Monday, March 15, 2010

Important Decisions

The series Band of Brothers was an incredibly popular HBO show about soldiers in the European theater of the Second World War. HBO will soon be airing the series, Pacific, which will detail the experiences of soldiers in the Pacific theater of the war. As the battles between Allied and Japanese forces were prolonged, it seemed to some that many were being killed and captured for relatively little territorial gain. While it seemed likely that the Allies would be victorious in the Pacific theater, it looked as though achieving the victory would be a very long, arduous, and bloody affair.

The Manhattan Project was undertaken in part to find a way to more speedily achieve surrender on the part of the Japanese. Harry Truman was the President of the United States who ultimately gave the go-ahead on the plan to drop nuclear bombs on two Japanese cities. Going through with the plan meant killing a vast but unknown number of civilians; generally, the killing of civilians is considered wrong even during war. However, it was thought that many American lives could be saved in the process, and that many soldiers on both sides could be saved from gruesome death and injury in battle by a quicker Japanese surrender.

Do a couple minutes of research on the web. What information can you find about the decision? What source did you use to learn this information? Based on this information, do you think Truman made the right move?

49 comments:

Anonymous said...

I kind of agree and kind of dont. It was a hard decision because it saved a lot of american lives but took thousands of Japanese lives. who knows how much longer the war would have lasted if the USAF dident drop the nuc.

Jere.5

Anonymous said...

I think it was a bad idea because many japeniese people and americans would have died in the bombing so it risked many inisent lives. So I think it was not a good idea bombing japan.


Quentin Powers P:1

Anonymous said...

I reaserched on google and I found lots of information. One thing that I found says " On July 24 I casually mentioned to Stalin that we had a new weapon of unuasal destructive force. The Russian Premier showed no special interest. All he said was he was glad to hear it and hoped that we would make "good use of it against the Japanesse." I was not their at the time he said it but I think that he might have told everone an understatement. I think that Truman made the wrong move because he killed LOTS of innocent poeple and that is wrong know matter what!!!
Eden Period 2

Anonymous said...

The information I found on the web was that the UK and Canada were also involved in the Manhattan project, and that it was originally called the Manhattan Engineering project. (MED) I got this info from wikipedia, even though anyone can edit wikipedia, they still do a good job of getting rid of junk info. I think that Truman did not make the right decision, because the civilians were innocent, while the soldiers chose to be in the war. If you intend to fight for your country, for whatever reason, money, glory, pride, then you must be prepared to die for it. -Vaughan 5

Anonymous said...

I searched the internet and found some extremely weird stuff which I will not even type down (should I have not searched on Google?). I will instead just base my opinion on the information you have already given me.
Truman had a difficult choice to make. He could have not given the order for the atomic bomb to be dropped, and maybe years of more war and killing could have been the result.
Truman gave the order for the atomic bomb to be dropped. Vast numbers of Japanese civilians were killed.
Which was the right move? I have no idea. If I were him, I wouldn't want to have all those American soldiers' lives on my conscious. I also wouldn't want to be the person responsible for the lives of the Japanese civilians.
Claire 2nd

Anonymous said...

I think that the Japanese should have surrendered to save a lot of their mens lives. Jolie 5

Anonymous said...

I can find that the manhatten project was made while we allready were about to defeat Japan after we attacked Tokyo and they attacked Midway islands. I went to http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/mp/p5s1.shtml. I do think that it was the right choice because that gave us safety across the pacific and it let us focus more on the Axis powers in Europe. I also think he made the wrong choice because we probably would have won anyway with the china's army and Russia's army.

-Andrew Burnham-

Nathaniel Miller said...

The plan was conducted 1942-1946
and was done in secret. The final decision was to bomb the japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I used http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/retrospect.htm as my source of information. I also think that Mr.Truman made the right choice because he saved many lives of soilders and American civilians, although many of the people of Japan died.

Anonymous said...

I thought bombing Hiroshima & Nagasaki was a horrible and tragic days in history. I thought Truman was idiodic for firing the two bombs after the surrender of Germany in May. The bombs killed over 200,000 people there was basically no point. The idea of having a massive nuclear bomb hit a densly populated city with an emense amout of civilions is stupid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_boy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_man
Alex D P2

Anonymous said...

The Manhattan Project was one of the most sinister ideas on the planet. Even though it did end the war, it also killed hundreds of thousands of incent people and children.I think America would have only used The Manhattan Project as a last resort, and if not, we may not be any better than murders.Some may say justice and peace and others may say slaying and bloodlust, matters what side your on.I'm on the side when the world will be truly be at peace and war is non-excitant.
Grace Period 2

Anonymous said...

At 1:45 am on August 6, 1945, a US B-29 bomber, named Enola Gay, took off from Tinian Island in the Mariana Islands.I found that the bomb killed 90,000 people. At 1/10,000th of a second the fire ball reached 28 meters. The tempiture was about 300,000 digrees Celsius. The bomb named "Little Boy" had 12,500 tons of TNT. The bomb went off at 8:15. The second bomb had a plutonium core with 22,000 tons of TNT. The bomb was named"Fat Man". The attack was at 11:02. The second bomb killed 40,000. I used the web site http://www.counterpunch.org/krieger08062003.html. I think Truman made the right movie.

Lyman Townsend per2

Anonymous said...

no ther did not do the right thing. That was uncalled for it killed many people in the city. but the amerca needed to have revenge from pearl harbor. it was the amercans getting payback.

www.history.com

rvd period 1

Anonymous said...

I think the the japanese was rounge to bombed the United States. So I think it was a good thing and a bad thing that we bombed the japanese beause it could lead to a huge war and it would kill a lot of people. I also think it was a good thing to bombe the japanese becausee they bombed.I learnd this information from world book online and google web.


by Andrew L period 5

Anonymous said...

Johnny Zhang Period 2

I say that Harry Truman because the war aready cost the lives of over 60,000,000 people and if Truman did not made the decision it would have cost a lot more. I also think he made the right move because they knew what they were in for at the start of World War II and they killed tons of people in the bombing of pearl harbor and in the constintration camp. So thats way I think that Harry Truman made the right choice by bombing the two Japanese cities.

Anonymous said...

I think it was the wrong decision. I think this because it killed hundred of thousands of Japanese civilians when we could of droped it on a Japanese military base whitch would of scared the Japanese to serender and done the same affect as the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

ps I love Band of Brothers and cant wait till sunday to see the new episode of The Pacific and the musrom cloud looks like a clown

period 1 will

Anonymous said...

I don`t think that Truman made the right decisoin. He dropped bombs on two Japanese cities and killed all the people that were in those cities and I don`t think that was the right desicoin.
Jennifer Snyder Period 1

Anonymous said...

While doing a little research, I realized most of the importance of the decisian made by Trumen by just reading the blog post. But in my opinion his ruthless decisian saved many lives and wealth of our country.

www.Trumenslibrary.com
Ian Period 2

Anonymous said...

Sarah- Period 3

Based on the information that I found, I believe that the Manhattan Project was a project that took place during World War II. "The Manhattan Project" is not the real name, it was the codeword that the United States used. The Manhattan Project was conducted to create the first atomic bomb. The United States invested almost $22 billion (present-day value)because they were afraid to be attacked. Unfortunately, several people were killed. These people did nothing to harm the United States, yet still, they were killed.
I used Wikipedia to conduct my research. Although I am not a fan of Wikipedia, I checked the credits, and they seemed all right.
I am not quite sure if this was the right move for Truman. There were some quite harmful effects of the Manhattan Project. I do not know enough about the project to formulate an opinion.

Anonymous said...

A lot of the information I have found on Harry Truman's decision to bomb Japan is mostly from diary entries of his. I found that be had been hesitant to drop the bombs when he found them, and that he was specifically aiming it at the soldiers and sailors, not the women and children. However, I also found that when he gave the orders to send the bomb, he allowed "additional bombs" to be dropped and that the "cities themselves were the targets". I found both these information pieces at the same location on the internet. They were somewhat diary entries, but the second one only had a letter attachment and was less of an actual entry. The source on the page states: Source: U.S. National Archives, Record Group.... I am not quite sure if I should list the website... I do not think I will...
Another source that I used seems to be Harry Truman's website, featuring something that was not quite a biography but more like a newspaper article. In the very last informative paragraph there is information detailing the loss of the Japanese and on which cities the atomic bombs were dropped.
Based on the information that I found, I do not think that Harry Truman tried hard enough to prevent the use of the atomic bombs. Although it did result in the quicker surrender of the Japanese, it was costly, caused much damage to Japan, and even had an afterward effect caused by the radiation the bombs dispersed upon explosion. For the benefit of the U.S. (or the war coming to a close), it was a good idea, but had an outcome of more negative impacts than positive.

Kate, Period 2

Christina Noto said...

I think after researching about Harry Truman I think that his decision could have been MUCH better. Truman could have waited untill he absolutely necessary to use the bomb. Dropping the bomb killed many people and distroyed everything, Truman was lucky that Japan did not retaliate in a serious mannor. Truman also could have threatened Japan, before recking there country. Even though it ended the war it was definitely not a wise decision. If I was Japanese and alive during World War II and lived through the atomic bomb I would be extreamilly mad at the United States.

Christina 5

Anonymous said...

I found some interesting information on the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was the code name for the US government's secret project that was established before World War II and started development of the nuclear bombs. There were many reasons the government decided to have two nuclear weapons explode over Japan. The main reason is that it would immediately end the war and help save the lives of thousands of Americans. However, some people thought the choice to drop the bombs on Japan was very controversial and there were many people that feel it was unnecessary, and that Japan would have surrenedered anyway.

I used the internet as my source to learn about the Manhattan Project. I went on a website called library.thinkquest.org. I think President Harry Truman did make the right move by exploding a bomb over Japan because the bomb was successful and did end the war. The Manhattan project led to the Soviet Union and other countries developing their own atomic bombs.

Elizabeth, period 2

Tae Livermore said...

I found out that that they knew that it would either going into Japan and risk thousands of lives, which they already did in the Pacific Campagin, or end the war in a very quick manner. But it would also be a gruesome, which they thought that it would be soo much better. They took two bombs called Little Boy and Fat Man with the bomber called Enola Gay. The bombs killed about 350,000 civilians which most of them ended up dying from radiation. I got this information mostly from a t-v series about how the atomic bomb really went and they interviewed some civilians that survived. Although it killed too many civilians he did make the right descision or else the war might of ended year later instead of 3 days later.


Period 2

Anonymous said...

As I reacherched I found out that at the end of world war 2 the united states droped a bomb on a Japneese city and it killed 90,000- 166,000 people after four months
Rachel Stone per1

Anonymous said...

I think truman did the right decesion the japenese were taking advantage of us and thought that we wouldnt do anything back from pearl harbor sure enough we bombed them showing countries around the world that we werent scared to strike back and we were the boss.


jack P2

Nate Wilcox said...

I found out that the cities that were hit with the atomic bombs were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I used google to search and found out some things on enotes.com. I think that he made the right decision at the time period but if that happened now I think that we would have tried to find a different solution.

Anonymous said...

The Manhattan Project was actually located in Chicago. It involved the development of the nuclear atomic bomb. Dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war, but cost the Japanese, and its civilian many lives.

I think it was the right decision. In a national survey at the turn of the millennium the dropping of the atomic bomb and the end of the Second World War was the top news story of the twentieth century. The advent of nuclear weapons, made possible by the Manhattan Project, not only helped bring an end to the Second World War it led in the atomic age and determined how the next war, the Cold War, would be fought. The atomic bomb saved over one million U.S lives. The amount of money and time it would take to end the war just fighting would have brought the U.S into deep debt and many lives would have been lost. If we didn't drop it for all you know the Soviet Union could have bombed us with their nuclear weapons, thinking we never would retaliate. The bomb made many other enemy countries intimidated by us and it gave us confidence.
The Japanese started the war between us and they asked for it. We knew that they would not give up. Even when we were fighting them they would kill them selves in a tight situation because they would rather die than loose. Even the Japanese thought it was the right thing to do. Both of our countries would have destroyed them selves and eachother by battling and battling.

I did my research on this on the internet using a DOE Interactive website discussing the Manhattan Project. I also asked my grandfather, William Ziganto, about it- as he lived through that time.

the third doctor whoof said...

What I found out on the web was that the decision to drop the bomb was not all that controversial. Most Americans were for it because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and because of the treatment of the American P.O.W.s. The website I used was http://www.essortment.com/all/presidenttruman_rywp.htm. Back then it was considered okay to bomb Japan because of Japan's cruelty to America and its army. However, what people think today is that Truman was wrong to kill that many innocent civilians. This was certainly a hard call to make, but I can understand Truman's and America's point of view. He was facing the reality of untold numbers of American lives lost, not an abstract moral judgment.

Schuyler Gann period 3

P.S. the mushroom cloud is seriously creepy!

Anonymous said...

I think that Truman made the right choice. I think this becasue it caused Japan to finally surrender. It helped us lot. If he did not decide to drop the bomb then who knows what could have happened with World War II. Many more American servicemen would have died. I also feel bad for all the people who did not have anything to do with the war and were just innocent Japanese citizens. They faced radiation disease, burns and blindness. Even if you were not born during that time period you could still be born with birth defects.
I got my information from the books A Thousand Paper Cranes and Hiroshima.
Bella period 5

Anonymous said...

I found some information on a website and my dad told me a little about the subject. I Would say it's pretty controversial topic. In my opinion I guess he did do the right thing because the nuclear bomb killed around 100,000. Which is alot, but if you think about the other option, it would be to go to war with Japan, which probably would have killed many more Americans and Japense. This also helped draw a close to the war.Another reason for that I think Truman made the right move is because if American soldiers had to go and fight against Japan, many would be dead and that might include my grandpa. He would have fought in Japan if there was no Nuclear bomb. Based on how many died at Eugema, many more would if we went to war with Japan.
Aisling5

Anonymous said...

The information about the decision that I found on the web was that Harry Truman just wanted to stop World War II. I used the source "http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1670.html" because it looked like it would tell me a lot about Harry and about The Manhattan Project. I think Truman made the wrong move, it saved a lot of his troops lives but cost the lives of more than 200,000 unsuspecting regular Japanese victims.
(:Alexandra Williams:) per 5

Anonymous said...

I found that the decision pretty rushed, as most decisions are during a war. I do not think that the number of innocent deaths were really considered. people are still dyeing from radiation poisoning and a huge portion of the population was wiped out, not just the Japanese soldiers, but mothers, children, and babies.The website I did my research on was the Manhattan Project's website. I think that it is hard to really say that this was a bad decision because this is our country and we think that a lot of lives would be saved. But I think that in this decision, the U.S. was the bad guy. Though this might have been the only way to win the war, I really wish that there had been some other option or something else discussed. I also know that Germany was making an atomic bomb as well and if we hadn't acted like we did our country might be the one with the history of atomic bombed cities. I can't change history, but I hope nothing like this will ever happen in the future.

Becca Per 5

Also, Mr. Abts, you made a bit of a mistake in the original post. The bombs were only atomic, not nuclear.

Anonymous said...

Johnny 5

Dropping the atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II was a tough decision made by President Truman. At the time, most Americans accepted Truman's choice, it would put the violent war to a more timely end. People figured that bombing these two cities would still kill many civilians but it would most likely save more lives overall. It would save more lives because bombing the Japanese forced them to surrender and we needed them surrender to prevent the gruesome war from getting out of hand. If we didn't bomb them, disastrous land invasions would also have occurred.

I used essortment.com for this information. After researching, I think that Harry Truman made the right choice. Most people probably agree with me too, because without the bombing, even more lives would have been lost.

Anonymous said...

Truman made the right decision because more people could have been hurt if they didnt drop the bombs. Japenese made a quicker surender because they were precicley forced to make a decicon based on their safety. My source was google and information was found in bundles..............jordian♥ period 1

Anonymous said...

I think that this was a good idea because it was either they were goin to kill him or he was going to kill them and he wanted them to surrender so he droped bombs on the Japanese. Some people werent involved in the war but he had to do something huge to make them surrender an di think this was a pretty smart plan.

Krista period 1

Anonymous said...

I think that Truman did not make the right move because it says that earlier in the war the United States dropped small napalm bombs over Tokyo which killed over 80,000 people. So i thought if a small bomb killed that many people then how much people did the two atom bombs kill. I don't think it was the right move because i think he killed a lot more people than he was saving in the process. I got my information from www.Trumanlibrary.org.

Grant 5

Anonymous said...

Renee - Period 3

I found the pros and cons of the decion to drop the bomb. Some pros are: the Japaneese showed fanatical resistance through mass suicide and kamikaze attacks. Even conventional bombs that killed up to 100,000 people in Tokyo did not make Japan surrender. An invasion of Japan would have caused more deaths on both sides that exeeded the death toll at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some cons are: Japan was probably on the verge of surrendering. Americans refused to let Japan keep their emperor under a surrender and that fueled Japan's resistance. We should have dropped the bomb over an unpopulateed area to convince Japan to surrender. Civilians outnumbered troops in Hiroshima by at least five to one. I used this website: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/trinity/supplement/procon.html. I do not think Truman made the right move. The fallout from the bombs caused horrible suffering, such as leukemia. Truman could have dropped the bomb in an unpopulated area so people would be convinced to surrender and few people would get hurt. The bomb is not going to help make peace.

Anonymous said...

I researched on the web about World War II. The website I thought was most helpful was www.worldwar2.net From reading about the numbers of casualties caused by the Atomic bomb I think that Truman's decision to tell the US to drop bombs on Japan was a bad decision. I think so because almost 400,000 Japanese civilians were killed and 1.9 million Japanese soldiers were killed while fighting in the war. I know that Truman made this decision because he wanted the Japanese to surrender and the war to end. Although both these things happened he could've done it in a better way. For instance what I think he should have done was to have the Americans threaten to drop a bomb but to not do it. I think just the threat alone would get the Japanese to surrender and would end the war. That way Truman and the Americans would get what they wanted, which was for the war to end and the Japanese to surrender without feeling bad about Japanese casualties. Patrick period 3

Anonymous said...

I got research on the Manhattan Project from Wikipedia. I found out that the Manhattan Project is the codename for a project conducted during World War II. The project was made to develop the first atomic bomb. People from Canada the United Kingdom helped on the project but it was led mainly by the United States. Over 130,000 people where employed and the project cost nearly $2 billion ($22 billion in current value). The whole project operated in secret. Over 30 sites across the US, the UK, and Canada where involved in research for the project. Based on the information I have, I think that Harry Truman didn't make the right move because the Manhattan project cost so much money and from what I know the bombs killed so many civillians that fighting the Japanese would have made there be less casualties. I might have made the same decision because of all the pressure from the Allies to blow up Japan and not care about another country.

Max Period. 3

Anonymous said...

Mr. Abts I forgot to put my name on the blog last week so I will paste it again.
Jacob R P2


The Manhattan Project was actually located in Chicago. It involved the development of the nuclear atomic bomb. Dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war, but cost the Japanese, and its civilian many lives.

I think it was the right decision. In a national survey at the turn of the millennium the dropping of the atomic bomb and the end of the Second World War was the top news story of the twentieth century. The advent of nuclear weapons, made possible by the Manhattan Project, not only helped bring an end to the Second World War it led in the atomic age and determined how the next war, the Cold War, would be fought. The atomic bomb saved over one million U.S lives. The amount of money and time it would take to end the war just fighting would have brought the U.S into deep debt and many lives would have been lost. If we didn't drop it for all you know the Soviet Union could have bombed us with their nuclear weapons, thinking we never would retaliate. The bomb made many other enemy countries intimidated by us and it gave us confidence.
The Japanese started the war between us and they asked for it. We knew that they would not give up. Even when we were fighting them they would kill them selves in a tight situation because they would rather die than loose. Even the Japanese thought it was the right thing to do. Both of our countries would have destroyed them selves and eachother by battling and battling.

I did my research on this on the internet using a DOE Interactive website discussing the Manhattan Project. I also asked my grandfather, William Ziganto, about it- as he lived through that time

Anonymous said...

I don't agree with the idea of bombing the japanese becaus many inicent people would have died and that's not fair.

Period 5
Ken

Sophie said...

I think that it wasn't a very good idea for Harry Truman to bomb anyone, although it helped settle the dispute, it killed millions of people and ruined Japans economy, nature, and the lives of the people who survived. The action Mr. Truman took made it appear that he was very selfish and only thought about himself and America and had no feelings regarding Japan. even if he did care, there is no way he would ever be able to prove it because of the bombing.

Sophie
period 3

Anonymous said...

I agree and disagree like many others but I would have to say that I mostly I do not agree. This is because even if not a lot americans would have died well the Japanese did and you can never dring them back, think about all of their families and children! That is why I mostly disagree.
Sarah.H.5

Anonymous said...

Bombing japan was stupid I think. We had a battle with japan which was World War. Bombing Japan and killing many inocint lives is just vague. So i think bombing japan wasn't a good idea.




Alyssa
period 3

Anonymous said...

I think that was a bad idea many Japenese would have died along with many other races!
Paige 5

Anonymous said...

I think it depends on how you look at it we may of made the right desction but it could of been a bad idea because people would die and not just the japeniese so its an if wat almost.



lucas busse p:3

Anonymous said...

I totaly agree with truman 100 percent. The janese deserved what they got. And war is always bloody like any other. The troops that died died with honar. They died protecting the united states of America. A saying that the japanese general said after the bombing was ( I believe we have just diterbed the giant from its sleep). And he was right, what they did was wrong, they draged us into the war and we wererepaying them. The japanese are our allies today, and they will never attack us again knowing what kind of power the united states of America has now.

Anonymous said...

I think that it was a very bad idea because it risked many Japeniese and American inisent lives. So that being said i think that it was not a good idea bombing Japan.

Ken Stahl
Period 5

Anonymous said...

The Manhattan Project was one of the most evil ideas on the planet. Even though it did end the war, it also killed hundreds of thousands of incent people. I think America would have only used The Manhattan Project as a last resort.

McKenna 1

Anonymous said...

I feel that the dicision was a very incorrect one indeed. it killed millions of people, who probably had little or no Idea about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Anyways, It migh not have saved that many American lives. we could have just as easily tried to negotiate, instead of killing so many people.
Robert I