Truman and the Atomic Bomb - Sources Questions

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1) I disagree to this to an extent. I feel that the wording of the leaflet shows a reason why America wanted to bomb Hiroshima. In the leaflet it says; ‘we ask you to petition to your Emperor now to end the war!’ This shows to me that they were wanting to drop the bomb so that it would make peace. How ever I do not agree totally with this use of the bomb because considering America had spent two billion dollars on the Manhattan Project (developing the A-Bomb they were going to want to test it  to see how much damage it could really do. Another reason why they may have wanted to drop it which is hinted in the leaflet is that America

2) I feel that Source C is reliable to an extent. Due to this source being written as a diary entry so Truman would have written with a view to hindsight because he would have known that it may be published later on for public access. He also says, ‘I have told the Secretary of war to use it so that military objectives and soldiers and sailors.’ This could mean that he actually did intend just to hit these targets but they did not ‘realise’ exactly how powerful the bomb was and it accidentally wiped out the whole of Hiroshima!  

If you look at source B then you can see the mass destruction that

4) I feel that both of these sources are very useful to a historian studying the reasons for the dropping of the bomb. Source D was written for a British historian book so it may have a slightly biased view towards America as we are allies with America although having said that it does bring both side of the arguments in subtlety, ‘Critics of Truman say the bomb was dropped because its development had cost a great deal of money and this had to be justified.’ In this they re saying ‘critics’ which is a skate goat for C. Cuplin perhaps as he may not have wanted to write that himself. Source D also has some interesting facts which are quite true which could be very useful to a historian so that they can see the extent of the bomb and how much damage it really could do.

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        Source E is different to source D; not only is it a picture but it is a lot more to the point and very blunt with a hint of sarcasm involved. Source E also brings in an extra point that Source D did not mention; this is that Japan was seeking peace before the first atomic bomb was dropped! This is true because it was written in Truman’s diary and this now shows to the historian that perhaps America were dropping the bomb for other reasons other then just to make peace and end the war early. Evening Standard, which ...

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