Following the bombings, Japan surrendered. According to some estimates, more than 226,000 people, mostly civilians, died in the two blasts. The atomic bomb was dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. casualties and millions of Japanese, the decision by President Truman to drop the atomic bomb on Japan was not made lightly. In the face of increasingly fanatical Japanese resistance during the island-hopping Pacific campaign, American casualties were increased dramatically.įearing that an invasion of Japan would cost hundreds of thousands of U.S. In the closing days of World War II, the United States was facing a difficult decision.
