Truman’s knowledge of presidency began when he became Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vice-president in 1945. When FDR ran for his fourth term as president, he decided to eliminate Henry Wallace as his vice president …show more content…
The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction (Hook 20). ” While Truman was awaiting a response from Japan, he issued air raids over Japanese soil. One option Truman had was to continue the air strikes over Japan instead of releasing the bombs until they surrendered. This did not phase the Japanese; they would rather watch their city become destroyed and their people starve than surrender to the Allies. Japan’s population was over twenty-eight million and they all were willing to risk their and their family’s lives to save their emperor (Hook 20). When Japan rejected the Potsdam Proclamation, Truman was ready to cause …show more content…
Hiroshima was also picked because it had not been bombed yet and it had military connections.
Little Boy was delivered to Tinian by the USS Indianapolis, but shortly after the delivery it was sunk by a Japanese submarine, killing 500 Americans (Hook 240). The saying, “greeting to the Emperor from the men of the Indianapolis,” was written on Little Boy (Hook 24). The Americans put this saying on Little Boy as a sarcastic remark because Japan had no idea the amount of destruction their country would endure in the next couple of days.
On August 6, 1945, Little Boy was dropped from the Enola Gay, a United States aircraft carrier at 8:15 A. M (Hook 24). Little Boy was the first bomb dropped over Hiroshima and killed 75,000 people upon detonation alone (Axelrod 348). The detonation killed nearly half of the people who had been within a three quarter of a mile radius of the hypocenter (Axelrod 348). Little Boy severely injured about 70,000 people; however, fifty two out of the fifty five hospitals in Hiroshima were destroyed due to Little Boy (Hook