At first the war in the Pacific did not go well for the Americans. The Japanese seized the Philippines, Guam, Wake, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malay, and Indonesia. “In the Philippines in 1942, Japanese soldiers forced Americans and Filipino prisoners weakened by insufficient rations to walk 65 miles, clubbing, shooting, or starving to death about ten thousand of them” (Norton, pg. 763). This only served to increase American’s hatred toward the Japanese.

Harry Truman became President following the unexpected death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 12, 1945. On May 8th, Germany surrendered to the Allied forces less than a month after Truman took office. Finally, the U.S. could focus its energies and power to

On August 9th, 1945, the US dropped the 2nd atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The original target had been the city of Kokura but the plane was unable to drop its bomb there because of a heavy haze. With fuel running low the plane headed for its secondary target, Nagasaki. Because of bad weather the pilot was unable to find the planned target point so he took aim on a stadium as a landmark to guide him. It’s estimated that more than 60,000 people lost their lives that day. Still the Japanese refused to surrender.

quickly defeat the Japanese with minimal loss of American lives. The Japanese had refused to sign the Geneva Convention of 1929. The United States and the world were aware of the inhumane treatment inflicted upon Prisoners of War by the Japanese Military. There was a 39% death rate of Prisoners of War in Japan compared to 1% in Germany.

In May of 1945, at Stimson’s request, Truman authorized the creation of The Interim Committee, which was made up of high-level advisors, with Stimson as the Chairman. One of the Committee’s recommendations to the President came on June 1, 1945. The Committee was in agreement that the atomic bomb should be used against Japan as soon as possible and without prior warning.

“The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid many fold.”

Although the officials in Tokyo heard that a catastrophe had struck Hiroshima within an hour after the blast, they did not learn until the following day that the whole city of Hiroshima had been destroyed by a single bomb. There were hundreds of thousands killed in an instant. Many more thousands were injured from burns and acute exposure to radiation. The Japanese Cabinet met that afternoon, with some members hoping to persuade the military to surrender, but they refused to back down. They questioned whether the bomb was nuclear and said that, “even if it were, the United States probably did not have sufficient fissionable material to bui

Some topics in this essay:
Japan Americans, Pearl Harbor, Postdam Declaration, Japanese Cabinet, Roosevelt April, Manhattan Project, Headquarters Hiroshima, Americans Filipino, Direction War, Potsdam Conference, atomic bomb, pearl harbor, prisoners war, japanese refused, japanese military, japanese refused surrender, harry truman, bomb exploded, manhattan project, refused surrender, potsdam proclamation,