These two cities are etched in the collective consciousness of the world as scenes of utter destruction and inhumanity. The decision of President Harry S Truman to authorize the use of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki also remains one of the most contentious issues associated with the conduct of Allied forces in World War II.

Emotional Debates

The deep emotions that people feel toward this decision continue to resonate in American and Japanese life. These emotions were expressed in the reactions to the fiftieth-anniversary exhibitions about the dropping of the bomb at Hiroshima by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History and an exhibit in Hiroshima in 1995. Professional historians serving as museum curators prepared the Smithsonian exhibit. It was carefully vetted by a wider advisory group of American historians who represented varied views about the rationale and ethics...