Jc_Ushistory

Jonathan Clark Ms. Barnes U.S History (Honors) 3.May.2013 When Harry Truman learned of the success of the Manhattan Project, he knew he was faced with a decision of the upmost importance. The devastatingly awesome power to end the war with Japan was in his hands, but it would involve unleashing the most terrible weapon ever known. The decision to drop the bombs was right and was completely necessary, to save lives and to win the war/ American soldiers and civilians were weary from four years of war, yet the Japanese military refused to give up their insane fight. American forces occupied Okinawa and Iwo Jima, two of their most essential islands, and were intensely fire-bombing Japanese cities. But Japan had an army of 2 million strong stationed in the home islands guarding against invasion. For Truman, the choice whether or not to use the atomic bomb was the most difficult decision of his life: to invade or to bomb from afar' Truman stated that his decision to drop the bomb was purely military. A Normandy-type amphibious landing invasion would have cost an estimated million casualties. Truman believed that the bombs saved Japanese lives as well, seeing as their military’s casualties far outweighed our own. Prolonging the war was not an option for the President. Over 3,500 Japanese kamikaze raids had already wrought great destruction and loss of American lives. They wanted to end the war quickly without costing the lives of more soldiers. So the president agreed to drop the bombs. It made the Japanese surrender because they knew that if they continued the war they could not win. The atomic bomb's destructive power would have defeated them anyways. However, a land invasion would have cost an excess of one million American lives. The Japanese of the 1940's would have fought to the last inch of that island, and the body count would have been astronomically higher if the bombs weren't dropped. First, an Allied demand for an immediate unconditional surrender was made to the leadership in Japan. Although the demand stated that refusal would result in total destruction, no mention of any new weapons of mass destruction was made. The Japanese military command rejected the request for unconditional surrender, but there were indications that a conditional surrender was possible. The President rejected a demonstration of the atomic bomb to the Japanese leadership. He knew there was no guarantee the Japanese would surrender if the test succeeded, and he felt that a failed demonstration would be worse than none at all. The bomb did, however, bring an end to the most destructive war in history. The Manhattan Project that produced it demonstrated the possibility of how a nation's resources could be mobilized.