History

           Although we, the U.S. were still at war in Europe, we had many things to discuss/worry about in the Pacific.
           During the war in the Pacific, our main tactic was to island hop our way to Japan's mainland. Once we had captured the island of Okinawa, which was the last island before Japan's mainland, President Truman was faced with a tough decision. Should we drop an atomic bomb on Japan to end the war in the Pacific? American forces had suffered the loss of many lives, and the invasion of Japan's mainland would be way more costly than the battle at the island of Okinawa. President Truman was probably thinking, what should I do to end the war in the Pacific?
           Even before we were even thinking about dropping an atomic bomb, we were already working on creating it. The Manhattan Project was started in 1942, and ended when the U.S. dropped the two atomic bombs on Japan. The Manhattan Project was led by J. Robert Oppenheimer, and basically this whole project was dedicated to allowing top scientists to experiment/figure out how to make an atomic bomb for the U.S. But, that wasn't the last time that we would hear about the atomic bomb.
           Ten days before we made the Potsdam Declaration, we first tested the atomic bomb in New Mexico, and that test was called the Trinity, which was the code name for the ignition of the world's first nuclear weapon. Once we did that test, we realized how we had probably just made/just tested the world's most powerful weapon at the time.
           On July 26th, 1945, the Potsdam Declaration was born, and in it, we asked the Japanese to give up/ to stop fighting the war or else they would encounter complete and utter ruin. After no response by the Japanese ten days later, on August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Three days later, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, and, only about a month later after we did this, the Japanese waved the white flag.

This is a picture of the plane, named Enola Gay, that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945. The commander of this plane was Paul W. Tibbets. The atomic bomb caused mass destruction and killed many Japanese people instantly.

This is an aerial picture of what Hiroshima looked like after the first atomic bomb was released. The name of the first atomic bomb was known as "Little Boy", which contained lots of uranium 235, which is a very unstable isotope of uranium.

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           One of the presidents of the U.S. during World War II, Harry S. Truman, decided to drop two atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima to end the war in the Pacific. When we dropped those two atomic bombs, were we justified in doing so?

            In my opinion, yes, we were, for many reasons. First off, the Japanese would never surrender under any circumstances. The Japanese told all of their soldiers that it is better to die for your country than to come back defeated. Basically, if we were to win the war in the Pacific without dropping the atomic bomb, we would of had to crush/destroy the Japanese empire. I think what Truman was trying to do in the dropping of the two atomic bombs was he was trying to protect the lives of the people who live in the U.S. Another reason why we were justified in dropping the two atomic bombs is we were trying to end the war quickly instead running the risk of letting the war drag on for who knows how many years. Also, if we assaulted Japan's homeland and hadn't used the atomic bombs, the war would've of dragged on for probably a good 3 months, if not more than that because Japan would probably try and invade our country as a counter-attack. Yes, I understand about all of the people that the atomic bombs killed and about how that is inhumane, but the dropping of the two atomic bombs was necessary because it ended the war rapidly, it saved a ton of American lives, and it prevented the war from being prolonged further.