Analysis: President Truman's Announcement of the Hiroshima Bombing
The analysis of President Truman's announcement regarding the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, explores a pivotal moment in World War II and its broader implications. Following years of intense conflict in the Pacific, Truman's decision to deploy this unprecedented weapon was influenced by the projected high casualties of a traditional invasion of Japan. The announcement served to inform the American public while simultaneously communicating a powerful message to Japan and the world about the United States' military capabilities.
Truman emphasized the technological superiority of the United States, framing the atomic bomb as a decisive tool that could hasten the end of the war. By referencing the historical context of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, he positioned the bombing as a justified response to earlier aggression. Additionally, Truman's rhetoric highlighted the extensive efforts of the Manhattan Project, underscoring the scientific achievement behind the bomb's development. He warned of potential further action against Japan, reinforcing the idea that the US was ready to utilize its new weaponry to ensure victory.
This announcement marked a significant shift in warfare and international relations, as the use of atomic weapons introduced a new era defined by the destructive power of nuclear technology. The implications of this decision continue to be a topic of discussion and reflection, particularly regarding the ethical considerations of using such a devastating weapon against civilian populations.
Analysis: President Truman's Announcement of the Hiroshima Bombing
Date: August 6, 1945
Author: Harry Truman
Genre: speech
Summary Overview
By early August 1945, the United States had been actively fighting in World War II for nearly four years. Much of that fighting had been far across the Pacific Ocean against the Japanese military, which had directly attacked US forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in December 1941. In Europe, Allied troops had already forced first Italy and then Germany to surrender, but warfare seemed likely to rage on for a while in the Pacific before the Japanese could be subdued. Military analysts estimated that a direct attack on the Japanese islands could cost the United States some one hundred thousand casualties. President Harry S. Truman, who had been in office just four months, decided to use a powerful new weapon to hasten the end of the conflict: the atomic bomb. US troops dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, devastating the city and its populace. A second such attack on Nagasaki preceded the Japanese offer to surrender on August 10.
Defining Moment
In 1939, a group of physicists began lobbying the US government to fund development of a new bomb that employed a process known as nuclear fission, which released energy by breaking the bonds between atoms. German-born scientist Albert Einstein convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt of its military potential, and beginning in 1942 a cadre of scientists and support workers strove to develop an atomic weapon using radioactive elements such as uranium and plutonium. Their efforts were known as the Manhattan Project. Beginning in 1943, much of the practical work happened at a remote laboratory in New Mexico, all while US troops fought alongside the Allies to repel Germany, Italy, Japan, and other Axis forces in North Africa, Europe, and the Pacific. Roosevelt's death in the spring of 1945 left his vice president, Harry S. Truman, at the helm of the nation's military. On July 16, 1945, at a New Mexico air base, scientists conducted the first successful nuclear bomb explosion.
Shortly after the test confirmed the functionality of the atomic bomb, Truman joined Great Britain's outgoing prime minister Winston Churchill and Soviet premier Joseph Stalin at Potsdam, Germany. The victorious Allied leaders spent much of the conference planning for postwar peace in Europe, but they also discussed how to conclude the war against Japan in the Pacific. Historians generally agree that Truman's confidence in the atomic bomb as a destructive force informed his strong negotiating stance at the conference; certainly, he hinted to Stalin, whom he recognized as a future competitor for global influence, that the United States had the weapon. Although never specifically mentioned, the atomic bomb was the underlying threat issued against Japan in the Potsdam Declaration by the United States, Great Britain, and China on July 26, 1945. This declaration announced the terms on which the Allies would accept a Japanese surrender and warned that “the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.” These terms included the unconditional surrender and complete disarmament of Japan's military and its leaders, followed by a period of Allied occupation and rebuilding.
The Japanese refused to accept these terms, and Truman was then faced with the choice of whether to use the atomic bomb to force an unconditional surrender or to begin a traditional land and sea attack that was estimated to take months and cost tens of thousands of US lives. Truman chose the former, and on the morning of August 6, the US bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.
Author Biography
A native of Missouri, Harry S. Truman served in World War I and operated a men's clothing store before beginning a political career as an elected county judge in 1922. He made the jump to the US Congress with election as Missouri's junior Democratic senator in 1934 at the height of the New Deal. Truman built on his reputation for honesty and fair dealing, and in 1944 he was tapped as the running mate for President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his effort to win an unprecedented fourth term. Roosevelt and Truman had little personal or professional relationship, however, and Roosevelt's administration had shared little to no detail about pressing defense or diplomatic concerns when Truman unexpectedly became president upon Roosevelt's death in April of 1945. As president, Truman suddenly faced the challenges of concluding World War II, managing increasingly tense relations with the Soviet Union, and preparing the nation to begin to return to a peacetime footing.
Document Analysis
President Truman's announcement on August 6, 1945, that the United States had dropped a powerful new kind of weapon on the Japanese city of Hiroshima stunned the world. His statement combines the need to inform the American people of the actions of its military with the goal of warning foreign enemies that this action signals the willingness of the US military to win an unconditional victory in World War II at almost any cost. Truman's rhetoric thus emphasizes the technological and military superiority of the United States while conveying a threat of continued atomic action against Japan.
Truman opens with an assertion of the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and then compares its force to the commonly known explosive TNT. He immediately justifies the use of such a weapon against Japan as a countermeasure for that nation's air attack on Pearl Harbor years before. Truman is clear that this new weapon is now part of the US arsenal and that the nation is willing to use it again if necessary.
Next, he explains how such an advanced piece of weaponry came about by revealing the previously secret work and scope of the Manhattan Project, which was essential to the Allied success as the “battle of the laboratories” pitted US scientists against their Nazi counterparts in a race to develop the atomic bomb. Truman claims that the United States proved superior in this battle as it had in more traditional military endeavors. “We have spent two billion dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history—and won,” he asserts, emphasizing the power of US industry and technology to overcome any obstacle.
From here Truman turns to a discussion of the nation's plans for the new weapon. He makes plain to the nation and the world that another nuclear attack against the Japanese is likely. “Let there be no mistake; we shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war.… They may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.” He justifies the attack and states that Japanese leaders are to be held accountable for the destruction caused by the bomb because they could have accepted the earlier US demand for unconditional surrender and prevented the US attack. Atomic power, according to Truman, is a sign of US power and greatness and is a force that its opponents cannot possibly hope to resist.
Bibliography and Additional Reading
Alperovitz, Gar. The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb: The Architecture of an American Myth. New York: Vintage, 1996. Print.
Hersey, John. Hiroshima. 1946. New York: Wildside, 2011. Print.
McCullough, David G. Truman. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. Print.
Miscamble, Wilson D. The Most Controversial Decision: Truman, the Atomic Bombs, and the Defeat of Japan. New York: Cambridge UP, 2011. Print.
Takaki, Ronald T. Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1995. Print.