Nuklear bomb

[AndyJWest]

I think the over riding factor for Truman was his responsibility (duty really) to prevent the loss of hundreds of thousands of American lives.

As I've already pointed out, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur and Chester W. Nimitz, amongst others, disagreed. The war was already won. These American (and other Allied) lives were never in contention. Possibly Truman didn't realise this at the time, but there were plenty who were trying to get the message across. It would be wrong to hold Truman solely responsible however. He was merely continuing the logic of the western Allies bombing campaign, which had its origins more in gut reactions than in cold hard logic. That is the way of wars however. As I said earlier, what is done is more important than who does it. Understand this, and maybe such tragic events might become less common.