Harry Truman and a Time of Change

            During his few weeks as Vice President, Harry S. Truman barely saw President Roosevelt, and received no briefing on the development of the atomic bomb or the unfolding difficulties with Soviet Russia. Suddenly these and a host of other wartime problems became Truman's to solve when, on April 12, 1945, he became President (whitehouse.gov). Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, in 1884. He grew up in Independence, and for 12 years prospered as a Missouri farmer (Ferrell 2/3). Active in the Democratic Party, Truman was elected a judge of the Jackson County Court in 1922 and he became a Senator in 1934. During World War II he headed the Senate war investigating committee, checking into waste and corruption and saving perhaps as much as 15 billion dollars (whitehouse.gov).
             As President, Truman made some of the most crucial decisions in history. Soon after V-E Day, the war against Japan had reached its final stage (millercenter.org). An urgent plea to Japan to surrender was rejected. Truman, after consultations with his advisers, ordered atomic bombs dropped on cities devoted to war work. Two were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japanese surrender quickly followed (whitehouse.gov). .
             It was possibly Truman's most controversial decision during his tenure as president. Some believed that dropping one atomic bomb was more than enough, and the second bombing was clearly superfluous (Ferrell 55). However, Truman was influenced by the behavior of Japan throughout World War II (Ferrell 55/56). The surprise attack of Pearl Harbor and the treatment of prisoners of war were the main reasons behind the bombings (Ferrell 56). To the public, Truman stuck by his actions, saying, "he had no other possible course, and the decision was easy" (Ferrell 55). He didn't regret his actions because "it saved 250,000 or half a million American lives [and] he had made the best decision he could" (Ferrell 56). Truman was smart in sticking to his guns in the public eye because he needed Americans to know that his actions were justified.