Why did America decide to drop the Atomic bomb?.
On August 6th, 1945 a plane named "The Enola Gay" carried and deployed the first Atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima in Japan. Three days later Nagasaki became the next and final target struck by the Atomic bomb. Combined, these two bombs killed 210,000 people by the end of the year and infected another 352,550 with radiation. Now the question that comes up is, why? Why would the most powerful country in the world have to succumb to dropping two bombs capable of producing the equivalent of 15 kilotons of TNT to shock another country into surrender? Most see the dropping of the Atomic bombs as a necessary evil. What the American people don't realize is that there is a great deal more to know about Truman's decision. The main circumstances surrounding the dropping of the bombs were that Truman saw this as the best plan for the benefit of the U.S, and also it would mean that the Soviet Union would have played no role in Japan's defeat. This means Russia would not partake in any of the rewards. Truman also wanted to keep the Soviets in check by displaying America's power. There were other options however.
There were many alternatives to dropping the bombs. One of these options was to invade Japan with the aid of the Soviet Union. This would have cost billions of dollars and expend thousands upon thousands of soldiers lives. It also would have forced the U.S to unite with Russia in a campaign against Japan. Since the U.S and U.S.S.R were frightened of each other at the time, complying with each others ideas and strategies would've proved to be impossible. Another tactic would be firebombing. The U.S was already using firebombs that had destroyed 60 major cities all over Japan. These bombs were successful in that they were very destructive and would have eventually forced the Japanese to surrender. They killed thousands in every city hit by these type of bombs.
