After the destructive invasion of Pearl Harbor, and more disappointing defeats at the hands of the Japanese Empire, American military leaders pointed attention to the Pacific campaign. Naval and army officers argued for American resources to be deployed in the Pacific in an attempt to recapture territory under the occupation of Japanese forces. General Douglas MacArthur was one such officer that called for action for the Pacific campaign and himself, along with Allied forces, pursued an island-hopping strategy. The island-hopping strategy reclaimed lost territories and avoided stronghold islands held by the Japanese that carried little tactical value, while also seizing locations that could disrupt or destroy Japanese communications and transportations routes. This gave the Allies a safer path to advance toward Japan without the fear of engaging heavily fortified islands and suffering detrimental losses.

Once within the proper range of Japan, American air forces were to be dispatched to achieve air superiority over the home islands that could be then either bombed into surrender or weakened by amphibious assault. In 1945, the strategy of island-hopping was successful and in February of the same year, American forces captured Iwo Jima to serve as an airbase and cover for the long-distance bombing. From April 1945 to July 1945, two months later after the engagement of Iwo Jima, American forces invaded Okinawa and secured it at the expense of, “seventeen thousand American soldiers killed and thirty-six wounded”. This seemingly drawn-out campaign of seizing Japanese home islands was turning out to be a bloody cost and might have claimed an additional 250,000 American lives in order to drive the Japanese into defeat. The ongoing conflict with the Japanese Empire and the American lives lost at the expense of the war was no doubt what President Truman needed to give authorized permission to use atomic weaponry on the country and nation of Japan.

The atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were deafening and secured an absolute defeat from Japan. Roughly around 130,000 people, military and civilian, died in the combined total of the blasts. The same number will later die due to radiation poisoning. Many of the victims of these bombings will remain unknown due to the heat of the blasts either incinerating or vaporizing them upon immediate denotation. It is possible that President Truman had little idea of the amount of damage these weapons could unleash, as he wasn’t unaware of the Manhattan project until the death of former President Roosevelt. Even some scientists were surprised by its destructive capabilities. These atomic weapons were created in response to escalating warfare and were meant to be a display of the superpower the United States now held over the world. This might help explain why Truman had Nagasaki bombed in addition to Hiroshima as a demonstration to Stalin of the power that America now held and presented itself as a warning if he were to continue expanding Communism outside of Russian, Chinese, and North Korean territories.