Why would Franklin D. Roosevelt had given the order to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima?

Answer 1

==Answer 1== Since Roosevelt died before being confronted with that decision, ANY ANSWER will be pure speculation and opinion. However, based on what I know of FDR from many historical sources, I suspect that he, like most, would have not wanted to, but I think, would most certainly have come to the same conclusion as did Truman.j3h.

Answer 2

Not specifically, he had authorized selection of a list of 6 target cities to be reserved for atomic bombing but neither FDR nor Truman actually selected Hiroshima to be bombed first on the list. Truman's actual authorization for use of the bombs was simply to "drop them as soon as possible as they became available", it did not say where except that targets for the first atomic bombs would be restricted to the cities on this list.

Field commanders made the actual final selection from the list of target cities of a primary and a secondary city for each attack. Hiroshima happened to be the primary on August 6 and was successfully bombed. Nagasaki was actually the secondary on August 9 and was bombed after failing to bomb Kokura which was the primary, due to heavy overcast and smoke.

Any of the 6 cities on the list could have been the first one bombed, depending on many factors used by the field commanders to make final attack plans and on actual conditions when attempting the attacks. Had the Japanese not surrendered before the end of September ALL the cities on the original list would have been bombed and more would be selected for the additional 17 atomic bombs scheduled to be made and dropped before the end of 1945.

Answer 3

For the same reasons that Harry Truman gave the order. To spare the lives that would have been lost in an invasion, to shorten the war and because they were available.

Answer 4

President Truman wanted to end the war and collapse Japan's means to make war ever again and most people think it was the right thing to do.