President Harry S. Truman's Moral Dilemmas

Truman’s Dilemma
The decision to use the atom bomb posed several significant moral dilemmas for President Harry S. Truman, among these were attacking without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, to shorten the agony of the war, and to end the war all together.
“Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. The attack severely damaged the American fleet and prevented, at least for the short term, serious American interference with Japanese military operations. In response, the United States declared war on Japan” (World War II in the Pacific.). The attack was not expected and involved the United States to
get into the war. The day of the atomic bomb dropping on Hiroshima. “The temperature near the blast site reached 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit. The sky seemed to explode. Birds ignited in midair; asphalt boiled. People over two miles away burst into crumbling cinders. Others with raw skin hanging in flaps around their hips leaped shrieking into waterways to escape the heat. Men without feet stumbled about on the charred stumps of their ankles. Women without jaws screamed incoherently for help. Bodies described as "boiled octopuses" littered the destroyed streets. Children, tongues swollen with thirst, pushed floating corpses aside to soothe their scalded throats with bloody river water.
One eyewitness at Hiroshima recalled, “I climbed Hikiyama Hill and looked down.
I saw that Hiroshima had disappeared.... I was shocked by the sight.... Of course I saw many dreadful scenes after that — but that experience, looking down and finding nothing left of Hiroshima — was so shocking that I simply can't express what I felt.... Hiroshima didn't exist — that was mainly what I saw — Hiroshima just didn't exist.”
Approximately 80,000 people were killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 were injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the atomic fallout” (Harry S Truman’s Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb).
The Japanese kept American prisoners. “There were more than 140,000 white prisoners in Japanese prisoner of war camps. Of these, one in three died from starvation, work, punishments or from diseases for which there were no medicines to treat”
(http://www.historyonthenet.com/world-war-two-japanese-prisoner-of-war-camps/). The war camps that the American that were captured did not speak their language but still had to follow the orders that they told them.
Even though they did not know what they were saying the Japanese punished them because they would not follow the instructions given to them. There were seven different war camps in Japan but there were also other camps in Taiwan and Singapore. Not only did they capture soldiers they also had gotten people that did not have the chance to leave the east. If one of the prisoners tried to escape they would capture them and later execute them in front of the others and often also executed ten more prisoners. Very few guards new English and some prisoners were forced to learn how to speak Japanese. "The majority of prisoners were put to work in mines, fields, shipyards and factories on a diet of about 600 calories a day. Harry Carver comments “..I was – a white slave. I worked 12 hours a day on a diet of soya beans and seaweed.” Prisoners were rarely given fat in their diet and all were continuously hungry. The majority survived on barley, green stew, meat or fish once a month and seaweed stew. Red Cross parcels were not distributed to the prisoners.Those that suffered the worst conditions and hardship while Japanese prisoners of war, were those that were sent to build the Burma-Thailand railway. Prisoners of war and Asian labourors worked side by side to build the 260 mile railroad by hand. They were expected to work from dawn to dusk, ten days
on and one day off, moving earth, building bridges, blasting through mountains and laying track. (World War Two- Japanese Prisoners of War Camps.).
They survived on a meagre diet of rice and vegetables and illness was common. Prisoners suffered from malnutrition, ulcers and cholera. Around 61,000 prisoners were put to work on the railroad and 13,000 died from the sickness or over working.
Truman really wanted the war to end since Germany and Italy had already surrendered but japan wasn’t planning on surrendering any time soon. The choice he made was a drastic one but it was worth it because it made the Japanese stop on their tracks and change their mind of keeping the war going. The first atomic bomb was to warn them to stop and the second atomic bomb was to make sure they stopped. Truman knew that it was a decision very difficult to pull but it was for the greater sake of the world and especially the lives of American soldiers and civilians. The war had brought so much death and sadness to the world the death total was so high. There were 65 million mobilized and 8.5 million died in the span of the 4 year war. President Harry Truman had the hardest decision any other president has ever had he could have gone with what congress has said or even with what the people were saying but he made the choice to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Because he knew the Japanese would not stop without America doing something to stop them. “Despite the bombing of Hiroshima, the Soviet declaration of war, and growing worry about domestic instability, the Japanese cabinet (whose decisions required unanimity) could not form a consensus to accept the Potsdam Declaration. Members of the Supreme War Council—“the Big Six”[46]—wanted the reply to Potsdam to include at least four conditions (e.g., no occupation, voluntary disarmament); they were willing to fight to the finish. The peace party, however, deftly maneuvered to break the stalemate by persuading a reluctant emperor to intervene. According to Hasegawa, Hirohito had become convinced that the preservation of the monarchy was at stake. Late in the evening of 9 August, the emperor and his advisers met in the bomb shelter of the Imperial Palace.” (The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II: A Collection of Primary Sources.).