In: Economics
Was the US decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan the correct decision?
In the morning of August 6 , 1945, the American B-29 Enola dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese town of Hiroshima. Three days later, another B-29, Bock 's Vehicle, released one of them over Nagasaki. They also caused massive deaths and physical damage. Since then, these two cataclysmic occurrences have preyed on the American conscience. The furor over the Enola show of the Smithsonian institution and the mushroom-cloud postage stamp last autumn are merely the most visible examples. Harry S. Truman and other officials believed that the bombings had forced Japan to surrender, preventing a bloody invasion.
Some accused them, at best, of refusing to consider alternatives, at worst of using explosives solely to make the Soviet Union "more manageable" rather than destroying Japan, which they realized was already on the verge of capitulation.
Ruman 's decision to use the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted from the interplay of his personality and many other factors, including his view of the war aims set by his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the aspirations of the American people, the evaluation of the likelihood of a rapid victory by other means, and the dynamic American relationship itself. While there was some controversy about whether the bombings were ethically acceptable in later decades, nearly all of America's political and military establishment, as well as most of those involved in the nuclear bomb project, agreed at the time that Truman's decision was correct