The bombings of Japan by allied forces had already begun under the command of Major General Curtis LeMay. They did not do as much damage as the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki did although. Those bombs would cause fire that would burn down buildings and of course had casualties. The United States did not want to do an on land invasion of Japan because of the number of casualties predicted. They decided that dropping the atomic bomb would be the quickest and easiest way. Japan also was showing no sign of surrender at that point. The Allied forces even gave Japan a chance to respond to a proposed surrender which they failed to do. With no signs of surrender, they bomb had to be dropped. There were many people who believed the bomb should not have been dropped. When Okinawa fell in June 1945, Allied forces controlled islands less than 500 miles from Japan to add to the Island of Iwo Jima. In the case of General Dwight Eisenhower, he believed that by then the war was already won and that the bombing was unnecessary. To add to that he didn’t believe it would be wise to shock the world’s opinion about the United States. Admiral William Leahy believed that it was morally wrong, saying “I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.” Even with the entry of the Soviet Union, the Allied forces wanted to secure victory at a higher assurance. The U.S. and the other Allied forces had been meeting to discuss what
