Options to dropping the atomic bomb because he wanted

options to dropping the atomic bomb because he wanted to avenge the Japanese for the sneak
attack on Pearl Harbor. Truman wrote a group of church leaders a few days after the atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saying, “I was greatly disturbed over the unwarranted
attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor and their murder of our prisoners of war. The only
language they seem to understand is the one we have been using to bomb them. When you

have to deal with a beast, you have to treat him as a beast.” Hasegawa also brings up the fact
that Americans cling to the “myth” that the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
provided the knockout to the Japanese government (Hasegawa, 251). He states, “The myth only
serves to justify Truman’s decision and ease the collective American conscience.” I think
Hasegawa has a strong argument with these conclusions and facts. He brings up valid points
that Truman could have had/looked at other options to making Japan surrender. Although
Truman saw Japan as a beast, there are always other ways that you can tame the beast.
I also think that the Soviet entry in the war played a greater role in causing Japan to
surrender than did dropping the atomic bombs. In Hasegawa’s argument, he claims that without
the Soviet entry, Japan would not have surrendered on the atomic bombs alone (Hasegawa,
250). Although Maddox makes a compelling argument that making the decision to drop the
atomic bombs saved American lives, without the Soviet participation in the war in the middle of
August, the United States would have had to make the decision on whether to drop a third and
fourth bomb on Kokura and Niigata (Hasegawa, 251). Therefore, the war would go longer and
would be taking more lives. There is no proof from Maddox that the war would have ended
without the Soviet entry and with the two atomic bombs alone.
Hasegawa’s finally argument was strong and clear. Simply put, he said that it was clear
that the two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not powerful enough on their own to
make Japan surrender. Without Soviet entry in the war, the Japanese would have continued the
fight until several more bombs were dropped, a successful allied invasion, of the home lands, or
continued aerial bombardments, combined with a naval blockade, solidified them incapable of
doing so (Hasegawa, 251).