Truman and the A-Bomb

            "I have to decide Japanese strategy-shall we invade Japan proper or shall we bomb and blockade? That is my hardest decision to date. But I'll make it when I have all the facts."-Harry S. Truman. Many questions have arisen dealing with the need for the atomic bomb since it was twice used in 1945 to end World War II on the Pacific Front. Did it save lives when compared to an all out invasion, or could it have been a statement to Russia in an effort to start suppressing Communism? What is it that made the United States feel that Japan would not go down by conventional bombing and invasion like we had done with Germany? Most of this idea came from the fact that Japan had instilled an attitude in their people to always fight until death. Surrender was considered a disgrace and it would be better for them to die for their country. Also the United States was having trouble fighting through the islands that Japan had taken over due to their isolation from one another and that there were so many of them. Japan, in actuality, was chosen as the target in 1943. There was a fear that if the bomb did not work on Germany that the Germans would be able to disassemble it and figure out how to make it work. There was not this fear with Japan. Also a revenge factor was set in the heart of Americans ever since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The American citizens were behind using the bomb because they were tired of the war. It had been five years and many had not seen their loved ones and were afraid they would not ever again if they had to invade Japan's mainland. Americans were not willing to sacrifice more lives to end this war. They felt that the developed technology should be used. .
             Creating the atomic bomb had been a long and hard task. It had taken many years of planning, developing, and testing. The making of the bomb combined theories and ideas from countless chemists and physicists. Most of all it had cost large amounts of money and the project workers feared being investigated by the postwar Congress if it was discovered that funding had gone to a secret project with nothing to show for it.