Dropping the Atomic Bomb

1. What factors have affected viewpoints on Truman's decision?

Truman's decision of the atomic bomb was and still is greatly debated. Some people believe that he dropped the bombs to scare the Soviet Union. Since the war was basically over, or so they knew and thought that it was, the bomb was pointless. Others believe that Truman dropped the atomic bombs because the military wanted to test out these new weapons of war, instead of using it for military need. Lastly, many people believe that he used them to save lives, without the bombs more lives would have been lost. These people say this because there is few evidence proving that Truman was trying to scare USSR or the military wanting to test out a new weapon. In conclusion, with so many different theories, like scaring the USSR and military testing it out, people have put themselves on different sides on Truman's decision.

2. Do you think he made the right decision? Give your reasons.

I believe that President Truman made the right decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan. In one of the Pacific Battles, at Okiniwa, there were many casualties and it was just a less harsher example to what the island of Japan would be like. President Truman didn't want to lose any more men in the war, and people predicted that there would be deaths in the hundred thousands or even millions if the allies were to invace Japan. Truman wanted to prevent this, and in this aspect it was the right way to go to prevent allied deaths by using the atomic bombs. Also, if he were to use the atomic bombs on Japan it'd be almost a guarantee that they would defeat Japan and overall the Axis powers. I think if anyone were in his situation they'd want to end the war as soon as possible without losing millions of soldiers. The Japanese were vey aggressive and were fighting to the death, how else could he have defeated them if they wouldn't even surrender. They would have to defeat the Japanese, in battles, until all the Japanese were dead or if the Japanese killed themselves. This made the probability of losing a high number of men in the war at a higher percentage. In conclusion, I believe that President Truman had made the right decision on dropping two atomic bombs in Japan because it would lower the number of allied casualties and end the Pacific War and defeat the Axis Powers quicker.