On August 6th 1945, the world changed forever. On that fateful day, a nuclear weapon was used against human beings for the first time. Three days later on August 9th 1945, a nuclear weapon was used again in anger, and has not been used since. The dropping of the Atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the final major act of violence in the most destructive war in world history. The Japanese surrendered six days after the bombing of Nagasaki, and the war was finally over. Fast forward 66 years to today, and the argument of should the Atomic bombs have been used still rages on. The purpose of this paper is to add to the argument, and explain why the President Harry Truman was correct in ordering the dropping of Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One nice thing about history is the fact that it is easy to look back on with hindsight. Historians have had 66 years to look over the decision to use the bomb or not. That is six and a half decades of research material and studies available to historians today to use in their debate over the use of the bombs. American President Harry S. Truman did not have material complied over six and a half decades at his disposal when he had to make his decision to use the weapon or not. What President Truman did have at his disposal, was a list of American casualties; a list that grew every day that the war drug on. By August of 1945 Hundreds of thousands of American troops had been killed in World War II. The most recent battle before August was the American invasion of Okinawa; which was Japanese territory only 350 miles from the Japanese home Islands. That ground campaign alone killed 7,613 American troops and wounded another 31,807,1 plus an additional 5,000 American naval personnel were killed, along with 368 ships and 763 Aircraft shot down.2That was just on the American side; the Japanese casualty totals were 107,539 troops killed, plus and additional 20,000 presumed dead, along with 42,000 Okinawan civilians.3 The list Truman had went on and on; 6,000 dead Americans on Iwo Jima along with 20,000 Japanese,4 more American casualties were 1,010 killed in Manila, 8,310 at Luzon, 1,500 at Leyte Gulf, 2,336 at Peleliu5, and tens of thousands more in various other battles and locations. The death toll in the Pacific was rising, and President Truman needed to figure out how to end the war as soon as possible. He was disturbed by the number of casualties incurred by the United States so far, and he wanted alternatives to a land invasion,6 the Atomic Bomb gave him that alternative. He didn’t have the luxury to think about the effects that the bomb would cause in 30 years, he needed to end the war now. There was no telling how long the Japanese were going to hold out. Until Japan surrendered officially on 2 September 1945, no nation in history had lost a war on unconditional surrender terms, without the requirement of a land invasion. Japan had fought ferociously in the defense of their territory to date, and they would without a doubt put up massive resistance when it came to the defense of their home islands. During the battle of Okinawa, only 10,000 Japanese troops surrendered,7 that was less than 10% of the total number killed in action. Iwo Jima was even less, with only several hundred surrendering, and most of those were wounded8. Even though their situation was hopeless, the Japanese forces would rather fight to the death than surrender. The Japanese military culture was that surrendering would bring shame and dishonor to a Japanese warriors family; it was unheard of to surrender. If the Japanese resistance was so harsh on places like Iwo Jima or Okinawa, what would it be like at Kyushu, or Tokyo Bay, or even worse, in Tokyo itself? Japan still had 5,400,000 soldiers under arms, plus an additional 1,800,000 sailors.9 Additionally, Japan had activated their Patriot Citizens Fighting Corps, which included all healthy men aged 15-60 and women aged 17-40 to perform combat against the American’s with anything they could fight with.10At least 5,000 suicide aircraft were withheld from service so they could be