The Atomic Bombings of Japan q.5

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The Atomic Bombings of Japan

Question 5:

Source E is a speech made by President Truman on the 7th of August 1945. The president is very much in favour of the bomb and has an overall positive interpretation. He supports the use of the bomb because he felt that he was under pressure to defeat Japan in the war, he wanted revenge over the attack at Pearl Harbour and because he wanted to be remembered as the President who achieved victory for America and defeated Japan.

However, this did not justify the 84,000 deaths that the Atom Bomb caused or the radiation sickness that followed. Alternatively, we can argue that the bomb could have been dropped on a remote island as a warning to the Japanese to surrender. However, we can understand why Truman felt that it was necessary to drop the bomb on Hiroshima. The war had been going on for 4 years, and the end was not in sight, the American people were getting frustrated and the many deaths of Americans made Truman want to drop the bomb without questioning it. In source E, he states, “We have used it in order to shorten the agony of the war, in orders to save thousands of Americans”. Truman delivers his speech in a very authorative tone and this persuades the American public that the use of the bomb on Japan was the right decision. In the source, we can see that he takes full responsibility for the bomb and supports it completely. He was keen to use the bomb for the revenge of Pearl Harbour, and the thousands of Americans that had been killed horribly as he says, “We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbour”

Americans were island hopping in order to capture the islands of Japan, but there was a huge cost of life as American soldiers suffered huge losses on the two islands of Okinawa and Iwo Jima. They had the prospect of losing a million, and the Japanese were not prepared to surrender, so when Truman was informed that the bomb would make the Japanese surrender in a week, he rapidly grasped the opportunity to use it on Japan. However, Truman did not consider ethical issues,

the overwhelming majority of the dead were civilians.

Truman also felt that it was important to drop the bomb because he despised Russia, and did not want them to attack before Japan had surrendered “We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan’s capacity to make war. Only a Japanese surrender will stop us”.

Truman had a motive for personal glory, and dropping the bomb on Japan, was like a personal achievement. The American public praised him as the President who got Japan to surrender. When President Roosevelt died on 12th April, 1945.Truman only served 82 days as vice president, and was later elected as the President of the United States. He was remembered as the man who achieved victory for America and got Japan to surrender. Truman completely supported the decision to drop the bomb, and in part B of Source E, we can see that after 14 years, his views had not yet altered “The dropping of the two bombs stopped the war and saved millions of lives”.

Source A is an article from a British newspaper, and mostly agrees with Truman’s viewpoint of dropping the bomb because Britain had helped America in the war against Japan. Because of this, we can assume that the readers of this newspaper also support America’s decision. The newspapers could not give any negative remarks about the bomb because of censorship, and this might raise questions about how much they agree with Truman. The newspaper describes the bomb as “the bomb that has changed the world” and highlights how significant it is and the powerful affect that it had whilst testing it in America. It recognises the power of the bomb and sees it as something special. However, the source gives little detail about the effects of the bomb in Japan. The newspaper agrees with Truman that the bomb would have an impact on the war, but does not give the other side of the story and the details about the effects of the bomb on Japan. The newspaper is not fully in agreement with Truman, as it does not give enough information. This article is sympathetic to America and generally agrees with Truman’s view, however is not fully in agreement, as it was written the same day that the bomb was dropped, and this means that they would not have been fully aware of the after-effects.

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Source B is a letter written by a high-ranking American Pilot describing the dropping of the bomb on Japan to his son. The author of the source makes it very important, as he was part of the team that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. He is in agreement with Truman and is in favour of the bomb. However, the source was written on the same day that the bomb had been dropped, and like Source A this means that the pilot could not be fully in agreement with Truman, as he would not have known the effects of the Atom ...

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