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The Manhattan Project: Necessary Or Justified?

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Originally President Roosevelt ordered the formation of the Manhattan Project in order to create the atomic bomb to gain a military advantage against Germany. Roosevelt wanted the U.S. to construct the atomic bomb first so that the U.S. could use it against Germany in hopes of getting them to surrender, but on May 8 Germany was defeated. The sole purpose of the Manhattan Project was to benefit the U.S. with power and use the bomb to get Germany to surrender, but now that Germany was defeated, concern rose among the scientists in the Metallurgical Laboratory at Chicago. The Chicago Scientists reasoned that since Germany was defeated there was no point in continuing with the construction of the atomic bomb. The scientists’ attitudes now towards …show more content…
Having heard the news of the successful test at Los Alamos, President Truman formally grasped the reality that the United States now possessed the most powerful weapon in the world. The denotation of the atomic bomb exceeded beyond what was expected. After receiving the news, President Truman remarked, “ This is the greatest thing in history.” The only thing left to do with the atomic bomb now was to use it. President Truman understood that the bomb was going to be very damaging to the Japanese population, yet his focus was more towards saving American and Japanese lives. He predicted that an attack on Japan would result in more Japanese and American casualties than the atomic bomb would. Stressing over the decision of using the atomic bomb on Japan was not an option for President Truman because he firmly believed that the bomb would prevent the U.S. from having to invade Japan and therefore save hundreds of thousands of American and Japanese lives. On July 25, 1945, President Truman signed an order for the 509th Composite Group to drop the atomic bomb on Japan directly after

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