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Truman's justification for dropping atomic bombs on Japan


Guest klstone

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remember you only have 1500 words for a HI (or is it 2000 for European History?) anyway you don't have much space to chit chat about broad topics, and what you seem to have chose could be covered in a novel :D

I would suggest u a topic myself, but I didn't do EU history sorry :D

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Too broad and without a focus. You're going to end up narrating the reasons with little analysis.

HI is 2000 words Elsa. But that's practically nothing, veyr little to work on.

Agree with deissi, pick 1-2 reasons and go along the line of: "How significant was (were) X (and Y) as reason(s) for the dropping on the atomic bomb on Japan?"

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Too broad and without a focus. You're going to end up narrating the reasons with little analysis.

HI is 2000 words Elsa. But that's practically nothing, veyr little to work on.

Agree with deissi, pick 1-2 reasons and go along the line of: "How significant was (were) X (and Y) as reason(s) for the dropping on the atomic bomb on Japan?"

mine was 1500 Hien! trust me, I know what nothing means :D lol

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  • 4 months later...
  • 5 months later...

too vague? :) meh. It's done now and it's come a long way since that question.

My final topic: "This investigation seeks to determine whether, and to what extent, the Truman Administration (TA) is explicitly responsible for the American foreign policy to use atomic weapons."

I don't even know what I'm asking anymore.

Marks are out tomorrow. :P we'll see then.

Edited by eblake
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  • 2 weeks later...
It's "to what extent is the decision to drop the atomic bomb based on military considerations?"

By decision I mean the action committed by Truman to drop the atomic bomb only - not when or where to drop it.

I've done quite a bit of research and I've found several problems.. which are killing me.

1. Some say there wasn't really a 'decision' on Truman's part, because Roosevelt had already left a legacy of atomic energy policy. All truman did was go along and not upset what's already meant to happen.

2. It's boiling down to a judgment of character and whether or not you/I want to believe Truman dropped it out of necessity - because I have no justifiable way of finding out what he thought. This question is basically asking what was going through truman's mind, and his publishedmemoirs wouldn't necessarily be honest.

3. Even if I look at all the major options and considerations i.e. moral, military, diplomatic-political, domestic-political, I don't know how much he was exposed to each option; as in, this way the question boils down to who influenced him the most? Which is still unanswerable and not very historical.

HELP MEEEEEE

I agree with Mark; "To what extent is the decision to drop the atomic bomb based on military considerations?" seems VERY vague. If you decide to drop an atomic bomb, it is in essence, a military consideration. You may want to ask something such as, "To what extent was Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb influenced by Roosevelt?"

BTW, your first and second point seem to be contradictory of each other. If Truman "went along with what was already meant to happen," doesn't that immediately boil down to how you're saying he might have dropped it out of necessity? It seems very awkward to me.

Gd luck on your history IA... my draft is due next week!

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Responsibility is a very challenging thing to determine objectively in history. So many factors are relevant, and in order to prove that "explicitly" part of your question, you'd have to prove that there were no outside influences or vice versa. It would probably be wise to take a less absolute path with your question. Nevertheless, it's an interesting topic, and good luck with it!

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  • 3 months later...

Hi, I'm doing my History IA on the Atomic Bomb and whether Truman was justified in dropping it. I am at Part B and have no idea what the format should be for it, I don't mean whether it should be in continuous prose or bullet points, I mean what I am supposed to do exactly... :) Do I repeat the question and have evidence fo each argument??? or do I just take notes on the sources???

Thanks! :)

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I'm surprised you guys aren't supplied with this info at your school.

Summary of evidence:

This section should consist of factual material that is:

-drawn from sources that are appropriate for the investigation

-correctly and consistently referenced

-organized thematically or chronologically.

NB: must be paragraph style or point form. Info must be cited. Just evidence/facts/narrative facts.

-This section should be approximately 500 words in length.

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  • 1 month later...

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