trumans decision essays

trumans decision essays While Americans and Japanese alike expected the war to end after a bloody invasion of Japan, the U.S. government was readying a secret weapon that would dramatically affect the wars outcome: the atomic bomb. In the spring and summer of 1945, American leaders would have to decide whether to use the new weapon without warning against Japanese cities. Years after the bombing of Japan, people all over the world are still questioning Trumans decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Its been said that the bomb was an immoral act of injustice, yet others see it as the only solution for ending World War II. At the time, the bomb was a promise of peace. When Truman became president on April 12, 1945, upon the death of President Roosevelt, he had no knowledge of the actual bomb project itself and his first information about what was really being done came from Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson on April 25th. Stimson himself was virtual head of the project and had been during the years of its development as a military weapon. Stimson had conferred frequently with President Roosevelt during this period but his last meeting with FDR had been on March 15th. Trumans first connection with the bomb project - though he knew nothing of what the project was - occurred long before he became President. It was during his senate service as a member of the appropriations committee and as chairman of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program - known as the "Truman Committee," when the first appropriation for the project came before the appropriations committee. In talks with the President on at least two occasions he told me of this. He said the appropriation request did not disclose the nature of the project and, as a result, he ordered an investigator for his special committee to look into it. In his memoirs, Truman says that he sent investiga ...