axis Powers such as the Japanese or the Germans to find out that they were building a new nuclear weapon that the world has never seen before. The code name that they developed for this project was the “Manhattan Project”. In December 1942, at the University of Chicago, Fermi and other physicist developed the first nuclear reaction. Afterwards, the project started to make a swift advancement and more nuclear facilities were built in order to get the project finished. About 120,000 people were employed to help out with the construction of the atomic bomb. In order to keep all 120,000 of the employees only certain scientists such as Robert Oppenheimer, the main scientist in charge of putting the pieces of atomic bomb together and government officials were informed of this project. Not even President Truman knew about the fact that the bomb even existed even though he was vice president of
the United States. He only found out about the project after he was elected to the office of the president. The United States spent two billion dollars on the research and development of the Manhattan Project. On July 16, 1945 they were ready to test the first atomic bomb that was ever created. The atomic bomb had disastrous effects. There appeared the light that could have been seen from 200 miles away and a mushroom cloud appeared 40,000 feet. Around 100 miles, civilian’s homes were destroyed instantly. A crater was left after the bomb about the size of a half of a mile. The Manhattan project was a success and the construction of the first bomb was in Alamogordo, New Mexico. On August 6, 1945, Colonel Paul Tibbets and his team were inside the “Enora Gay,” a B-29 bomber, and was heading towards Hiroshima. Hiroshima was one of the main Japanese military strategic cities, where 43,000 soldiers lived. Around 8:15 am, the United States released the atomic bomb. Approximately 45 seconds passed when the “Little Boy” detonated about 2,000 feet above the city with a gigantic blast and glaring beam that enveloped the land. The “Little Boy” weighed over 9000 pounds and had the same amount of explosive power to that of 12-15000 TNT. Eyes could see the mushroom cloud from miles away. The mushroom cloud went up 40,000 feet in the air. Instantly it killed 140,000 people. These deaths included women, children, and the elderly folks. Even after the death toll, people suffered severely from the radiation and from severe fire burns. People were blown away by the blast, windows were broken, and all the buildings around ground zero were instantly obliterated. Almost 90 percent of the buildings located approximately in a three miles from ground zero have been impaired. The radiation of the bomb was so violent that the people near the area where the bomb was dropped instantly disintegrated and shadows of their bodies were left in their place. Unfortunately, rescuers did not arrive at the scene for a while since nobody really understood the magnitude of the explosion. According to recent records, Marissa Fessenden wrote in her article that “RERF or the Radiation Effects Research Foundation has recorded 853 cases of cancerous tumors that the researchers attribute to the bombs and 17,448 tumors from other causes such as smoking, diet and genetic factors.” (The Health Effects of the Atom Bomb Are Still Being Studied pg1) The risk of cancer doubles when the person or people are exposed to certain amount of radiation. Consequently, the residents of Hiroshima were devastated and suffered for subsequent amount of years. The US sent leaflets to Japan to disclose that they have a major warhead. If Japan didn’t surrender, the US would be forced to deploy another bomb and keep destroying Japan’s cities. Japan still refused to listen and follow the Potsdam Declaration. So President Truman gave the command to send another B-29 bomber to drop another atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Three days later on August 9, Major Charles Sweeney flew another B-29 bomber, “Bockscar”, towards Nagasaki. At 11:02 a.m., Sweeney dropped the second atomic bomb the “Fat Man” on Nagasaki. The “Fat Man” weighed about 10,000 pounds and had the same amount of explosive power as 22 kiloton blast. 40,000 people instantly died from the bomb. Tens of thousands still died from the after effects of the bomb. The death toll of the attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a an enormous amount of people. People have always had different opinions of the whether using this weapon of mass destruction was an ethical thing to do. Some said that it was a necessary thing to save both American and Japanese lives. The advisors of Truman said it would take about one million of US lives if they tried to invade the mainland of Japan. Otherwise the Americans would have to suffer a deadly battle with on Japan’s mainland killing many lives of both countries. Others have criticized the fact that America used a weapon to attack the civilians that included the elderly, children and women was just barbaric. They also said that the government had different ulterior motives or plans in dropping the bomb. Some critics said it had to do with racism and if the people were white, the United States wouldn’t have dropped the nuclear bomb. Paul W. Tibbets Jr. agreed that dropping the bomb was justifiable on several different accounts. He declared various times in his life that regardless of whatever anyone says, he thinks that dropping the bomb was the best solution at that time. President Truman also said the reason why he allowed for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was strictly military. Truman thought about the fact that dropping the atomic bomb was an easier solution of ending the war and getting the emperor of Japan to surrender. President Eisenhower on the other hand, opposed the usage of the atomic bomb. Different World War II veterans declared that the bombing of Hiroshima was very inhumane. Military advisors said that Japan was already going to lose the war so the usage of the two bombs was absolutely unnecessary. For example, Adm. William Leahy, White House chief of staff and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the war said, “The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender”. ( Not Everyone Wanted To Bomb Hiroshima pg 1) US also didn’t offer a demonstration on the bomb and show its effect to the Japanese empire. Even after all the people died, victims that were exposed to the radiation developed cancer and the victims of this bomb suffered for the rest of their lives. In the end, US was the first and only country to ever use a nuclear weapon on another country. There was a lot of conflict whether the usage of this bomb was an ethical thing to do. However, it ended one of the most destructive war in history.
The U.S. decided to develop the atomic bomb based on the fear they had for the safety of the nation. In August 1939 nuclear physicists sent manuscripts to Albert Einstein in fear the Germany might use the new knowledge of fission on the uranium nucleus as way to construct weapons. In response, on August 2, 1939, Einstein sent a letter to President Roosevelt concerning the pressing matter to use uranium to create such weapons before Germany (Doc A-1). To support the development of the atomic bomb, President Roosevelt approved the production of the bomb following the receipt that the bomb is feasible on January 19, 1942. From this day to December of 1942, many laboratories and ...
The first reason on why Truman made the right decision was because the atomic bomb ultimately helped to prevent the deaths of American troops. There would have been over 100,000 losses during the first stage of the attack against Japan, leading to over one million casualties of just Americans during the defeat of Japan(Tucker 1). Although there is no way to confirm the amount of predicted deaths, any amount of American deaths would have been avoided with the use of the atomic bomb. Comparing a million predicted deaths of Americans to the 140,000 (±10,000) that were actually killed in the Hiroshima bomb(Faragher 4), the decision implementing the bomb was executed in the correct way.
Truman had thought through the possibilities and had decided that using the bomb would be the most effective and quickest tactic. As a president Truman had a responsibility to protect his country, citizens, and foreign affairs, so deciding on the best method to establish everybody’s needs was difficult. There were many things to worry about: fighting on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, bombing Japan, and building the bomb. His decision was mainly based on how the US citizens felt and the following actions of japan. Japan refused to accept an unconditional surrender, which was demanded by the allied powers in order to stop the war against them. On August 6, 1945 Truman allowed Enola Gay to drop the atomic bomb on top of Hiroshima and later Nagasaki to end the war.
Upon reading “Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan” by J. Samuel Walker, a reader will have a clear understanding of both sides of the controversy surrounding Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. The controversy remains of whether or not atomic bombs should have been used during the war. After studying this text, it is clear that the first atomic bomb, which was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, was a necessary military tactic on ending the war. The second bomb, which was dropped on Nagasaki, however, was an unnecessary measure in ensuring a surrender from the Japanese, and was only used to seek revenge.
According to document A, President Truman believed that it was his duty to protect and save American lives And that's exactly what he did. If we did not go through with the atomic bomb, then we would have had to get Japan to surrender another way, yeah we could have put up an economic blockade and continuously bombed them like Admiral William Leahy wanted to do in in document A. Or we could have invaded and lost many more lives in the process, the war would have dragged on costing more American lives and more money for the United States.
The United States of America’s use of the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has spurred much debate concerning the necessity, effectiveness, and morality of the decision since August 1945. After assessing a range of arguments about the importance of the atomic bomb in the termination of the Second World War, it can be concluded that the use of the atomic bomb served as the predominant factor in the end of the Second World War, as its use lowered the morale, industrial resources, and military strength of Japan. The Allied decision to use the atomic bomb not only caused irreparable physical damage on two major Japanese cities, but its use also minimized the Japanese will to continue fighting. These two factors along
Hence, making the use of the nuclear bomb necessary, since the entire world had already seen how cruel the Japanese were with brutal war crimes that happen throughout the war and spread terror. Also it is important to mention the attack on Pearl Harbor which at the time the United States was no involved in the war at the time. The United States needed to make Japan surrender so that nothing like that would happen again to them or the rest of the Allies. The use of the atomic bomb aided the Allies in getting one step closer to ending the war, however, the use of the bomb had a lot of after effects. Hence, “the four-ton uranium bomb wreaked unprecedented havoc
Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration the atomic bomb was being developed. After Roosevelt died, his vice president Harry Truman was appointed President of the United States. Truman was never informed about the bombs development until an emergency cabinet meeting (Kuznick 9). Truman had to make the fatal decision on whether the bomb was to be dropped on Japan. With the idea of going to war, Truman had to think about the lives of the thousand American soldiers. The American soldiers had begun using the method of island hopping, because the bomb was not available. The idea of dropping a bomb was that the war itself could possibly end in its earliest points. The dropping of the atomic bomb could also justify the money spent on the Manhattan Project (Donohue 1). With a quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt “This will be a day that will live in infamy”, Pearl Harbor was a tragic day for Americans. The United States had lost many soldiers, which they had claimed that they will eventually get revenge. The alternates of dropping the bomb was also discussed at the Interim Committee. The American government was trying to get an invitation response from the Japanese government. If the United States did not drop the bomb and ‘Operation Downfall’ ha...
In 1941, The United States began an atomic bomb program called the “Manhattan Project.” The main objective of the “Manhattan Project” was to research and build an atomic bomb before Germany could create and use one against the allied forces during World War II. German scientists had started a similar research program four years before the United States began so the scientists of the “Manhattan Project” felt a sense of urgency throughout their work (Wood “Men … Project”).
President Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the direct cause for the end of World War II in the Pacific. The United States felt it was necessary to drop the atomic bombs on these two cities or it would suffer more casualties. Not only could the lives of many soldiers have been taken, but possibly the lives of many innocent Americans. The United States will always try to avoid the loss of American civilians at all costs, even if that means taking lives of another countries innocent civilians.
President Truman was the president that was possibly faced with the most important war decision of the modern war. After his decision, he lead America in inventing a warfare that can possibly destroy our world and cause many dangerous situations in the future. The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and the other bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The atomic bomb killed 70,000 people instantly and 100,000 over a certain amount of time(Crucible). The
The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan were ethical decisions made by President Harry Truman and the United States government. By the time of the atom bomb was ready, the U.S. had been engaged in military conflict for over four years and lost over 400,000 soldiers. Truman claimed, "We would have the opportunity to bring the world into a pattern in which the peace of the world and our civilization can be saved" (Winkler 18). The bomb was aimed at ending the war immediately and avoiding prolonged battle in the Pacific Theater and the inevitable invasion of Japan. President Truman hoped that by showing the Japanese the devastating weapon the U.S. possessed, that the war could be brought ...
In 1945, Germany had surrendered, but the war in the Pacific raged on. The allies were becoming desperate to end the war before it was necessary to carry out a full scale invasion. New developments in science had made it possible for the United States to weaponize the atom, and the consequent bomb created was dropped on Hiroshima and later Nagasaki at the approval of President Harry S. Truman and his advisors. In years to come, Truman would have to face questions over the merit of his actions. Although some may believe the atomic bomb was needed because it ended WWII, it was unnecessary to drop the nuclear bomb because of the alternatives that existed, the effect it had on the Japanese people, and because of the unethical reasons for dropping it.
There are many people who oppose the use of the atomic bombs; though there are some that believe it was a necessity in ending the war. President Truman realized the tragic significance of the atomic bomb and made his decision to use it to shorten the agony of young Americans (“Was the Atomic Bombing”). The president knew of the way the Japanese fought. They fought to the death and they were brutal to prisoners of war. They used woman and children as soldiers to surprise bomb the enemy. They made lethal weapons and were taught to sacr...
The United States’ decision to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima required extensive research leading to its production. The main goal of the American side was to damage the enemy’s confidence, while choosing a target with the highest military output in order to conclude the war (Robinson).The group in charge of developing the technology was known as the Manhattan Project, and was kept top-secret. Selection began in the spring of 1945, with assistance from the Commanding General, Army Air Forces, his Headquarters (Robinson).There was a variety of experts working on the project, including mathematicians, theoretical physicists, and specialists trained in weather and blast effects Headquarters (Robinson). In order to monitor all of the results, the city had to be untouched, meaning the target had to have no signs of previous bombings. Based on these requirements, the designation of Hiroshima for the bombing was not a simple determination. After a target was selected and the weapon was developed, testing was set to begin. On July 16, 1945, the first test in Alamogordo, New Mexico, proved that the bomb was prepared for release onto...