Truman And The Atomic Bomb

4 Pages 949 Words

President Truman’s decision to attack Japan with atomic bombs changed the world forever. There were many internal and external forces that led him to use such extreme force. This paper will examine the factors that led to President Truman’s decision to attack Nagasaki and Hiroshima, as well as look at the positive and negative factors of the alternatives to answer whether these actions were necessary.
There were many different aspects of the war in Japan that led President Truman to use the atomic bombs. After Roosevelt’s death on April 14, 1945, one of Truman’s main concerns was to continue in Roosevelt’s footsteps and follow his example. He wanted Roosevelt’s legacy to continue and end the war as soon as possible with the smallest amounts of American casualties. Truman “inherited from Roosevelt the strategy of keeping American losses to a minimum, and he was committed to carrying it out for the remainder of the war” (p.9). Not only did Roosevelt’s policies influence him, but his own personal war experience affected him as well. Truman had served in World War I as an artillery captain, and saw all of the gruesome aspects of war, including seeing his comrades being slaughtered by the enemy. This helped Truman empathize with the soldiers and try to get them out of Japan as quickly as possible.
Another reason Truman used the atomic bomb was the strong will of the Japanese to continue on with the war. Even once they realized defeat was inevitable, the Japanese planned to continue on until the very end. On June 8, 1945 the Japanese Emperor Hirohito “agreed to the military’s call for an all-out resistance to an American invasion” (p.31). The Japanese were prepared to face significant losses until they could surrender to less harsh consequences. The main concern of the Japanese was to keep their emperor in power. The Japanese emperor was the most highly regarded figure in Japan, and none of the Japanese were prepa...