Should Truman have dropped the bomb?
President Truman had an obligation to bomb Japan to shorten the war and save the lives of thousands of young Americans. Dropping the bombs would significantly reduce the number of deaths compared to a ground invasion. The Japanese were vicious fighters and were determined to fight to the death rather than surrender. Moreover, the war was costly in terms of resources, time and lives as American armed forces advanced towards Japan, one island after another. For instance, the battle for Okinawa took three months and resulted in over 100,000 American and Japanese casualties (TrumanLibrary). Therefore, Truman had to drop the bomb to avoid these consequences and stop a soviet and Japan alliance.
Japan would have used the bomb without hesitation, had it successfully if the roles were reversed? At the time, Japan was in an arms race alongside other countries to develop the first nuclear weapon (Adelstein & Yamamoto, 2019). However, they failed to create such a weapon even though they were close to one and had even tested one bomb near Konan (Adelstein & Yamamoto, 2019). Moreover, Japan was heavily invested in the war and was focused on victory despite the many casualties Japanese armed forces suffered. Therefore they would have used the bombs if it would have helped achieve their objective.
The constitution makes Commander in Chief the leader of the United States military. Therefore, the Commander in Chief has the power to order troops to fight in other countries and in negotiating treaties to end wars. For example, President Truman was against a land invasion of Japan but opted for the bombing. Also, the Commander in Chief has the role of launching nuclear strikes on hostile countries. Truman ordered atomic bombs be dropped on Japan effectively ending world war two (Truman, 2015).