In the annals of modern World History, the use of the atomic bomb at the end of World War II stands out. It was the first and last time that an atomic or nuclear weapon was used in a military operation. The Semester Project consists of the following Using Primary Sources exercise— Diary entries and letters from President Harry S. Truman detailing his decision to use the atomic bomb against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You are to read the diary entries and letters (a primary historical source) and answer the questions that follow it. This is not a traditional term paper, but an exercise in reading and interpreting primary sources. Primary sources are important sources for historians researching and writing about the past. Primary sources (as opposed to secondary sources–your textbook is a secondary source) provide us with first-person accounts of what took place in the past.
The questions that follow are to be answered in complete sentences. You can reference the primary sources documents in your answers. Please answer the questions as completely as you can.