*Journal Entry- Pretend you are president Truman and you are writing your autobiography. You have just come to the chapter on the decision to drop the atomic bomb. Describe how difficult it was (cons) but also defend your decision (the pros).

Although the decision was difficult to make, I still believe that the dropping of the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima were necessary and essential to the end of WWII.  The many lives that would have been necessary for a mainland invasion of Japan would have far outweighed the lives of those lost by dropping the bombs.  Japanese civilians were being armed with simple weapons and being trained to fight guerilla warfare in the streets if it became necessary to fight off the American invasion at all costs.  The amount of American casualties in particular would have been enormous; a price I was unwilling to pay.  The losses of lives to the Japanese affected by the bombings were, however, a severe drawback.  The effects of a nuclear bomb had yet to be fully tested, and the effects of nuclear radiation and the long term destruction of the radiation could not yet have been fully understood.  The devastation that the bomb caused and the amount of lives that would be destroyed by it was known, but the decision to drop it, I still believe was in the best interests of both America and the world to bring closure to the already horrific destructiveness of World War II.