International Affairs: U.S Diplomatic Decision to Bomb Hiroshima (Term Paper Sample)

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U.S Diplomatic Decision to Bomb Hiroshima
The diplomatic history of World War 2 began in 1939 and ended in 1945 in which America was initially neutral. As the war progressed, Japan and America got involved in a number of attacks. May 1945, Japan realizes it would lose the Pacific war, prompting Stalin to plead for peace. Nevertheless, Truman declined to accept the plea, but decided to drop an atomic bomb on August 1945 despite Japan plea for mercy. The decision of the U.S. to use the atomic bomb on Hiroshima intended to force Japan to surrender unconditionally, however the central objective was to frighten the Soviet Union as it was deemed to pose threat to the U.S. in the post World War 2.
The conflict between Japan and US became intense when Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor that destroyed a number of U.S. Pacific Fleet including battleships, aircraft and killed massive number of U.S. citizens. The Japanese assumed that the blow to the U.S. would enable the country to establish authority in Asia. The proceedings of the Yalta Conference approved the idea of the Soviet Union to advance war in two or three months against Japan after Germany surrendered. The Soviet placed conditions that the status quo of the Mongolian People’s republic should be preserved and restoration of Russian rights violated by disloyal attack on Japan way back in 1904 once Japan would be conquered by the Great Powers (Document D).
However, there are mergin theories that ending the war with Japan was not the central reason for U.s. to use atomic bomb, rather to manage the Soviet. The memoirs of Stimston indicate that the U.S. developed a social, military, and political objective in 1945 to compel Japan to surrender unconditionally. The growing strength of the Japanese army was a great concern to the U.S. the Japanese Army consisted of approximately 5,000, 000 men. The Allies would have a difficult mission of encountering such a large army. Thus the strategic plans of the U.S involved constructing a weapon of mass destruction (Document A). The idea of using the atomic bomb against Japan was partially to accomplish military objectives of ending the war.
American supported the decision to bomb Japan to end the war, however, a number of historians have questioned whether it was really necessary to use such a strong weapon. Some claimed that the Manhattan project was implemented to target Germany. By 1945, the U.S. President was well aware that the relationship with the USSR was worsening and it was ideal to order an atomic bomb test to scare the Soviets. The idea was backed by James Byrnes, who explained that the atomic test was a necessary strategy to manage Russia and acquire a position to to dictate US own terms after the war. Further, it is believed that Japan would have surrendered regardless if Russia had not joined the Allies. This affirms the claims that the primary objective of using the atomic bomb against Japan was to intimidate Russia, not to secure victory over Japan (Boyer et al 796).
The U. S had a concern regarding the participation of the Soviet in the war against Japan. Eisenhower meeting with President Truman in 1945 revealed the need to disapprove the Soviet participation to avoid relying on the Soviets. Eisenhower expressed his personal opinion that no existing power in the world would manage the Red Army (Document C). Moreover,General Arnold memoirs indicate Japan did not entirely surrender due to the two atomic bombs used in the attack. The U.S. had previously attacked close sixty Japanese cities using incendiary bombs and high explosive that killed thousand of people and left many wounded and homeless. From the memoirs, it is true to conclude that Japan was on the verge of losing the incentive of carrying a large-scale war and would eventually collapse even without using the atomic bomb (Document B).
In addition, no political or military leader decided to advise Truman not to use the atomic bomb. Secretary of War, Stimson considered the Manhattan project as legitimate in the modern war (Paul). Secretary Stimson explained that the strategic plan of the U.S. regarding defeating Japan in July did not include using the atomic bomb. The US prioritized on air and sea blockade that included 5,000,000 naval forces and the U.S. military. However, the U. S. later on realized that strategy would fail to succeed until 1946. Further, the operation would cost million casualties of the U.S. forces (Document A).
Further studies reveal that the U.S. realized the significant tragedy that could be caused by the atomic bomb. The Truman government did not take the production of the bomb lightly. There was reason to believe that the enemies of the U.S. were searching for the bomb and were close to find it. The United States would face disaster if the bomb would have fallen in the hands of the enemies. The bomb was thus produced mainly to attack Japan for attacking Pearl Harbor. And executing American prisoners of war. Truman further elaborated that the idea of using the bomb was to curtail the agony emanating from the war and saving a thousand lives of young Americans. He clearly expressed that the U.S. would continue using the bomb until Japan surrendered (Document H). Even so, the U.S. bombed Japan despite pleading for peace, raising the question what was the main objective of U.S. bombing Hiroshima. The repercussion of the Hiroshima bombing proved that the U.S. had a powerful weapon to conquer its enemies and this ended the World War 2 (Kennedy 418).
Truman may have wanted to drop the bomb purposely to frighten Stalin, who was the Soviet Union leader until 1953. Truman declined not to reveal Stalin regarding the dawn of the atomic age (Herken 20). Thus, there is a reason to believe that the decision to bomb Japan was to to the Soviet Union that U.S. developed a new weapon of mass destruction.
While attending the Potsdam Conference on July 25, Truman ordered the US troops to use the atomic bomb if Japan failed to surrender. This was after the U.S. passed warning which the Japan military ignored. D...