History of the United States II / Unit 12 USH2 1705 review, 2 to 3 minutes
Why the Atomic Bombs Were Dropped
The idea
Whether the atomic bombings were necessary is the most contested judgement in this course, and the anchor itself says the decision is widely debated. The anchor's account begins with the planners' fear: the fierce Japanese resistance of the island campaigns led them to believe that an invasion of the home islands would be exceedingly bloody, with, by some estimates, as many as two hundred fifty thousand American deaths. Such considerations, the anchor says, undoubtedly influenced Truman's decision. It adds two qualifications: Truman had not known of the Manhattan Project until Roosevelt's death and may not have grasped how destructive the bomb was, and some of the scientists who built it were surprised by its power.
In practice
The record the decision sits within: a firebombing campaign that had already killed one hundred thousand civilians in Tokyo, a death toll at Hiroshima and Nagasaki that the anchor gives only as a range from one hundred twenty-five thousand to over two hundred fifty thousand, and Truman at Potsdam telling Stalin of the new weapon.
Where people slip
The counter-reading begins with the second bomb. The anchor says it has never been fully answered why the United States bombed Nagasaki; some scholars note that if Truman's aim was to avoid an invasion he could have given Japan more time after Hiroshima, and the second bombing may have been meant as a message to Stalin, who was growing intransigent over postwar Europe. Two misreadings sit on either side. The first says the bombs were plainly necessary and nothing more need be asked; the anchor's own open question about Nagasaki forbids that. The second says the bombs were dropped only to intimidate the Soviet Union; the anchor's account of the invasion estimates forbids that too. The course states the anchor's reading, names the counter-reading, and does not decide between them. The death toll stays a range: no one can say with certainty how many died, the anchor explains, because the heat of the blasts incinerated many of the victims. The Yawp adds that the nature of warfare was forever changed.
Your place on the trail
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Unlocks
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