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Originally Posted by THEMASKEDRIDER
Or use it in a non or lesser populated area of japan, rather than on 80k civilians? At least the burden of all of those deaths would fall squarely on japan. i dont think the result would have been much different from our end, except that there is a chance, albeit small, that we could have saved those civilian lives.
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I'd also like to add this.
Truman's responsibility (and every other president's responsibility) is to THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
Not the citizens of countries that have attacked us.
Sure I can sympathize when "innocent" people die, no matter what nationality they are, however, when the commander in chief makes a military decision he needs to decide what will end the conflict with the lowest loss of AMERICAN LIVES.
You can argue all you want about how many Japanese people would have died had the war stayed conventional, but the bottom line is that ALOT of American lives were saved, and that was and should have been Truman's only concern.