Japan had lost World War II by August 1945, which was clear to both Japan and the United States. It was not long enough before Japan had to make their decision to either surrender or fight to the end. They chose to fight back to the last minute. Around Mid-July, President Truman was informed of the successful test of the Atomic Bomb (Foner, 2013). The bomb research was something more of theoretical research as thousands of hours of study, research, and development, together with billions of dollars were spent on the research. The bomb was created to kill and destroy massively. President Harry had to decide if the weapon would be used to end the war. The four options of President Truman's decision included continuing with the conventional bombing of Japanese cities, invade japan, drop the bomb on an unpopulated island, or drop the bomb on an inhabited Japanese City.
The United States' mission of the conventional bombing of Japan that began as early as 1942 was not in earnest until 1944. Approximately 333,000 and 473,000 Japanese were killed and injured respectively in the air raids between April 1944 and August 1945. Firebombing in Tokyo killed more than 80,000 individuals (Foner, 2013). Truman later concluded that the Japanese would not surrender even after their massive losses in Okinawa and firebombing in Tokyo. Firebombing in Tokyo was a terrible occurrence that almost destroyed Tokyo entirely even though the Japanese did not surrender. In 1945, August, it was established that conventional bombing was ineffective.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Japanese were ready and willing to sacrifice to protect their smallest Island. The United States was capable of launching a ground invasion of the Japanese Islands. However, it was evident that the Japanese did not easily surrender. They were prepared to fight even more aggressively if the United States entered their homeland. Truman's greatest worry was that maybe the invasion of Japan would be like Okinawa from one end to another. Truman, together with his military advisors, concluded that ground invasion would be opposed by available organized military forces of the empire and also by an obsessively hostile population. He stated that his objective was to save Americans' lives and avoid hurting women and children in Japan (Foner, 2013). Later in August 1945, it was clear that Japanese citizens would have to suffer more death and victims before surrendering. A ground invasion would have led to excessive American victims.
The third option was to exercise the power of the atomic bomb to scare the Japanese and force them to surrender. An island was one of the targets, but it raised several concerns such as maybe it would encourage Japan to fight harder, and since the new weapon was not clearly understood, perhaps the bombing would be ineffective. Truman established an Interim committee to advise him on the use of nuclear weapons (Foner, 2013). The committee later concluded that technical demonstration was not likely to end the war. There was no acceptable alternative to direct military use.
In his option of using an atomic bomb on populated areas, Truman, together with his advisors, concluded that bombing a city would result in an adequate impression. There was to be no forewarning to people to evacuate the city as this would be dangerous to bomber crews as the Japanese would attempt to take them down. The cities targeted were chosen carefully based on the criteria that the city was to suffer little damage from conventional bombing so that the argument would not be anything else apart from the atomic bombing. Additionally, the city was to be a devoted military production center. However, this was a bit harder as Japanese worker's homes were intermingled with factories in such a manner that it was difficult to know that the area was exclusively military. And the city was not to be a city of traditional culture significant to Japan like Kyoto (Foner, 2013). Truman did not desire to destroy Japanese people and culture but to destroy the ability of the Japanese to make war. On 6 August 1945, the Enola Gay, American B-29 bomber, dropped the first world atomic bomb in the city of Hiroshima.
Reference
Foner, E. (2013). Fighting for the Four Freedoms: World War II, 1941-1945. In Give Me Liberty! An American History (fourth edition). WW Norton & Company.
