Truman tried to justify the dropping of the atomic bombs by convincing the people of America that it was revenge for Japan’s “sneak attack” on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese decided to launch a surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as they would then be in a good position to take over South East Asia without any opposition from the American navy. The Americans assumed that if there were to be an attack made by Japan, their target would be the Philippines, a US colony. So when the Americans received warnings that an attack would be imminent, they didn’t believe that Pearl Harbor would be the target. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Sunday 7 December 1941, six US battleships were sunk, another three were put out of action and nearly two hundred aircraft were destroyed. Over two thousand Americans were killed, the Japanese returned with the loss of just twenty-nine of their three hundred and eight four aircraft. It is though that the time of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima at 8.16am was carefully planned as a method of revenge as this was the time the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Benjamin Cohen justified the dropping of the bombs by saying, “Any weapon that would bring an end to the war and save a million casualties among American boys was justified and we were talking about dealing with the people who hadn’t hesitated at Pearl Harbor to make a sneak attack destroying not only ships but the lives of many America soldiers.” The US government used a lot of propaganda as a way to remind Americans of the attack on Pearl Harbor, this was mostly in the form of posters showing the atrocities of destroyed fleet.
Many scientists and historians have questioned whether part of Truman’s decision to drop the bombs was to test this new type of weapon. A previous nuclear test explosion was conducted in a desert in New Mexico however this did not show what the bombs were capable of in a populated area. Scientists did give Truman alternative locations to test the bombs such as uninhabited islands but the president wanted to properly see what the new weapon could do. A secret report sent to President Truman in April 1945 by the scientists who made the bomb said, “ We remind you of the report sent to President Roosevelt in 1940. It spoke of the danger of radiation, which will kill men, women and children for several miles around the explosion. They will go on dying after the bomb has fallen. This will be a completely new horror in war. We began to build this bomb because we feared Hitler, who is now defeated. You want to use it against Japan. We believe this is wrong. The USA should not be the first to use the atom bomb. The military advantage and saving of lives by dropping the bomb could be outweighed by the horror and revulsion that would sweep the world if we used it. We recommend dropping a bomb on an island in Japan, to show the Japanese the power of the bomb and give them a chance to surrender before it kills thousands.” This shows that Truman had a fair idea of how disastrous the bomb would be despite saying he was not aware of the effect of the radiation.
The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was an isotope uranium- 235- fission bomb whereas the bomb dropped on Nagasaki was plutonium giving the impression that the bombs were a test. Prelude to the bombing Hiroshima was a city of considerable industrial and military significance with a population of approximately 255000. Some military camps were located nearby such as the headquarters of the Fifth division and Field Marshall Hala’s 2nd General Army Headquarters, which commanded the defence of all southern Japan. The city was a communications centre, a storage point and an assembly area for troops. Hiroshima had not suffered damage from previous bombing raids, allowing an ideal environment to measure the damage caused by the atomic bomb. The city of Nagasaki had been one of the largest sea ports in southern Japan and was of great wartime importance because of it’s wide-ranging industrial activity, including production of ships, military equipment and other war materials. Like Hiroshima, it had not suffered too much damage from previous bombings however due to some bombs being dropped on the city on August 1, some school children were evacuated therefore reducing the population in the city at the time of the nuclear attack. The bombs were not dropped on the city of Tokyo due to it previously being destroyed by fire bombings giving us the impression that it was a test, the US would not have been able to see what damage the bombs could do as the city was already completely destroyed.
The president also had to justify spending so much money on the project to the taxpayers of America. The total estimated cost of the Atomic project was $20 billion. This included the research, materials, plants and people. They estimated that each bomb that was detonated cost $5 billion. Truman felt that not dropping the bombs would jeopardise him winning the election, he had to show that he could make decisions.
Capture or surrender was considered to be dishonourable to the Japanese. In 1961 J. Masters said, “The Japanese are the bravest people I have ever met. In attack they simply came on, using all their skill and rage, until they were stopped by death. In defence they held their ground with furious determination. They had to be killed company by company, squad by squad, man by man to the last.” Kamikaze planes were another method in which the Japanese showed their honour and bravery. The planes would be packed with explosives and the pilots faced almost certain death as they dived into Allied warships. High school pupils were told by their teachers that “if you don’t kill at least one enemy soldier, you don’t deserve to live” and radio broadcasts and newspapers told the Japanese “that the war was moving closer and we Japanese must be prepared to fight on our own territory.”
If the atomic bombs were not used to force the Japanese to surrender, it would have to be done by a land invasion. The invasion would have been a slow process and it was estimated that it would have cost America over two million lives and would take until 1946. The Americans would have to use an “island hopping” strategy where strongly defended islands were bypassed and isolated from supplies and reinforcements, so they would eventually be easy to capture. However, the Japanese fought fanatically and refused to surrender, for example, in the Solomon Islands at Guadalcanal in August 1942, after six months of bitter fighting, 24,000 Japanese died trying to defend the island.
U.S. prisoners of war held by Japan died at a rate exceeding 37% while in captivity in comparison to those held captive by Nazi Germany dying at a rate of less than 2%. Due to the Japanese considering capture or surrender to be cowardly and dishonourable all U.S. and Allied P.O.W were subjected to slave labour, cruel and unusual punishments and medical experiments. The American government feared that if the U.S. were to invade instead of dropping the bombs, they would worsen the conditions that the P.O.W had to endure and due to food shortages, the P.O.W would be the first made to starve to death. Truman used this as another reason to drop the bombs, as it would save the lives of the P.O.W instead of them dying a slow painful death. A prisoner of war in 1945, explains why he was glad the atomic bomb was dropped, “For me, as selfish as it may sound, there was the certain knowledge that if the bomb had not been dropped…Field Marshall Terauchi (a leading Japanese commander) would have fought on and hundreds of thousands of prisoners in his power would have been killed. Even if we had not been deliberately massacred, we were near our physical end through lack of food.”
America and England recognized that the Communist Soviet Union was going to be a major force in world politics and were very concerned about what type of power Josef Stalin might wield. At the same time Stalin was concerned about the power of the United States. Stalin was poised to hurl his troops against Japanese positions in Manchuria, and was looking forward to a land-grab in China and a share in the occupation of Japan as the price of his participation. Both the USA and Britain were alarmed at the prospect of the Soviet expanding into Asia. In 1986, Roy Jenkins said, “ The USA was impatient to end the war before the Russians could effectively become involved and start making territorial and political demands in Asia.” There was little trust between Stalin and Truman, each had spies who would report back what the other country is developing or what military plans they may have. Truman’s interpreter, Charles Bohlen said, “Three days after the successful test blast, after consulting his advisers and Churchill (the British had cooperated in the project), Truman decided it would be wise to tell Stalin the news. Explaining that he wanted to be as informal and casual as possible, Truman said during a break in the proceedings that he would stroll over to Stalin and nonchalantly inform him. He instructed me not to accompany him, as I ordinarily did, because he did not want to indicate that there was anything particularly momentous about the development. So it was Pavlov, the Russian interpreter, who translated Truman's words to Stalin. I did not hear the conversation, although Truman and Byrnes both reported that I was there. In his memoirs, Truman wrote that he told Stalin that the United States had "a new weapon of unusual destructive force." Apparently, the President did not tell Stalin the new weapon was an atomic bomb, and the Soviet leader did not ask or show any special interest. He merely nodded and said something. "All he said was that he was glad to hear it and hoped we would make good use of it against the Japanese," Truman wrote. Across the room, I watched Stalin's face carefully as the President broke the news. So offhand was Stalin's response that there was some question in my mind whether the President's message had got through. I should have known better than to underrate the dictator. Years later, Marshal Georgi K. Zhukov, in his memoirs, disclosed that that night Stalin ordered a telegram sent to those working on the atomic bomb in Russia to hurry with the job.”
In conclusion, Truman had several reasons for dropping the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The president was under a lot of pressure from the U.S. government and the people of America, he feared that if he didn’t drop the bombs, he would jeopardise him winning the election so he had to justify spending so much on the atomic project and giving America its revenge for Pearl Harbor. Also, there was a political motive in dropping the bombs because of the power of the Russians, Truman wanted to prevent any spreading of communism from Stalin and stop him from expanding into Asia. However I think that the main reason was to save the lives of Americans. With the only other alternative, a land invasion, Truman would be risking the lives of around two million soldiers and sailors and also worsening the conditions for the prisoners of war held by Japan. Truman told students at Columbia University in 1959 that, “ dropping the atomic bomb was no “great decision”. For your information there were more people killed by the firebombs in Tokyo than by these bombs. It was merely another powerful weapon in the arsenal of righteousness.” “It was just the same as getting a bigger gun than the other side to win the war.”
