In 1945, Japan and the US were at war. At this time, the two nations already knew that Japan had lost the battle. Japan, however, had two decisions to make, either to continue fighting to the end or surrender. They chose to keep fighting. During this period, the US had invested a lot of resources in creating a weapon of mass destruction. President Harry S Truman referred to it as a terrible weapon, which is the atomic bomb. The decision for Japan to continue fighting left the US with several choices. They could carry on the traditional bombing of cities in Japan. They could display the result of the atomic bomb on an island that was not populated. They also had the option of invading Japan or decide to drop the bomb somewhere in Japan with no population. This paper discusses the reasons why President Truman decided to drop the bomb on Japan, considering the culture of the US at the time.
The traditional bombing of Japanese cities had a more significant effect compared to the atomic bombing. Despite the great loss suffered by Japan because of the attacks, the Japanese showed no sign of surrendering. Furthermore, the firebombing of the city of Tokyo was one of the most dreadful things to ever happen. Tokyo was reduced nearly to ashes and still the Japanese could not surrender (Shi & Tindall, 2016). It was clear at this point that the traditional use of bombs was not yielding results. The other option was to invade the Japanese islands. However, this decision was estimated to come at a considerable cost. Having learned from experience about the resilience of the Japanese, this decision would cost the US many lives. The other choice was to test the atomic bomb on an island that was not populated (Shi & Tindall, 2016). However, this decision had a lot of questions to be answered. The decision on who from Japan could witness the test and how long they would take to pass the information. Whether Japan would rely on the information given by these people or not. The US was not sure whether this demonstration would work or not, and if this could encourage the Japanese to fight harder. Besides, there were only two atomic bombs at the time and demonstrating half of the many resources proved unreasonable.
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Since all the three options proved ineffective, President Truman advised by his team of advisors decided that the only thing that would make an impression was bombing a city. The bombing would be carefully carried out. The city would be one that had suffered little damage from the traditional bombing. The reason for this was to eliminate any doubt of the magnitude of the atomic bomb. It would also be a city that supported military activities in Japan. However, President Truman was a culturally sensitive person and decided that the city should be one that had no significant traditional cultures of the Japanese (Herken, 2014). This is because he never wanted to destroy the culture of Japanese people.
Several augments were for and against the decision by President Truman to drop the bomb. Some of the arguments that supported these decisions were that it saved American lives. Another case was that it was a necessary measure in shortening the war. This argument could be valid because, after a short while the war ended. The other evidence that supported this decision was that it was necessary to persuade the emperor to intervene. Before the decision was made, Truman had his committee of advisors, and they shared the responsibility of deploying the bomb. Another argument to support this decision was that the Japanese were forewarned but did not heed these warnings. Some argued that the bomb was to retaliate against the barbaric nature of Japanese (Shi & Tindall, 2016).
The main reason why some people were against the bombing was that the bomb was supposed to be for defense purposes. It was argued that using the atom bomb was illegal that is according to the laws that were passed to prevent the bombing of civilians (Walker, 2016). The argument that the attack had some racial motive was also conceived. It was also believed that the US had other options like demonstrating the bomb before bombing the cities (Shi & Tindall, 2016). The other argument was that the US had an ulterior motive; that is, they wanted to scare the Russians by dropping the bomb. It was also said that Truman was not prepared for the responsibilities that came along with the presidency.
The decision to drop the bomb on the two Japan cities remains a basis of argument. Historians continue to debate whether the dropping of the bombs was justified or not. There have been controversies about whether casualties as a result of the dropping of the bomb would have been different if it was not dropped. The other debate is whether it was justified that the bomb was the cause of Japanese surrender. Traditionalists have kept on arguing that dropping the bomb was necessary to prevent an invasion of Japan and save American lives. Revisionists have differed and said there was another reason for dropping the bomb such as scaring the Russians.
The culture of the US at the time was of a racist nature. It, therefore, would have only propelled the dropping of the bomb on Japanese soil. In my own opinion, what eventually led to Truman making that decision was because of the resilient nature of Japanese soldiers. They would not stop for any reason and considered surrender the most heinous activity than dying. Truman had also considered other options and decided this was best. The choice of traditional bombing, home island invasions of Japanese and demonstrating the bomb all proved to have little effect on the Japanese. They were ready to fight until the end although they knew they were fighting a losing battle. This gave President Truman no choice but to drop the bomb.
References
Herken, G. (2014). The Winning Weapon: The Atomic Bomb in the Cold War, 1945-1950 (Vol. 926). Princeton University Press.
Shi, D. E., & Tindall, G. B. (2016). America: A narrative history . WW Norton & Company.
Walker, J. S. (2016). Prompt and utter destruction: Truman and the use of atomic bombs against Japan . UNC Press Books.
