Who done it?

Page 1: Both

Page 2: Jacob Brown

Page 3: Jacob Brown

Page 4: Jacob Brown

Page 5: Omar Basave

Page 6: Omar Basave

Videos

President Truman warned Japan to surrender.

Atomic Bomb explosion over Hiroshima.

Atomic Bomb and Hiroshima.

Works Cited

Works Cited

"American Experience . MacArthur . People & Events Emperor Hirohito (1901-1989) PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 05 Mar. 2011. .

"J. Robert Oppenheimer Quotes." Find the Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations. 22 Jan. 2010. Web. 04 Mar. 2011. .

"The Manhattan Project." The Nuclear Weapon Archive - A Guide to Nuclear Weapons. 30 Mar. 1999. Web. 04 Mar. 2011. .

"UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER." Federation of American Scientists. Web. 03 Mar. 2011. .

"World War II Records." National Archives and Records Administration. 29 Jan. 2010. Web. 03 Mar. 2011. .

Pictures

The Japanese soliders in Nanjing showed little mercy The aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing

Diagram of Fat Man atom bomb

Diagram of Little Boy atom bomb

Dropping the Bomb

When Harry Truman decided to drop the atomic bomb, it showed the world America's true power. He had to establish the country as a big bad super power. We think the USA was justified in dropping the atomic bomb because it protected many of the lives of the American people. We have no idea what the Japanese were planning next. For all we know they could have had an atomic bomb of their own. We know now that was not the case. But, at the time, Harry Truman was entirely unaware of their plans. Truman was only trying to ensure the general safety of all the American people. Truman had several people tell him that dropping the bomb was a horrible idea. But he insisted that the bomb be dropped. "The atom bomb was no "great decision." It was merely another powerful weapon in the arsenal of righteousness." Truman also wanted to have some revenge after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Japan was a country that was taking part in World War II by being very aggressive. They quickly invaded Eastern China and took control of Manchuria. The Japanese soldiers were very brutal to the towns people, after and while the soldiers were invading. They would murder the men, rape the women, and then pillage the town. After hearing about the Rape of Nanjing many people feared the Japanese soldiers.
At the Rape of Nanjing the soldiers captured the city, and then proceeded to rape about 20,000 women. The death toll was somewhere between 250,000 to 300,000. Many of which were women and children. There were also many accounts of civilians being hacked to death. Some reports say that some victims were buried alive.
Thousands of the bodies were buried in shallow ditches.
Harry Truman wanted the Japanese to make the Japanese surrender unconditionally. At the end of World War I, Germany did not have to surrender unconditionally. And then they just built themselves back up and started another huge, giant war. Unconditional surrender is when the losing nation sets no limits to the consequences that the victorious power will demand.
At the Casablanca Conference, in 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt told the other Allies that he demanded the unconditional surrender from Japan. "Tokyo rocks under the weight of our bombs...I want the entire world to know that this direction must and will remain - unchanged and unhampered, Our demand has been and it remains - unconditional surrender." - President Truman, in his initial address to Congress, 16 April 1945
In order for to achieve unconditional surrender from Japan, the US had to end the war as soon as possible. And once the atomic bombs were ready it seemed like a logical thing to do to stop the war immediately. Japan’s motto at the time was “We will fight until our death.” That means that there could have been a lot more death and the war may have continued for many more years to come. President Truman didn’t want to take any chances so he chose to end the war the quickest way he knew how. His solution was to drop two atomic bombs on the two towns of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
If the USA had not dropped the atomic bomb, the Japanese may have had only a conditional surrender. Then there would be the opportunity for them to rise up again and try to start another war. Somewhere in the middle of May it was determined that the atomic bomb little boy would be ready for combat use.
The Potsdam Declaration of July 26 demanded the unconditional surrender of the Japanese forces. In it, the Allies stated that if they failed to surrender, it would result in the complete destruction of the military and utter devastation of the Japanese homeland. The Japanese refused to surrender because unconditional surrender was unacceptable by the Japanese military. Since they did not heed the warning from the US, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was ordered. The US had given Japan the perfect opportunity to surrender without the devastation of the atomic bombs. But since the pompous Japanese refused, they were basically asking for an utter annihilation.
The day after Little Boy was dropped over Hiroshima, it was reported to the Japanese Army General Staff that, “The whole city of Hiroshima was destroyed instantly by a single bomb.” Two days later, Japan was further devastated by the news that the city of Nagasaki also was demolished by another atomic bomb, Fat Man. After both these physical and emotional blows to Japan, the Emperor Hirohito had finally decided to surrender.
To the US, it seemed that the atomic bomb was a one way ticket to the unconditional surrender of Japan. “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer This statement simply means that they had decided to use the atomic bomb before the completely thought of the consequences.

Introduction

Thesis: Harry Truman felt that the extreme decision to drop the bomb on the Japanese was necessary to protect everybody. He also didn’t want the war to continue on any longer so he decided to end the war quickly. He is justified because they say, “All is fair in love and war.” Harry Truman had a huge decision to make after only being president for a short time. He was pressured heavily and was very nervous when making his decision. He would have had to consider all the pros and cons before being able to even consider one of his options. He also had a full invasion of Japan planned out. But he didn’t want to have any Americans get hurt by the Japanese soldiers. The soldiers were known for their brutality and craziness. Truman was only trying to make sure that the war ended as early as it could have because nobody really wanted to fight anymore. Once the two bombs were unleashed on the Japanese people and military, Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration which ordered for the unconditional surrender from Japan. When the nuclear bomb was unveiled its devastation rocked the entire world. The world had not seen any kind of bomb anywhere similar to that of the atomic bomb. This made America seem as if they were the leaders in technology and modern warfare. The US had succeeded in stopping the war immediately. The use of the atomic bombs was very strategic and precise. Both of the bombs were dropped within days of each other to make sure that Japan had no recovery time. All in all, the dropping of the two atomic bombs in Japan put an end to the second world war and saved potentially thousands of American lives.