Did president Truman make the right decision about dropping the atomic bomb on Japan?

Answer 1

As I have said before, there was no "right" decision. What he did saved the lives of up to a million Allied troops who were scheduled to invade Japan. After the aggression on December 7, 1941, the United States firmly AND RIGHTLY decided that the Japanese military could not be allowed to survive the war and rebuild. Germany had not been adequately monitored following the end of WW1, and many remembered that the inadequate controls had led to WW2. That mistake could not happen again. The world agreed that Japan must unconditionally surrender, and if it required invasion of the mainland, so be it. Dropping the bombs ended the war without further loss of Allied life. It may not have been the "right" decision, but it was the lesser of the two evils. My father was scheduled to invade Japan and if you'll check your family history you'll probably find that you had an ancestor who was scheduled for that effort as well. Military leaders knew that it would be worse than D-Day. They knew that the loss of life would be terrible, on both sides. Japan refused to surrender, they were not receiving materials from outside Japan and their people were starving and dying from disease. Conventional bombing had destroyed homes, factories and infrastructure. Their war effort had destroyed their energy reserves. Most likley, more Japanese people would have died just from hunger and disease if the Allies had maintained the blockaid and conventional bombing. Remember that entire cities burned to the ground from conventional bombing, homes, schools, hospitals... we had the ability to keep that up almost indefinitely, and the emperor refused to surrender. He wanted to rebuild his military and take over the islands of the Pacific after learning from his previous mistakes. But the Allies also had learned from previous mistakes, and we did not allow him to rebuild. We did not start WW2, but we could not allow it to end without an acceptable surrender.

Answer 2

Well first, Truman did not decide to drop them that decision was made by FDR.

Truman's only decision about dropping atomic bombs was to order it stopped when the Japanese indicated on August 14, 1945 that they were willing to surrender.

Answer 3

Though the devastation to life and buildings the two bombs caused were horrible, they forced the Japanese to surrender. As the Americans fought from island to island, getting heavy casualties, the great fear was that invading the main Japanese island would be a blood bath. The Japanese forces, and indeed, the population, would have fought the Americans every inch of the way. The bombs saved many American lives.

Answer 4

Good question- and people will argue both ways. In my opinion- yes. Japan had started a brutal war that had gone on since 1941, and had refused demands to surrender. It was estimated that an invasion of mainland Japan would result in the deaths of more than a half million Allied service members. Based on the information that was available to him AT THAT TIME, he made the right decision.