The war against the Japanese was a war that the Americans would not forget and would never ever be another like it. The Japanese would literally fights to death this was costing Americans heavily and also making Truman very unpopular. The Americans were trying to “Island hoping” campaign which was devised by McArthur which was to move forward towards the main land Japan, but no matter where they went on every Island there had to be face a stubborn and almost suicidal resistance by the Japanese soldiers. The Americans were not used to these conditions and in the jungles the Americans weapons did not work properly. This was a result to the Americans losing 60,000 marines at Iwo Jima and another 6,500 at Okinawa that’s just 66,500 at two islands alone. If the Americans dropped the bomb they would have stopped all the blood shed which they did eventually.
The whole entire Americans public just wanted to end the war quickly; this was because of the V-day in Europe. The Americans were fighting a war started by the Europeans. This was when the Europeans where at peace, dropping the atomic bomb would be a right good impression and prove that America where the strongest it was also the quickest way to end the war.
Traditional view put forward by the American president Truman and his secretary of the war was the view which was to avoid the loss of lives this was dominated in the 50s and 60s not only did they want to save Americans lives but also Japanese lives this could easily be understood because the loss of lives was highly uncountable when invading the main lands of Japan.
When the Americans had arrived to the main land of Japan the Japanese were already prepared. They were ready for the invasion and had trained civilians, who had sworn their lives to the emperor and would die trying to defend their homeland. Not just men were trained women and children were being turned into unstoppable fighting machines. “Sherman carpets” were children dynamite rapped around them they were trained to throw them self’s under Americans tanks. Kamikaze pilots these were no ordinary pilots, these pilots would fill their planes with TNT and literately crash into enemy battleship these men, women and children were not only trained physically but they must have been trained mentally to do some thing like this. It was seen to the Japanese giving there life to fight for the emperor was a good thing and they thought that the emperor was next down from god and to lose your life for him was honourable thing how ever the Japanese lost 240,000 lives because of this.
Another reason to use this beast was to provoke and also given a political upper hand in this relationship with the almighty USSR. At the time USA and USSR were allies but these two were the most powerful nations, they also were plotting against each other secretly behind closed doors.
Stalin who was the co-occupier for America wanted to expand in the east because his ideas were listened to and appreciated in these areas. Truman did want Stalin to be a co-occupier of Japan. Two days after the atomic bomb Stalin invaded China and Manchuria he was taking advantage of their weakness and there poor defence, and maybe the second bomb was dropped because so Stalin. Using the atomic bomb would set everything straight and show the power Americans held in their hand and it was a clear message to the USSR not to do anything stupid. Once the bomb was dropped it would make Stalin more manageable in Europe, the sectary of the state who was Byrnes had told Truman that if they dropped the bomb this could mean that after the war it would put them in a position to dictate there terms at the end of this blood shed. Stalin was acting as a peace minister for the Japan emperor. Truman did like this at all and discouraged to this as well, when the president Roosevelt was alive the USA and the USSR were quite good friends with each other, but with this new president they all saw a change he knew what was to come. He decides to go all-hardcore with the Russians.
The atomic weapon was a demonstration of the power of the USA and a repay for the embarrassment, which was caused by the Japanese when the attacked pearl harbour. The fire raid on Tokyo killed more people that the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima’s but this involved the Americans to continue bombing on the city of Tokyo this all took place on 9th of march. This shows that Americans didn’t need the atomic bomb to make Japan surrender they could do it the convention way of bombing but it gets people thinking one bomb can cause so much damage.
Another argument put forward to dropping of the bomb is lack of knowledge that Truman had about this bomb. Truman didn’t really understand the full means of this bomb and the scale of destruction it can cause in an instant. Truman might have thought that it was a big bomb and it will cause a lot of damage but if he understood the real power this bomb an what it holds and that it will cause damage after it was used then maybe it might have not have been used. Before he became president he was involved in a domestic problem and he had no information on this beast what so ever. He was seen as a man with a simple mind.
But one of the most important question was would it work. It was newly developed weapon and every one on the project was asking if it did work “what would happen” the whole entire project was an experiment and a gamble as president Truman said we have spent millions of dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history and won. The project was the most expensive experiment ever and to drop the bomb it would justify the money spent on the entire project.
The experiment argument is supported by a number of facts. The location chosen by American, which was Hiroshima, which was bombed unsorted before this. The city was hit at rush hour at 08:15am, there where two planes, the first one which carried the atomic bomb and the second plane which was carrying photographs equipment, which would measure and record the destruction caused by the atomic bomb and also to gather more information for further development of this bomb. The 509th was an experiment, which dropped smaller bombs in a desert in New Mexico, and they studied for a final bomb, which was dropped on Hiroshima the lastly there was no warning it was being dropped.
Then finally after four years the bomb was dropped and the Japanese surrendered but other potentials alternatives where was never look at.
The most important alternative were, non combat demonstration of the dropping the A bomb on the deserted place to show the power the bombs were smaller that the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima, Modification to unconditional surrender and to allow the emperor to stay or continue with the conventional method of bombing. All of these alternatives would have brought about the defeat of Japan, Japan was trying to surrender anyway and they were using USSR to peace talk with the Americans. The code breaks receives the message that Japan has surrendered and the message got to do president but this was never announced to the public, but the president had no intensions what so ever of solving the matter peacefully.
To conclude this essay I would like to say that the use of the atomic bomb, which left the world, terrorised forever. There are 3 main reasons to drop the atomic bomb.
Firstly Americans wanted to take revenge on Japan for attacking pearl harbour, which left many Americans angry who were thirsty for revenge dropping the bomb would have satisfied the Americans and he would be popular again, and win the next election. Secondly the Americans just wanted to try the bomb on and put a label it “human experimented”. Lastly I would say that cost and effort put in to making this bomb and also the Manhattan project which was set up by President Roosevelt and was continued by the vice president Truman it was given unprecedented amount of funding which would justify the cost. After the Americans found out Germans attempt to develop an atomic weapon during world war two, Americans decided that the bomb needed to be finished quickly and took in some Jewish scientists who were exile from Germany to help their own scientist. They spent 2 billion on a bomb a trying it would definitely justify the cost and it would be know if it was worth it or not, but revenge was the main reason on top of all this, this was the only time the atomic bomb has ever been used and it shall remain this way.
