Why Harry Truman Dropped the Bomb on Hiroshima, and the...

On August 6th 1945, the United States, led by Harry Truman, decided to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, forever changing warfare. This paper will be dedicated to why Harry Truman decided to use the atomic bomb on Japan and the effects that this decision had on humanity afterward. The creation of the atomic bomb, and subsequently the Manhattan Project, was created in response to the belief that the German Government was in the process of creating atomic weapons. This belief was expressed to President Roosevelt in a letter written to him by Albert Einstein, who introduce Roosevelt to the ability of atomic weapons and shared with him that the German Government had stop selling the crucial ingredient of uranium from their recently†¦show more content†¦This attitude was only compounded when United States Government were informed of the treatment of American prisoners of war after the Battle of Bataan in the Philippines, which resulted in the Bataan Death March in April 1 942. The Bataan Death March was a 65-mile march in which American and Filipino prisoners of war were gathered into groups of 100 and forced to march North towards Camp O’Donnell. The prisoners were given little food or water during the march, which led to starvation and extreme fatigue for many of the soldiers. On occasion, soldiers would break formation to try and drink stagnant water of the sides of the road, after having their canteens emptied by the Japanese. These actions resulted in being bayoneted or shot. Other actions by the Japanese were dragging prisoners behind trucks, making the prisoners sit in the sun for hours without shade, and random executions . This brutal treatment of these prisoners resulted in over 5,000 deaths and has been labeled as one of the worst atrocities in modern wartime history. These events led the United States to have an attitude of revenge for the rest of the war, which played a factor in the decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan, whic h Truman made evident by stating, â€Å"The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid many fold.† Revenge was only part of the equation for the decision to use atomic weapons inShow MoreRelatedThe Atomic Bomb Of Hiroshima1701 Words   |  7 Pages‘The Atomic Bomb; a bomb which derives its destructive power from the rapid release of nuclear energy by fission of heavy atomic nuclei, causing damage through heat, blast, and radioactivity’. On August 6 1945, at 8:15 am local time, the city of Hiroshima in Japan, home to 350 000 people, became the first victim of the destructive war weapon. As of this vicious and devastating day, world history was changed forever. 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