The United States use of atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not justified Free Essay Example, 1000 words

In July 1945, less than a week prior to the Hiroshima bombing, Truman wrote in his diary describing the Japanese people as â€Å"savages, ruthless, merciless, and fanatic† (Dower, 1986: 142). Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were cities that produced military armaments but, of course, the devastation went well beyond military targets. It could be that the President and others did not realize the full power of the atomic bomb or simply did not care if the collateral damage went well beyond its intended target. No one will ever know and the answer can only be speculative. It is contingent on whether one relies on the written words of the President as proof of actual intent or one assumes that the bombing of civilians was justified by the President given the excessively racist overtones that emanated throughout the country at that time. In addition to whatever personal feelings Truman had regarding the Japanese, he also had political consequences to consider in his decision to utilize the atomic bomb. The American public, according to polls taken at that time, supported by an overwhelmingly margin that the U. S.We will write a custom essay sample on The United States' use of ato mic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not justified or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now should only agree to an ‘unconditional surrender’ by Japan. This and the predominant anti-Japanese sentiment among most Americans assured that there would be little political backlash by ordering the bomb to be dropped. Furthermore, Truman would have faced an uphill political battle attempting to explain to voters the reasoning for spending more than two billion dollars for creating a bomb that would not be used particularly if many more American lives were lost had the war continued which, at the time was considered a very real possibility (Loebs, 1995: 8-9). Many prominent However, HhhAmericans at that time questioned the wisdom of using such a horrific weapon given the circumstances. Top-level World War II military leaders such as Douglas MacArthur, William Halsey, William Leahy and Dwight Eisenhower amongst others, believed the bomb to be totally unnecessary from a military point of view (Takaki, 1995: 3-4, 30-31). The President of the Chiefs of Staff, Navy Admiral Leahy, in his address to the combined U. K. and U. S. Chiefs of Staff expressed his thoughts regarding the use of the atomic bomb. â€Å"The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. In being the first to use it, we adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages.