Thread: Why did Truman drop the Bomb on Hiroshima?

Spotlight on Liberal education:
Why did Truman order the atomic bomb to be used on Hiroshima?
What were YOU told in school?
What did your textbook tell you?

What say you America?
Please opine if so inclined and please check back to see the answers!!!
And please be pithy when answering in the No Spin Zone!

After the US lost so many troops taking Iwo Jima, Truman knew that if we had to invade the main islands of Japan it was going to be a blood bath. Using the bomb gave him an alternative to that. It worked and saved perhaps a million lives. It was one of the best decisions of the war.

To avoid 1,000,000+ American casualties in Invasion of Japanese Home Islands.

The textbooks tell you it was humanitarian - ie, it saved the lives of countless American soldiers who would have died during a ground invasion.

The truth is the government poured a lot money into the Manhattan project and they had to justify it somehow - even if it meant killing tens of thousands of civilians in a few seconds.

Boom goes the dynamite!

oh man...pappa bear is on here?

I assume he dropped the bomb because he was pissed he was never told about the manhattan project. Then when he finally got his finger on the button..he pushed it twice.

Well, Japan was developing nuclear weapons be happy America got to them before they did..

Japans nuclear weapon program - http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/japan/nuke/

I mean really do want the people who did these things to have it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes

It was supposed to end the war and avoid massive losses in a full scale invasion of Japan. But after sixty years later we know the truth. The American govt did not want the Manhattan Project expenditures to go to waste. And it was a heck of a way to show our soon to be enemy Russia who's boss. In all reality the U.S. waged a terrorist campaign against Japan by targeting densely populated cities. And it amounted to political and financial gain.

It was the only way to make the Japs bow down to us. That simple.

The Russians were getting ready to declare war on Japan, it was bad enough we'd have to deal with them in Europe and this would end the war before that could happen. Landing on the main Islands of Japan would have made Utah, Omaha, Juno, Sword & Gold look like a Sunday stroll in the park. While "the bombs" were horrible & the aftermath was brutal, firebomb raids killed more & were horrific in their own way. I believe the targets were chosen because they had not been bombed already, their their pristine 'before' condition would allow the damage to be more easily studied by out scientists & intel folks as well as showing the japanese but mostly letting us see how it worked.