The Decision To Drop The Bomb
It has been said that the United States decided to use the atomic bomb to intimidate the Soviet Union rather than to strictly force Japan=s unconditional surrender. This statement is false in that the United States did drop the bomb to intimidate the Soviets and to bring about Japan=s unconditional surrender, as well as many other reasons. It seems that from the documents and from a general knowledge of American history, one can find that Harry Truman=s decision to drop the devastating atomic bomb on Japan was a function of weighing the pros versus the cons, and in this case the pros are far more numerous than the cons. Anything that is this complex and costly in nature must never be based on a single expected outcome. Just as to any complicated problem, the question of whether or not to drop the atomic bomb on Japan was based on a multitude of solid, concrete reasons. The Japanese government, by the end of 1944, knew that defeat was inevitable. The Allies had completely blockaded the Japanese island and had a strict and conventional aerial bombing schedule that had wip
render with the retention of their emperor. Another point which makes the application of the atom bomb seem more natural is the fact that the Soviet Union had promised to invade Japan, Awithin two or three months after the surrender of Germany.@ Truman and Roosevelt had both noticed the Soviet=s actions in Eastern Europe, and feared that they would do the same in Asia. They did not want the Soviet Union to set up communist governments and principalities in Asia like they did in Eastern Europe. The only way to prevent this was to end the war with Japan before the USSR could get involved. The intentions of the Soviet Union as expected by both Truman and Roosevelt was proven by the invasion of Manchuria by the Soviets early in the morning of August 9, 1945, only three days after the dropping of the first atomic bomb and only hours before the dropping of the second. Even with the dropping of the two atomic bombs and the Soviet invasion, however, Japan still did not surrender. There were rumors spread to the highest levels of government that the next target of an atom
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 729
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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