Question

Which of the following was the most likelyreason President Truman decided to use atomic bombs against Japan? 

A. He wanted to punish the Japanese people for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.   B. He feared the loss of life that would be involved in a conventional invasion of Japan.   C. He had an agreement with the Soviet Union to use advanced weapons to end the war quickly.   D. The war was going poorly in Europe, so he needed to end the Pacific war quickly.

Answer 1

Well it isn't D. Germany was on the ropes. It was all but over when the idea of the atomic bomb came up.

A: revenge was never a reason, although you might think it was.

B: His main fear was that after he had seen how hard the Japanese fought in Okinawa, he knew that the battle for Japan would be even worse: Japan had an army on the mainland that was 10 times that of Okinawa and they too would fight to the end. Answer B was a real concern.

C: He had no such agreement with the Soviet Union. In fact, a very small part of his reason for using the bomb was to warn the Soviets not to get any ideas about challenging the United States.