In recent years historians and policy analysts have questioned President Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan. For President Truman, the decision was a clear-cut one. In 1945, America was weary of war. Japan was a hated enemy. The nation feared the cost of invading the Japanese mainland.
As visitors walk through this section, an audio loop program plays throughout the space with veteran testimonies about the end of the war. In addition to the audio loop, there are also four video monitors running silent video programs on four different topics that set the scene leading up to the decision to drop the bomb on Japan: the fierce fighting on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the firebombing of Japan, anti-Japanese war propaganda, and the race to build the bomb.
Above the video screens is a series of scrolling messages in lights giving statistics about the war, such as casualty figures in various battles, the cost to build the bomb, etc. Displayed in a case is the map of Japan that was used by Presidents Roosevelt and Truman in the White House Map Room to plan the final campaign of the war against Japan.
A portion of this area will also be devoted to an "In His Own Words" flipbook in which Truman discusses the atomic bomb, and there are also quotations from contemporaries and historians both praising and condemning Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb.
