The Causes, Conduct, And Consequences Of World War 2

History Module 5 Essay
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Institution
History Module 5 Essay
By the time the world clocked August 1945, the Second World War was almost coming to an end. With Germany defeated, it would not take long before the likes of Japan were also left reeling in pain and wishing they had not taken entered the war. However, Japan was adamant and aggressive, and its leaders did not find the idea of surrender friendly. It was widely known that the Second World War was already lost, but Japan had other plans. Its leaders opted to keep fighting to the end. However, in the US, something was brewing, and its effects would forever change the course of the world as well as the position of the US. In July, President Truman learned of the success of what he termed as “the most terrible bomb in the history of the world” (Reynolds, 2005). In making this bomb, the US government had invested billions of dollars and committed thousands of hours in research. Come August 1945, President Truman was faced with the hardest decisions a president could ever have: to use or not to use the ‘most terrible bomb in the history of the world.’ Ultimately, he chose the former, and the world has never been the same since he gave the order.
While giving an account of his actions, President Truman said that his decision to use the bomb was primarily military and that he harbored no ill-will against the Japanese nation. In his explanation, he said that invading the country and prolonging the war would have cost the US and Japan more lives. The Japanese had managed to orchestrate more than 3,500 kamikaze raids and these had already claimed thousands of American lives. Truman sought for an end to all this and to him, prolonging the war was not the best option on the table. Apparently, he believed that the decision to drop the bomb also saved the lives of Japanese civilians as well because it ended the war and days later led to the surrender of the Japanese officials.
Not everyone agreed with the decision to drop the atomic bombs. There were different points for and against dropping the bomb. First of all, the bomb was deemed illegal because as per the statutes of the League of Nations, it was deemed illegal to bomb civilians. Therefore, some people felt that the decision to specifically bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki which were densely populated was ill-motivated. Another argument against the bomb was that it was widely viewed as unnecessary because Japan wa...