atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki significance

Eisenhower criticized the use of the atomic bombs, saying they weren’t necessary to force the surrender of Japan.

In his 1963 memoir, “Mandate for Change,” former President Dwight D. The utter devastation caused by the bombing has led many to criticize the decision. Japan unconditionally agreed to accept the terms of surrender on August 14.

The US dropped another bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945, killing up to 80,000 people. “The five-year death total may have reached or even exceeded 200,000, as cancer and other long-term effects took hold,” according to the Department of Energy’s history of the Manhattan Project. The US remains the only country to have used nuclear weapons.Īt least 70,000 people were killed in the initial blast, while approximately 70,000 more died from radiation exposure. Hiroshima was chosen as a target because of its military importance. Rushay said that Hiroshima was one of four potential targets and that Truman left it up to the military to decide which city to strike. Maier said some historians have speculated that the possibility of the Soviet Union’s entry into the war helped spur the decision to bring the war to a quick end by using the bomb. “The US military was unwilling to say it could win the war without the bomb,” he added. Maier said, “Suicide attacks are fairly common today, at the time, the Japanese use of suicidal Kamikaze attacks had made a strong psychological impact on US military decision-makers who reckoned that the whole country would be mobilized to defend the home islands.” “There was a widespread belief among American military planners that the Japanese would fight to the last man.” “The recent experience in the battles in Iwo Jima and Okinawa was very costly in terms of US and Japanese casualties, despite the destruction of the Japanese air force and navy,” Rushay said. He added that Truman and his military advisers feared a “very costly invasion” of Japan. Such a demonstration would have detonated a nuclear weapon in a non-inhabited but observable area to compel Japan to surrender, an approach that was favored by a group of scientists and Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy, according to Rushay. Maier, who teaches a course on World War II, said Japan was not ready to surrender unconditionally and there was a concern that a weapons demonstration would have not done the job. “It seemed to offer a potentially magical solution that would spare a lot of pain,” he told CNN. Stimson was very adamant that the bomb be used.”Ĭharles Maier, a professor of history at Harvard University, said that while it was possible for Truman to have made another decision, he said “It would have been hard to justify to the American public why he prolonged the war when this weapon was available.” Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, told CNN: “At the time, there was a wide consensus in support of the decision to strike among the members of the committee. Sam Rushay, the Supervisory Archivist at the Harry S. Truman had tasked a committee of advisers, chaired by Secretary of War Henry Stimson, to deliberate whether to use the atomic bomb on Japan. American scientists working on the Manhattan Project had successfully tested a working atomic bomb in July of 1945 after the surrender of Nazi Germany in May.

Atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki significance