Little Boy

~~ Even after this long, I still can’t believe what has happened.  After all these talks of peace, our seemingly friendly Japanese have betrayed us.  Our naval fleet at what used to be Pearl Harbor was destroyed.  Several soldiers died in the sunken ships, the hospitals, or are still mentally dying from the attack.
 I had been at a loss of what to do.  My predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had been strong through the entirety of this war, but now it fell onto my shoulders.  I am now President Harry S Truman.  And I must lead this country through this war.
 As I was going over possible strategies of attack, a man, I recognized as one of Franklin’s scientists that he always spoke to, walked up to me.  “Mr. President, may I have a word?”
 “What is it?”
 “I believe we have the solution to our Japanese problems.”
 This intrigued me.  A solution to this war?  “Go on.”
 “Well… we have a bomb.  An Atomic bomb.”
 “Atomic bomb?”
 “We actually have two:  codenames Little Boy and Fat Man.  Under President Roosevelt’s instructions, we’ve been working on the most powerful bomb ever created.”
 I hadn’t heard anything about this.  But I suppose our past President had the right to keep secrets to himself.  “What will these bombs do?”
 “Pardon?”
 “What sets these bombs apart from every other bomb that’s been dropped during this war?”
 “To be honest, sir, we don’t know.  We don’t have a sufficient enough set of data to tell what the effects of this device will be.  At the very least, we know of a possible blast radius, but not much else.”
 I put a hand on my chin to think this out.  From what we’ve gathered, Japan was overly populated in several of its cities.  Dropping these bombs would kill not only soldiers, but innocents that had no part in this war.  On the other hand, if we were to send our troops over there, I was willing to say that it would be the death of one million of our fighting men.
 So, therein laid my choice.  The lives of innocent Japanese or the lives of our own soldiers.  The role of God was kept from men so we would have to make these decisions.  But know I was forced to.
 I was at a loss of what to do until the Pearl Harbor attack came back to my mind.  They hadn’t been merciful on us in a time of peace.  They need to know who they are dealing with.  They brought us into this war.  We will take them out of it.
 I turned back to the scientist.  “How soon can the bombs get over there?”
 “We can send them immediately.”
 “…Then do so.”
 On August 6th, reports of the destruction of Hiroshima were sent to my hand.  The epicenter vaporized those within a mile or so.  The entire city was affected in some way or another.  And as walls were pieced back together, shadows of the victims were still etched into them.
 I couldn’t sleep that night.  The screams of the innocent went through my mind over and over.  I had to play God, and had condemned the Japanese to their final resting place.
I didn’t know how to cope with my actions, but I had to.  I had to lead this nation.
May God have mercy on us.