Essay, Research Paper: President Truman And The Atomic Bomb

The invention of the Atomic Bomb has been called the most important historic event of the twentieth century and its implementation has been described as a wise decision and an atrocity. It has inspired poets and artists. It has intrigued military historians, who want to know if it was necessary; philosophers, who want to know if it was right; and people the world over who want to know if it could ever happen again. Harry Truman, the first president to use an atomic bomb in warfare, has been praised as the President who made the tough call, and he has been condemned as the president guilty of an atrocity. However, there is no simple answer to the question that Harry Truman had to answer. Other options were few and extremely risky. The moral dilemma posed in killing so many civilians is enough to have left Truman and his advisers tossing in bed at night. But when the terrible decision was finally made, although often condemned today, it was America's best option. In a time of war, mass killing was inevitable to gain peace. Whatever his other accomplishments may have been, Truman will be remembered as the only American President ever to order the wartime use of Atomic Bombs.

1 During the 1930's, when scientists proved the atom could be split, they realized it released an incredible amount of energy that had held it together. Soon, scientist started studying the possibility of "atomic chain reactions", wherein countless atoms could be split and all the energy inside released, creating a source of immense heat and radioactivity.

4 In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. America was hesitant to enter yet another War in Europe; "The Great War" had taken an enormous toll on the US both financially and in the loss of American soldiers. However when Japanese bombers attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, a naval base in Hawaii on December 7th, 1941, America became involved. Soon, America was fighting both in the Pacific and Europe. American scientists, many of whom had friends and brothers who had died in battle, searched for a way to end the war with as little loss of American lives as possible. 2 In 1943 in Los Alamos in the deserts of New Mexico, named Site Y, scientists worked to develop the world's first atomic weapon. The top secret weapons research program, called the "Manhattan Project"6, was headed by J. Robert Oppenheimer and was filled with the best minds available. Between 1943 and 1945, a committee in Congress authorized two billion dollars to fund the project, an almost unimaginable amount of money, about which most members of Congress never knew of. Those that did hope the money would bring about an end to this bloody war.
When the War in Germany ended, many were relieved, but it seemed as if the War in the Pacific would never end. The Japanese were becoming desperate to win. When the Japanese ran out of weaponry, they began sending pilots on kamikaze suicide missions, crashing their planes into American ships, killing both the pilot and blowing up the American ship 7. Hard-won American victories convinced Americans that the Japanese were tough opponents who swore they would never surrender"
2 Then on April 12th, 1945, America's beloved president Franklin D. Roosevelt passed away and Harry Truman, his vice president, became our 33rd occupant of the White House. Truman had been a little known senator from Missouri who had spent most of his life as a clothing salesman, or a "haberdasher"2, in Kansas City. When he was asked to be Roosevelt's Vice President, America was surprised because they knew nothing about this little man. America was even more surprised when he became President. Thrust into the occupancy of President, Truman was about to make the most difficult decision that any President has ever had to make.

Two weeks after Truman was sworn into office, he received a letter from his Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, regarding a "highly secret matter"6. On April 25, the next day, Truman, Stimson, and the Military director of the Manhattan Project, General Groves met in the Oval office and Truman learned of America's inevitable possession of a weapon of unimaginable power. 2 But it wasn't until July 16, when the bomb was finally built, that Truman had to face the need to make the terrible decision. 6 The "Trinity" test was held in the New Mexico desert that morning and the worlds first atomic bomb was exploded.

2 A week later, on July 24, 1945, Truman gave the order that would change the course of history. On August 6th the bomber Enola Gay, named after the pilot's mother, dropped the bomb Fat Man on Hiroshima at 8:15 in the morning. Most people who saw the bomb drop from the sky, went merrily about their business, assuming that it was merely an American soldier who was parachuting to safety. Most of them never learned the truth, in a flash of light the entire city lay in ruins. The explosion was about equal to that of 24 million lbs. of dynamite.

The devastation was unimaginable. The blast was described
as "a bright pink light in the sky that burned peoples eyes out. Anyone within a mile of the explosion became a bundle of smoking black charcoal within seconds. About 90,000 to 14,000 people were killed, those that survived writhed in agony from their burns.The Atom Bomb obliterated 10 sq km/4 sq mi and there was heavy damage outside that area. 3 days later, when another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, 60,000 people were killed. Again the damage done to the area was unbelivable.

6 8 days later, Americans sighed with relief as the Japanese surrendered. Once again Freedom and Democracy had overcome Dictatorship and Communism. America savored its moment of victory before beginning to pick up the pieces left behind by the war.

Military officers had devised a few alternative plans if Truman had decided not to use the atomic bomb. One option, named Olympic, would have taken place on November 1st, 1945. American forces would have attacked the Japanese island of Kyushu. America could have a very strong foothold here. Although Kyushu is an important part of Japan, it is 600 miles away from Tokyo, which would make it hard to defend. If necessary, operation Coronet would have followed Olympic. This plan, set for March 1946, would involve gaining control of the plains surrounding Tokyo and finally, control Tokyo itself. However for American's to fight the Japanese by land invasion might have proven expensive in money and in casualties. Winston Churchill said,
"To quell the Japanese resistance man by man and conquer the country yard by yard might well require the loss of a million American lives and half that number of British."

However, this number of casualties has been argued over and over. When Truman stated that a million American soldiers would have been killed in a land invasion, the public immediately understood why the bomb had to be used. Barton J. Bernstein, professor of histoy at Stamford University said,
"The Myth of 500,000 lives being saved helped deter Americans from asking questions about the use of the atomic bombs."
Truman usually wrote the number of casualties to be about 250,000. Sometimes, in writing to close friends, he used the figure 200,000. But after he left the White House in 1953, Truman began to raise the estimate. In the first draft of his autobiography, he estimated the figure 300,000. But in his publicized edition, Truman raised that number to a half a million. Furthermore there were numerous public occasions when that number reached a height of a full million estimated American soldiers dead.

To be fair, we can never actually prove a certain number of Americans would have died in a battle that never took place. But a difference of 800,000 lives makes one question the necessity of the use of the Atomic Bomb. Truman's motivations for this are obvious. He felt he needed to convince Americans - and the world - that his decision to drop the bomb was the right one. This need became greater as America entered the 50's and 60's and antiwar slogans began to paint Truman as immoral and unreasonable. The higher he estimated the number of projected death figures, the more his decision would appear to be the only reasonable option.

Truman was not alone in making this Military choice. As every other President has had, Truman had a whole Cabinet of advisers; this one called the "Interim Committee" on the Atomic Bomb question. Not all were for the Bombing. Truman's two most influential advisers were Henry L. Stilman, Truman's Secretary of War, and General Leslie R. Groves, Military Director of the Manhattan Project. Stilman was a proud American and he felt the Japanese had done great wrongs to America. However he was also concerned with loosening ties with allies to the north, the Soviets. He believed that the Soviets were in the process of finishing their own Atomic bomb and that they were planning to point it right at America. Stilman felt that use of the Bomb would end the war and prove to the Soviets that America was still the most powerful country in the world. Groves was also pro-bomb. He had a great love for this new weapon, as he had been head of the Manhattan Project for a number of years. But he also felt as though America needed to retaliate against the Japanese. He truly respected the Japanese resistance to surrender, and felt that if a land attack were used, Japanese would not be afraid to fight till the death. He thought use of the bomb would finally convince the Japanese that resistance was futile and save both American lives as well as Japanese lives.

Still, most of the Cabinet was against the use of the bomb. Dr. Leo Szilard, one of the top Scientist on the Manhattan Project, was firmly against it for Moral reasons. Although he did contribute to the creation of the bomb, he felt he did so for the reason of using fear to bring other country's into submission with merely America's capacity to detonate it. Others, such as Admiral D. Leahy, Truman's Chief of Staff felt there was no need for use of the bomb, since Japan was on the verge of surrender anyway. John McCoy, Assistant Secretary of State, felt America should not have to use force at all, that the war should be won politically with strong diplomatic measures.

Others on the Cabinet had other ideas as to what should be done with the bomb. While most Pro-bombers believed it should be dropped on a military base, some felt differently. James F. Byrnes, Truman's Secretary of State, felt the Japanese should be invited to their coastline where we would drop the bomb on coastal waters, so they could witness its awesome power. This way we could show them what we could do if they refused to surrender. This would scare both the Japanese and the even more threatening Soviets. This option was disputed by saying that if the bomb failed to explode, America would be extremely embarrassed, and allow the Japanese to scoff at American demands for surrender and continue fighting.

Once Truman had made the decision to use the bomb, he called a meeting of his "Target Committee" to determine where and when the bomb was to be dropped. This meeting was held at Los Alamos at Site Y in Dr. Oppenheimer's office on May 10th and 11th. Topics discussed included Height of Detonation, Status of Targets, Psychological factors in Target Selection, Radiological Effects, Rehearsals, etc., etc. It was agreed that the 2 Bombs built, Fat Man and Little Boy, should both be used. Little Boy was to be detonated at in between 1550 feet and 2400 feet. Fat Man was to be detonated at between 580 feet and 1550 feet. Next came to Topic of Possible Targets. The following were chosen because they were urban areas more than 3 miles in diameter, they were capable of being damaged effectively by a blast, and they were unlikely to be attacked by August. The Air Force reserved these 5 targets for the Manhattan Project's consideration; Kyoto, as it was a refuge for people who own cities had been destroyed and Japan's intellectual center, Hiroshima, as it was an important Army depot and port of embarkation in an urban industrial area, Yokohama, important manufacturing area that had so far gone untouched, Kokura Arsenal, one of the largest arsenals in Japan and surrounded by a highly populated urban area, and Niigata, a port of embarkation in the North West which was becoming more important as more Ports were destroyed. At a later date Nagasaki was added to the list of Possible Targets and it was Hiroshima and Nagasaki that President Truman chose to hit.
On the Morning of August 6th, air raid sirens went off in Hiroshima. Residents took cover but nothing happened. An hour later, air raid sirens went off again, yet most people did nothing assuming it to be another false alarm. With a great flash of light the city was reduced to rubble. But it didn't stop there. Within moments a tremendous firestorm began to consume everything within 2 miles of the initial blast. The intense heat carried the debris skyward, creating the ominous vision of the mushroom cloud that would haunt the world for years to come. By evening an ashy "black rain" was falling on the city, or what was left of it, leaving ugly stains on everything it touched. The bomb had killed about 80,000 people instantly while another 100,000 were seriously burned. Radioactivity invaded the survivor's bodies, which would cause them to have Cancers, stillbirths, Birth defects, and other diseases for days, week, even years afterwards.

Then on August 9th, the B-29 Blocks Car delivered the bomb that blasted Nagasaki beyond recognition. Many wonder if there was even a decision to drop the second bomb. Nagasaki wasn't even on the Target Committee's original list. Supposedly the site was a substitution for Kyoto, only because Kyoto was the site of many Japanese cultural shrines. Stimson felt that if Kyoto was bombed, the Japanese would feel embittered and post war relations would be difficult. What's more, Nagasaki wasn't the target Blocks Car set out to hit that morning. The Plane was originally bound for Kokura; however, bad weather forced the plane to resort to this back-up target. At 11:01, the bomb Little Boy was released and it exploded with the force of twenty-two tons of dynamite. Though it was more powerful than Hiroshima, Little Boy took fewer lives and did less damage because the bomber missed the target by over a mile.

Many ask why the second bomb was necessary, as if the first wasn't an abuse of power. One factor that suggests the use of the bomb was deliberate is the second bomb had an extremely different triggering device from the first. This suggests that Nagasaki was a sort of Test firing and that the military wished to try out two different kinds of bombs. It has been said that the rush to build the second bomb was because the Military wished to drop it before Japan surrendered.

For years the world has fought to understand why Harry Truman made the choice to kill thousands of civilians to save American soldiers. General Dwight Eisenhower belived it was wrong,
"The Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing."
Many believed the War was already won, so why was it necessary to kill so many?
"My own feeling is that being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the dark ages."
America had already pushed Japan out of all the land they had occupied in the Pacific region. In Europe, Hitler was already defeated. Those who condemn Truman believe he wasn't truthful to the American public, perhaps not even himself. Knowing well that an invasion was not needed, Japan was about to surrender, he ordered the bomb's use anyway. Others believe he was afraid. Sensing America's power in the postwar world was being challenged by the Soviets, he used the bomb merely to display the force of America.

But History shows that Truman's reasoning was at least noble, if not wise. As a father looking to protect his children, Truman had the responsibility to end the war at any cost. Also Japan was an enemy not to be trusted. The treachery of the attack at Pearl Harbor was still an open wound to many Americans. Somehow, he felt, some faction would rise to continue fighting without some incredible show of power. We must also remember that the Atomic Bomb was a new weapon, never having been used against an enemy for destruction purposes. Truman didn't fully appreciate its power, as did the scientist who advocated its disarmament. Only two existed on earth and America had both of them. Truman can't be condemned for using a weapon he didn't full understand. And most of all, by the time Truman made his decision, the twentieth Century had changed how it thought about war and how they felt it should be fought. The fire bombings of Dresden, Germany and Tokyo, Japan were done under the leadership of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and killed far more than the Atomic Bomb did. Condemning Truman for continuing this strategy is unfair and unjust.

Truman didn't have only one motivation to use the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Reasons for arguing both sides are compelling and understandable. The president was caught in a complicated web of military, diplomatic, and political concerns. He was struggling with his own human emotion and sober logic.

An image that is often used to describe Atomic Weapons is that they are like a genie in a bottle. As long as the lid stays on the genie can do no harm. In August of 1945, America let that genie out of the bottle. It has never been released since. Perhaps by knowing how the genie escaped once, World leaders of the future will work to make sure it never happens again.

The Enola Gay dropped Little Boy, not Fat Man on Hiroshima. Bockscar, not Blocks Car dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki.