Being Harry S. Truman

[Drumboy44]

How would you have handled the decision President Truman was faced with? To drop or not to drop.

On Aug. 9, after Nagasaki was a-bombed, Truman made a 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).

 

[DEFCON Warning System]

How would you have handled the decision President Truman was faced with? To drop or not to drop.

Nuke 'em. Better that 10,000 enemy die before a single friendly does.

 

[jayfeather31]

Drop.

While in hindsight, the dropping killed thousands, it might've saved millions by ending the war much earlier.

 

[DirtyDevil69]

I read a very good book titled "Flyboys" by James Bradley, and it's about the few pilots who were lost in the air raids on the island of Chichi Jima. The later parts of the book do talk extensively about the casualties of the war, specifically the firebombing of Tokyo and other cities, as well as the Atomic Bombs. Now, this is a highly debatable topic, but from the information I got from the book and many other sources, the atomic bombs could have very well been moot and there still wouldn't have been much of a war left to be fought.

The firebombings were statistically more effective than the Atomic bombs. If the firebombings would have continued, the war could have very easily ended without a mainland invasion, even without the A-bombs.

Take a look at this. The Left side of the image is Tokyo after firebomb raids and the Right is Hiroshima after Little Boy.

Here's another image with some raw statistics of firebombing damage.

James bradley is an amazing author. I read the flagsof our fathers which was about the raising of the flag on iwo jima and it tells about the fighting to get their and it was either his father or grandfather who was in the picture helping raise the flag. Very good read, i believe theirs a movie with paul walker in it. I havent gotten around to watching it but im looking forward to it. I want to say it was produced by clint eastwood?