Historical Context
The terrible war in the Pacific - a battle on a large tract of land, air and sea - continued. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan conquered the Philippines, Malaysia, the Dutch East Indies and Burma. U.S. troops, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand tried to stop the Japanese advance, which reached its highest point in the spring of 1942. The turning point of the Pacific war came in June 1942 during the Battle of Midway. The American victory at Midway ended the Japanese hope to control the Pacific. The United States began a long counter-offensive, and recaptured some Pacific islands that Japan had occupied. In October 1944, the U.S. finally crushed the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines.
But Japan refused to surrender. The United States wanted to end the war with Japan's unconditional surrender Furthermore, also wanted to avoid more battles such as Iwo Jima and Okinawa, where they had taken very heavy casualties. These factors justifying U.S. plans to use the atomic bomb.
The United States in late 1941 established a secret program that became known as the Manhattan Project, with the aim of developing the atomic bomb, an extremely potent nuclear weapon. The aim of the project, directed by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, was to build an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany. After Roosevelt's death in April 1945, Harry S.Truman became the U.S. president and a staunch supporter of the program developing the atomic bomb. At this point, the new gun had two motives. First, it could be used to force Japan to surrender unconditionally. Second, the possession of the bomb would allow the United States, not the USSR, the political control of the postwar period.
Should the United States of America to use the bomb to end the war with Japan? What were the reviews in 1945? A review was to invade Japan, Truman believed that it would cost more than half a million American lives. Some historians have estimated the loss of life between 25,000 and 46,000, although these figures consider only the first step of the invasion planned for November. A second opinion was not to demand the unconditional surrender, and there is a negotiation with Japan A third alternative was to allow the Soviet Union invaded, ending the war with Japan, which would reduce the U.S. influence policy in the postwar. Scientists who developed the atomic bomb discussed the subject. Some felt wrong dropping the bomb without notice and supported by the explosion demo to convince Japan to surrender. In the opinion of Oppenheimer, it was very uncertain and risky, only the shock of using the pump in a Japanese city would force Japan to surrender. President Truman agreed.
On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. On August 8 the Soviet Union declares war on Japan the next day the U.S. launched an even more powerful atomic bomb on Nagasaki. On September 2 the Japanese government, which had sworn to fight until death, declared unconditional surrender.
Should the United States of America have released the bomb? Critics complain that the decision of the loss of human life. Consider that any of the alternatives would have been preferable. Others think that only the pump, used the way it was used, could have ended the war. Above all, both agree that it saved countless American lives. The pump also prevented the Soviet invasion of Japan and the U.S. has enormous influence in the postwar world. For there is no doubt about it, Truman later wrote: I regarded the bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubts that she should be used.