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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Masao: [QB] I�m afraid that I have to accept that if I were president of the US in August 1945, I probably would�ve ordered at least the first bomb to be dropped. The US had already sustained 1 million casualties (killed and wounded) in the war. Truman had a weapon, developed at the cost of several billion dollars, that had the potential of immediately forcing the Japanese to surrender at the cost of no further American lives. His primarily responsibility was to the American people, not to innocent Japanese noncombatants, so he took the chance that the bombs would force surrender, even if he couldn�t be sure. Of course, the Japanese might have surrended before the end of 1945 even without the bombs or invasion because of starvation, blockades, the destruction of all major cities, and the Soviet declaration of war, but who knows if they would have? Truman certainly couldn�t be sure. He wanted the war to end as quickly as possible. Furthermore, Japanese civilians were already being killed at a rate of tens of thousands per air raid, so the possibility of killing more with fewer bombs (and fewer US aircrews at risk) might have seemed an attractive proposition rather than an inhibitor. My father lived through the war in Japan. He has told me he believes the bombs were necessary to end the war. In 1975, Hirohito said in his one and only press conference that the atomic bombings �had to happen.� Militarists were willing to fight to the bitter end, so shocking either them or Hirohito himself into stopping the fighting was necessary. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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