um- just straightening things out- i did this for my major work for history
Harry Truman’s decision to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima was controversial. World War II left a reluctance to question the bomb’s necessity or the myth the government had officially recorded to justify their actions and escape responsibility for its consequences. Traditionalists assert that the bomb was dropped due to military necessities, however post-modern historians deconstruct and reassess the myth in the collective memory, questioning whether the bomb was pursued for external purposes. With amounting evidence in retrospect, the contemporary discourse of arguments suggests that Truman rejected several viable and potentially effective alternatives, despite acute awareness of the Japanese likelihood of surrender, due to ulterior motives. He did not sufficiently explore the options because he felt obliged to justify Manhattan Project expenses, wanted to demonstrate American power to intimidate the Soviets, prevent Soviet expansion on the Japanese Mainlands, and because he was reluctant to revise Roosevelt’s legacy risking public condemnation as he himself was looking to justify his non-elected presidency. The bomb provided these diplomatic, domestic, and military objectives. Gar Alperovitz suggests that US supremacy and diplomatic potential became the fundamental frames of reference for the US administration, the bomb being used “almost certainly due to the urgency the officials felt in connection with diplomatic-political concerns.”