Is it possible that the decision to drop the bombs was motivated in part by a desire to send a message to the Soviet Union? By that time, everyone knew that the Soviets would morph from allies into adversaries.
There’s no evidence of that. There can be no doubt that Truman’s overriding objective was to bring the war to an end without getting additional hundreds of thousands of Americans killed and wounded. When he became president, he learned that the means to do so were ready to hand. What else could he have done, really?
Thank you for providing this concise recounting of the circumstances behind the fateful decision to drop the bombs. There were a few additional options which were discussed -- a pre-announced "demonstration" bombing of a sparsely-populated island in Tokyo Bay being one such -- but they were considered to carry a political/diplomatic risk. In the event of a failure of the device, the Japanese might have been encouraged to hold out longer.
Yes, that idea was never seriously considered. It wasn’t as if the US had a large supply of atomic bombs at the time. At the beginning of August 1945 there were just two on hand, with one more expected to become available later in the month.
Is it possible that the decision to drop the bombs was motivated in part by a desire to send a message to the Soviet Union? By that time, everyone knew that the Soviets would morph from allies into adversaries.
There’s no evidence of that. There can be no doubt that Truman’s overriding objective was to bring the war to an end without getting additional hundreds of thousands of Americans killed and wounded. When he became president, he learned that the means to do so were ready to hand. What else could he have done, really?
Thomas, you might find this somewhat interesting (but it might be paywalled) See,
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-08-04/ty-article-magazine/.premium/the-time-oppenheimer-met-ben-gurion-to-discuss-israels-nuclear-quest/00000189-bcae-d9f3-a1cd-bfbf59f50000
Thank you for providing this concise recounting of the circumstances behind the fateful decision to drop the bombs. There were a few additional options which were discussed -- a pre-announced "demonstration" bombing of a sparsely-populated island in Tokyo Bay being one such -- but they were considered to carry a political/diplomatic risk. In the event of a failure of the device, the Japanese might have been encouraged to hold out longer.
Yes, that idea was never seriously considered. It wasn’t as if the US had a large supply of atomic bombs at the time. At the beginning of August 1945 there were just two on hand, with one more expected to become available later in the month.