Abstract
On the morning of August 6, 1945, the United States dropped, on the city of Hiroshima, the first of the only two nuclear bombs ever employed against human population, killing more than 115.000 people - probably as many as 250.000 according to the highest estimates - and injuring at least another 100.000. Three days later, on the date the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, a second, bigger , atomic bomb exploded over Nagasaki, bringing the toll to 200.000 dead and 300.000 wounded. After the war, the bombings raised a series of ethical and historical questions about the causes, circumstances and motives that underlay Truman's far-reaching decision to implement them. The official explanation - provided by President H. Truman himself in his memoirs and strongly backed by the American public and many politicians in the wake of the war – insisted that the only issue was that of obtaining unconditional Japanese surrender without further unnecessary loss of American lives. However, a different perspective based on more recently declassified documents was put forward by so-called “revisionist” historians. In their view, the use of the atomic bomb was not necessary as the Japanese leadership was already defeated and on the verge of surrendering.
