Dropping the bomb saved an estimated one million U.S. soldiers and about 1 million Japanese who would have died if we had invaded.
On Aug. 9, after Nagasaki was a-bombed, Truman made another public statement on why the atomic bombs were used:
"Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans."
("Public Papers of the Presidents: Harry S Truman, 1945", pg. 212).
Total Warfare
The Japanese Practiced total warfare killing innocent lives and damaging other countries. Some examples of Japanese cruelty was the, the Rape of Nanjing, Pearl Harbor, Bataan Death March. In 1937, during the six week period of the Rape of Nanking, the Japanese army committed numerous atrocities such as looting, arson, rape, and the execution of civilians and prisoners of war. In 1941, the Japanese conducted a surprise military strike towards the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. As a result, about 2,400 Americans died. In Bataan Death March in 1942, the Japanese forced nearly 78,00 sick, exhausted, and starving prisoners of war in the Philippines to march 65 miles to a Japanese prison camp. About 20,000 American and Filipino soldiers died. If the U.S. hadn't have bombed the Japanese, they would have further practiced their cruel and dehumanizing acts of injustice.
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| Rape of Nanking |
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| Pear Harbor Attack, December 7, 1941 |
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| Dead American and Filipino soldiers in the Bataan Death March |
Instant End to War
The last few battles before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, mainly Iwo Jima and Okinawa, were brutal. Japan showed no consideration for its own citizen’s lives and planned to turn their whole island into a fortress. The Japanese displayed an astonishing resistance in the Pacific Islands, killing thousands of people, including themselves. The U.S. released the Potsdam Proclamation, which demanded the unconditional surrender of Japan, but they ignored it. The Japanese believed their emperor to be a god, so if he refused to surrender, so would they. By dropping the bombs, the Japanese would have to admit defeat, and the war would come to an immediate end.
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| The famous sailor kiss in Times Square in V-J Day |
