Hiroshima Day: What exactly happened that led Truman to take this drastic step?

The disastrous effect of the nuclear bombing on Hiroshima made on the orders of then-US President Harry Truman left Japan devastated. And decades together the country struggled to build up Hiroshima and the victims and their families find peace and good life. It was August 6 in 1945 when the bombing took place and that is why it is remembered as Hiroshima Day.

While facts cannot justify the decision of bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is always enlightening to know more about the background that almost destroyed Japan.

Japan had lost World War II but was not ready to surrender

In August 1945, Japan had already lost World War II and America was waiting for the Asian country to surrender. But Japan was not ready to surrender. It continued to fight. While the war was going on, in July 1945, the United States successfully tested the atomic bomb. Billions of dollars were invested in the research and testing of this bomb. Everyone knew the havoc an atomic bomb would cause.

At that time, Truman had four options since Japan continued to fight and was not willing to surrender. His decision was impacted by the fact that the atomic bombing will be done only to end World War II which also had become quite impertinent as thousands of lives were already lost and more could lose life if the war continued.

Four options with the American president

Truman had only four options left with him. Either to continue doing conventional bombing on Japanese islands, ground invasion on Japanese land, demonstrating atomic bomb on an unpopulated area, or using it in a populated Japanese area. The continuing conventional bombing was found quite ineffective in ending the war.

The ground invasion was expected to increase the deaths of common Japanese people in large numbers as well as was expected to increase the casualties in the American camp. A committee formed to advise the American President regarding the conventional demonstration of the atomic bomb was of the opinion that it was in no way going to impact the decision of Japan to continue fighting.

That is why it was decided to use the atomic bomb in a populated area of Japan, especially a city that has not been damaged due to conventional bombing, and second, it must be a city that is used for military production.

That is why Hiroshima was selected. On the early morning of August 6 in 1945, Enola Gay, the American B-29 bomber dropped the first atomic bomb in human history on Hiroshima.