Truman Essay, Research Paper

This article is about Truman and his decision to use the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and the personal conflicts that he struggled with in that final decision, that ultimately, no one involved was happy about making. Most of Truman s personal thoughts and feelings about the bomb were taken from letters written to various people in his life.

It starts out with America absolutely having to take action against Japan for their merciless acts, most particularly- Pearl Harbor. A decision had to be made as to which cities would be targeted for an attack. First to be approved was Hiroshima, and Kyoto was taken off the list. It was agreed by those in charge that Kyoto would be removed because it was the hub of culture and art in Japan and Hiroshima would be the main target because it was the southern headquarters and depot for Japan s homeland army.

To the Americans, Hirohito-emperor of Japan, was ruthless, fanatical and should be removed from power, some even believed that he should be executed as a war criminal for his heinous acts. Truman did have difficulty approving the bomb, but as he saw it, it was the lesser of two evils. “Once, when presiding judge of Jackson County, he had, by his own private confession, allowed a crooked contractor to steal $10,000 in order to forestall the stealing of ten times the amount.” I think this paragraph, taken from the article sums up all of Truman s philosophy regarding the use of the bomb.

We had already lost a quarter of a million of our youth as a result of Japan s action, and by sending in more troops, we would only lose more lives in addition to those lost on both sides if we went in and attacked personally.

Truman s fear in not using the bomb was that when the war was over and all of the deaths that we would have suffered after an invasion from Japan-how would he look as a President that did nothing to stop it, especially by using a weapon that would guarantee success and that was readily available at the time.

All of the world leaders on our side agreed to the use, but did not ask too many questions. Truman never used the words atomic bomb when discussing it, and nobody, perhaps out of guilt, asked why or inquired further about the weapon that would be used to put a stop to Hirohito s fury. The article states that Stalin, in regards to Truman s not sharing any secrets about the weapon , was “neither surprised nor the least curious. He did not ask the nature of the weapon, or how it was made, or why he hadn t been told before this.”

After the issue was ordered on July 25, Truman wrote in his diary, “We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world.”

The least and the most of that he could do, based on the fact that he was using the bomb, was issue a warning against Japan so that some lives could be saved.

“It seems to be the most terrible thing ever discovered, but it can be made useful” -Truman