Hiroshima and NagasakiThis report discusses the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II. Many people believe that this was the only way to convince Emperor Hirohito of Japan to surrender to the United States. Some believe there were other reasons for dropping the bombs. A couple of those reasons were revenge on Pearl Harbor and showing the world that we had the power to destroy any country that wanted to meddle with the United States. One of the main reasons, however, was to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans and possibly save the lives of many Japanese. Some war veterans were asked about the issue, they quoted "I thank God that those atomic bombs were dropped. I wouldn't be here if they hadn't." "The dropping of the bombs saved the lives of all of us prisoners in Japan. There is not a single prisoner who was not told that he would die if the Americans invaded Japan. We were anxiously awaiting an invasion, but we knew that he might not be here to see it." "No one should think that war is humanitarian, that you simply shoot the enemy in the legs. I feel sorry for the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who suffered when the atomic bombs were dropped, but it is possible look at all the atrocities committed by the Japanese and know that these bombs were appropriate means of waging war." "We felt little pity or concern for the Japanese then, and thought the bomb was a wonderful thing to end the war." I would have been happy to drop the bombs myself. " These opinions of many people in war show the attitude of soldiers in wartime. You can't change the past and the United States did what it had to do to win the war. For more than four years Americans sacrificed their lives to the war and killed thousands of Japanese, but they had no intention of surrendering. The Japanese did not surrender and without the bomb we would have had to invade the island and it would have cost many American lives and even more Japanese lives. Truman wanted to end the war as quickly as possible and with as few American casualties as possible.