![]() Japan's lack of air power hindered their ability to fight. American B-29's made bombing runs over military targets on the Japanese mainland an integral part of their air campaign. Their navy had ceased to exist as an effective fighting force and the air corps had been decimated. Their losses at Iwo Jima and Okinawa had been staggering. The Japanese resolve to fight had been seriously hampered in the preceding months. Operation Olympia, a full scale landing of United States armed forces, was already planned for Kyushu on Novemand a bomb and blockade plan had already been instituted over the Japanese mainland for several months. ![]() President Harry Truman had many alternatives at his disposal for ending the war: invade the Japanese mainland, hold a demonstration of the destructive power of the atomic bomb for Japanese dignitaries, drop an atomic bomb on selected industrial Japanese cities, bomb and blockade the islands, wait for Soviet entry into the war on August 15, or mediate a compromised peace. The bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese to initiate United States entrance into the war, just four years before, was still fresh on the minds of many Americans.Ī feeling of vindication and a desire to end the war strengthened the resolve of the United States to quickly and decisively conclude it. These victories insured the United States was within air striking distance of the Japanese mainland. In these most bloody conflicts, the United States had sustained more than 75,000 casualties. was engaged in heavy fighting with the Japanese at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The Pacific war would receive full attention from the United States War Department. ![]() With the advent of the nuclear age, new dilemmas in the art of warfare arose. The world's first atomic bomb had been detonated. The explosion carrying more power than 20,000 tons of TNT and visible for more than 200 miles succeeded. Groves of Oppenheimer, in a memorandum for Secretary of War Stimson. "For the last few seconds, he stared directly ahead and when the announcer shouted Now!' and there came this tremendous burst of light followed abruptly there after by the deep growling of the explosion, his face relaxed into an expression of tremendous relief," recalled General L. Years of secrecy, research, and tests were riding on this moment. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project, could hardly breathe. In the early morning hours of July 16, 1945, great anticipation and fear ran rampant at White Sands Missile Range near Alamogordo, New Mexico. National History Day Workshops from the National Archives.Electing Our Presidents Teacher Workshop.Collection Policy and Donating Materials.An Ordinary Man, His Extraordinary Journey. ![]()
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