President Truman, who had only recently become president after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was about to make the most important decision that would shape the lives of people in the years to come. He believed that it was his duty to "use every weapon available to save American lives". Although possibly naive, this thought would ultimately lead to the obliteration of two major industrial sites in Japan. Knowing the potential of these weapons of destruction after the test run near Alamogordo, New Mexico, why did Truman still push through and use these weapons of mass destruction? As devastating as the destruction of Japan may seem, what would have happened if the United States had allowed them to continue marching down the crimson path of bloodshed? With Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb, many American lives were saved, as well as Japanese lives. Seemingly contradictory, the Japanese military was saved because their belief in dying rather than surrendering could have led to what the United States would declare "unnecessary casualties", which were stopped since the Japanese surrendered and no more clashes on the battlefield could occur. Therefore, the number of causalities suffered was minimal compared to the estimates of what could have happened if the war dragged on.
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| Map of the range of destruction caused by the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. |
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| Map of the range of destruction caused by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. |
