Relations between Japan and the U.S. were anything but good before, during, and after WW2. Tensions were high even before the beginning of WW2. In 1931, Japan was seeking to find raw materials to fuel its growing industries, so it invaded the Chinese providence of Manchuria. By 1937, Japan controlled large parts of China, and war crimes against the Chinese people were common. In 1934, Japan ended cooperation with many of the big powers across the world. Japan was criticized by the U.S. and many other world powers.
Relations only worsened when Japan took control of Indochina, intending to capture oil from rich areas in the East Indies. The U.S. responded to this by placing an embargo (ban or trade on activity with another country) on scrap metal, oil, and aviation fuel going to Japan, and stopped Japanese assets in the U.S. The U.S. commanded Japanese forces to withdraw from areas in China and Indochina. Japan began to plan an attack on Pearl Harbor by April 1941.
On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces bombed the U.S. naval base Pearl Harbor, officially bringing the U.S. into WW2. Japan sunk many ships, destroyed hundreds of planes, and killed thousands of people. Japan’s goal was to weaken the U.S. fleet, and they almost succeeded. The American people were shocked and angered. During the war, the U.S. hopped from Island to Island. The Japanese were good fighters and every fight was more costly and claimed more lives. The last major battle was the fight in Okinawa, it lasted 3 months and took at least 100,00 lives.
President Roosevelt (the president during the war) passed away in on April 12, 1945, and President Truman was now in charge of how to end the war. The president and his advisors thought of invasion but it would be too costly. President Truman had heard of the Manhattan Project, a secret scientific effort to make an atomic bomb. After a successful test of the bomb, Truman issued the Potsdam Declaration and demanded a surrender of the Japanese government, warning them of “prompt and utter destruction.” Eleven days later there was no reply. The President decided to drop the bombs. On August 6, Enola Gay took a route to Japan and dropped a bomb on Hiroshima at 8:15 pm. In the first few minutes, there were about 80,000 deaths, and thousands of others died from radiation sickness. On August 9, we dropped the second bomb on Nagasaki. 39,000 people were killed and 25,000 were injured. Japan then surrendered to the United States.
In my opinion, I think that we were right in dropping the bombs. They attacked us first, killed many people, and damaged lots of our equipment. They also refused to surrender when the war was over. I can see both sides, but I believe we did what we needed to do.
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/presidential-inquiries/decision-drop-atomic-bomb
Q1. Do you think we should have bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Q2. Do you think President Truman did the right thing?
Replies
Great topic choice and super job Josie! I would have liked to see more of the pros and cons of using the atomic bombs within your summary however.
Do you think President Truman did the right thing? I belive he did the reason i think this is since it verry well could have made things worse but it ended up working out wich is why i think he did the right thing althogh i feel like it could have been done a diffrent way.
I think that the president did the thing i think. I don't think that we should've bombed them. SO i think we mad the right choice.
I dont think we should of bombed then because it resulated in mass killing and innocent people injured, dead, ect. It wasnt the right thing to do. I think that he did what he though was right to him to try and stop it but I dont think that this was a good idea there could of been a better result.
I disagree with you. I don't think we would have gotten a better result. They refused to stop fighting and attacking us, and when we tried to tell them to surrender, they didn't listen. We told them there would be utter destruction and they refused to answer.
I don't think the mass killings of innocent people are acceptable in any way, shape, or form. No matter who commits it. During Pearl Harbor, Japan was most definitely in the wrong for attacking us unprovoked, but it's impermissible for the US to just kill tens of thousands of innocent civilians.
I think we did the right thing. Although it could have made things worse, we didn't have a choice. We just needed to stop them from causing more damage and chaos. I feel like President Truman made the right choice in bombing them back.
I agree with. I see how bombing could have made things worse, but it was the only way to end it and protect our citizens.
Q1. Do you think we should have bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki? I think that bombing Hiroshima was brutal but it stopped a war that would have continued and many more fatalities would have occured. I don't think the Japanese people that we killed in the bombing deserved to die.
Q2. Do you think President Truman did the right thing? I believe that he did what he had to do in order to stop the war. If the bombing wouldn't have happened who knows what would've happened.
Do you think President Truman did the right thing? I think President Truman did the right thing by using the atomic bombs. Japan had attacked the U.S. first, and after that, they refused to surrender. Dropping the bombs ended the war quickly and saved many lives that would have been lost in a longer fight.
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 5 Next