The Atomic Bomb and Hiroshima On August 6, 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Three days later another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki killing a combined total of over 200,000 lives. It was not long before people began to question President Truman’s decision to use the most devastating weapons know to humankind. The purpose of the bomb was to bring Japan to a surrender and end the war as soon as possible. The question puzzling many researchers and historians is whether the use of the atomic bomb was necessary. The popular belief is that the U.S. could have avoided the use of ato