3rd Class- Summary, Origin of Cold War

In the third class we made a web to sum up all the topics covered of the Origins of the Cold War. Then, as homework, we had to do an essay.

Essay: Why did president Harry Truman decided to drop the atomic bombs?

On August 6, 1945, US president Harry Truman took probably the most difficult decision of his life, to drop an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, which killed aproximately 130 000 civilians. As if this was not enough, a second bomb was dropped on August 9 of the same year, in the city of Nagasaki causing around 60 000 to 70 000 casualties. This abruptly ended the Second World War with Japanese surrender. But what were the principal reasons of Truman to use the bombs?  It’s evident, that one of the main reasons was to end war as quickly as possible, however it wasn’t the only excuse, a decision of this magnitude had to be taken for other reasonable purposes.

Truman stated that his decision to drop the atomic bomb was purely military. Thus, one of the reasons of his radical decision was to respond attacks to Pearl Harbor. Truman received lots of critics and objections against his decision and one of the principal events he used to defend and persuade people it was a necessary action, were the atrocities of Pearl Harbor, stating that: “When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast”. As the American historian J. Samuel Walker affirm in his book Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs, that a desire of revenge for Pearl Harbor, and racist attitudes were a part of the mix of motives that led to the atomic attacks.

In addition to this, the same historian, Samuel Walker stated that another reason of why Truman decided to drop the atomic bomb was to prevent expansion of the USSR through the Pacific as they had already reached to Berlin and was likely to become a superpower. Moreover, the expansion of the USSR to the west and east could spread communism around Europe, which was what the allies less wanted, as they were in favor of capitalism. As Yale Proffessor Gaddis Smith said: “It has been demonstrated that the decision to bomb Japan was centrally connected to Truman’s confrontational approach to the Soviet Union”.

Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bombs could also be influenced by the fact that he wanted to demonstrate US nuclear power. He wanted US to be considered as the superpower and by using this nuclear weapon in two ocassions he made it clear. Furthermore, US government had to justify the use of aproximately 1 billion dollars in the so called Manhattan Project, which was a secret program that produced the two atomic bombs with the support of Great Britain and Canada.

As expressed in the speech Truman made in December 15, 1945, detailing his feelings on his decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, the main reason of why he decided to took this action was because he wanted to end the war as quicky as posible, however this wasn’t the only motive. Truman had to justify the cost of the Manhattan Project, he wanted to prevent a communist expansion around Europe and Asia. In addition to this, US president used as an excuse the attack of Pearl Harbor, and decided to drop the bomb to demonstrate US nuclear power.