e target and not women and children."(10) In these diary entries it seems that military pressures lied most heavily on Truman's mind. Adding even more pressure from a military standpoint came when a second invasion was discussed and tentatively planned for March 1946, consisting of a landing on mainland Honshu, and would certainly be "proportionately more violent."(11) After the dropping of the bombs President Truman, Secretary of War Stimson and others claimed that the military pressures discussed above were the only reason for deciding to drop the bombs. Stimson wrote, "At no time, from 1941 to 1945, did I ever hear it suggested by the President, or any other responsible member of the government, that atomic energy should not be used in the war," and also added, "The entire purpose was the production of a military weapon." (emphasis mine)(12). Thus the traditional view was established--the bomb was a legitimate weapon of war and used only for military purposes. This simplistic military view was furthered by press releases in the weeks following the bombings. For example, The New York Times quoted Truman on 7 August with phrases such as, "Hiroshima was a major military target," and, "We have spent two billion dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history--and won."(13) These phrases and others gave readers the single-sided view that the bomb was dropped for military reasons, and through the entirety of the 1940s and 1950s no other major contradictory statement of any kind was ever made. The praising and glorifying of the scientists involved which filled the paper after the bombs were dropped, Truman implied the bomb was something for which the American people should be proud of. The second major source of pressure on Truman and his advisors to drop the atomic bombs came from domestic tensions and issues of reelection, combined with a collective American feeling of hatred toward the Japanese race. As in most major military confli...
