Why President Truman Decided to Drop Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Naga

Why President Truman Decided to Drop Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki At 02:45 August 6th 1945, the B-29 Superfortress the Enola Gay took off from the specially lengthened North Field on the Island of Tinian in the Marianas. The plane piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets was 7 tons. At 0815 hours the bomb doors of the B-29 opened and flying at approximately 32,000 ft the uranium based atom bomb code-named â€Å"Little Boy† was unleashed upon the city of Hiroshima. Over 70,000 men women and children were killed by blast alone. And over the next half century approximately another 40,000 would die from related illnesses. With this 70,000 were wounded at Hiroshima. The co-pilot of the Enola Gay could see, â€Å"smoke and fires creeping up the side of the mountain†. Then again on August 9th a second holocaust was unleashed on Nagasaki. â€Å"†¦a giant ball of fire rose as though from the bowels and a giant pillar of purple fire†¦shooting skyward and with enormous speed† The effects of the bomb here were much less spectacular than at Hiroshima. There were only 80,000 initial casualties of which 40,000 were dead. Japan surrendered to the allied forces on August 14th, 1945. Emperor Hirohito made the announcement to a stunned nation, â€Å"I can not endure the thought of letting my people suffer any longer. A continuation of the war would bring death to tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of persons, the whole nation would be reduced to ashes†. Who had ordered this barbaric act, and for what purpose? To find the answer we examine the military situation surrounding the final stages of the war on Japan, Americas diplomatic rivalry with Russia, the need to app... ...ium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The USSR still held onto large areas of Eastern Europe and forced communism onto the held territories. The bombing showed the Russians what incredible power the new weapon had. If the USSR were to keep up the balance with America then they too must have one. This set the scene for the nuclear arms race between the US and the USSR, it was democracy against communism, an â€Å"iron curtain† descended across Europe and already the Cold War had begun. If the Cold War prevented a more conventional war between the two superpowers then the fact that they both had weapons of mass destruction acted as each others deterrent. And so if this is the case then the use of the bomb although unknown at the time has been justified, as it is the only time that a weapon of its kind has ever been used in anger.