
Seth R. answered 05/07/19
SETH - LSAT/SAT Tutor Mainly
The moment he was sworn in as president after FDR's death, Truman was notified of the Manhattan Project as well as its progress. The second he knew a bomb was available, he authorized its use. What exactly that chain of command looks like is something that would have to be looked at on a deeper level, simply because the communication involved had to have been highly confidential. Of course most if not all of the communications that occured then regarding the bomb are likely declassified. Truman had no intention of aborting, in fact recent reports show that there have even been a willingness to surrender on the part of the Japanese prior to the bombs being dropped. Some have speculated that Truman used the bombs as a show of American might more directly aimed at the USSR, though of course Japanese civilians suffered the entirety of the bomb's destructive and deadly fallout.