It’s really easy to Monday morning quarterback this sort of thing, but I don’t understand why he didn’t go with “bomb an unpopulated Island” for the first bomb and THEN maybe bomb a city if Japan didn’t surrender shortly after that.
Keep in mind the European part of WWII was over at this point. We had a ton of suddenly available war fighting equipment and personnel.
And the USSR was also free to pivot more Eastward. Plus our smaller allies.
I’m sure that Truman didn’t do it from a place of spite or hate per se. But he definitely didn’t do it from a place of compassion for fellow humans, either.
What would you have done instead?
It’s really easy to Monday morning quarterback this sort of thing, but I don’t understand why he didn’t go with “bomb an unpopulated Island” for the first bomb and THEN maybe bomb a city if Japan didn’t surrender shortly after that.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/trumanatomicbomb.htm
Keep in mind the European part of WWII was over at this point. We had a ton of suddenly available war fighting equipment and personnel.
And the USSR was also free to pivot more Eastward. Plus our smaller allies.
I’m sure that Truman didn’t do it from a place of spite or hate per se. But he definitely didn’t do it from a place of compassion for fellow humans, either.