Atomic Bomb Dilemmas

President Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the direct cause for the end of World War II in the Pacific. The United States felt it was necessary to drop the atomic bombs on these two cities or it would suffer more casualties. Not only could the lives of many soldiers have been taken, but possibly the lives of many innocent Americans. The United States will always try to avoid the loss of American civilians at all costs, even if that means taking lives of another countries innocent civilians.

Secondly, the dropping of the Atomic bomb wasn’t justified is that the Americans were close to beating Japan as they were almost willing to surrender. Japan saw that there was little hope for them winning and realised that surrendering would save lives. The American generals made a statement of what the terms of surrender were to be. However, the Japanese rejected these

During 1941 through 1945 a war had occurred in the Pacific between the Americans and the Japanese this war was called The Pacific Theater. This war was also being fought during the duration of another World War against Germany and Japan but on May 8, 1945 Germany surrendered to the allied powers leaving Japan to still be dealt with. However Japan would not surrender even after the major battles between the Americans and Japanese in Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The Americans then came to conclusion to try and get to a new military weapon which then started the ManHattan Project. The Manhattan Project established a new powerful military weapon known as the Atomic Bomb. This new entirely militarized weapon was designed to force Japan into surrendering because Japan was still willing to fight even though they were on a brink of defeat and they were

The United States should not have dropped the atomic bomb because it was inhumane. By using that powerful bomb on japan lots of people died and lots of people lost their children, families, and it also ruined everything on their land so they can’t have access to anything. According to document ‘E,’ the evidence shows that it was hard for Japanese because they lost lots of people, 64,000 people total died from Nagasaki and 135,000 total died from Hiroshima which was terrifying. This evidence helps explain that the U.S. should not have dropped the atomic bomb because it took lives of civilians and innocent people.

On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb to ever be used in the history of the world was dropped on Hiroshima. The result of this bomb killed roughly 80,000 people from the blast itself, and tens of thousands more due to radiation poisoning. After a few days passed, the United States dropped another nuclear bomb on Nagasaki, and threatened to drop another if the Japanese did not surrender. The bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki lead to the Japanese surrender to the United States, removing them from the war. While the use of this bomb was likely necessary at the time, was it an ethical decision? The lives that were affected from this blast were not just of those who experienced it, generations later, people who weren’t even alive at the time were faced with trauma as well. With that being said, the dropping of the bomb might have been necessary, but it was an unethical decision, even though the Japanese made it perfectly clear that they will fight until the last civilian.

The atomic bombs might have killed thousands, but the bombs also saved millions. Before the war even started Japan had a grudge on America for cutting off of their oil supplies. Germany lost to the allies after hitter committed suicide. Japan was the last remain axis power. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, America had a right to join the war and get revenge. When America dropped the bombs, they did their best not to harm many civilians. Also they saved more lives than they took. The atomic bomb was the best way toned the war efficiently.

The use of the atomic bomb the U.S used against Japan was Unjustified. The U.S had several other alternatives to solve the conflict between the two countries. Furthermore, the bomb was strongly racially motivated and had many inhumane side-effects to the dangerous explosion when the blast had hit Japan. Before resorting to using the bomb the U.S should have considered the many options they had at hand.

The result of this was the death of tens of thousands of individuals, even civilians, in place of those who would’ve died in future battle, where it could even result in even more bloody casualties, as well as a substantial amount of American casualties. As stated by President Harry S. Truman, “It was their recommendation that the bomb be used against the enemy as soon as it could be done. They recommended further that it should be used without specific warning…” (Doc 1). In my opinion, this quote shows how we needed no demonstration and no warning to the Japanese and hit them hard, fast, and respond exactly how they did at Pearl Harbor. Another quote from Document 1 includes how this atomic bomb “would likely bring the war to an end,” (Doc

In 1945, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor without a warning and killed about 2,400 Americans. Later in 1945, the Americans attacked Hiroshima without a warning. The Americans also bombed Nagasaki, but the Japanese were warned and were given three days to evacuate or surrender. The United States’ decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a military measure to destroy the Japanese military, force Japan’s surrender, and save American lives.

Dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified under the information they had at the time. When criticizing the actions of the Truman administration one needs to consider the effect of knowledge in hindsight. Truman was working under the knowledge that dropping the nuclear bombs would bring a short and fast victory to the Pacific front of the Second World War. As the war had already ended in Europe by this time, leaders were looking to end the campaign in the Pacific as quickly as possible. From a cost benefit perspective dropping the bombs on Japan meant that very few American lives were lost, and the cost of building the bombs compared to the cost of a minimum six month continuation of fighting.Additionally, there was no testing

The use of the atomic bomb against Japan was completely justified in both cause and impact. An intense weapon was necessary to force a quick Japanese surrender. The bomb saved thousands upon thousands of American and Japanese lives that would have been lost if the war continued or an invasion occurred. The bomb was the only way to end the suffering of the millions who were being held captive by the Japanese oppressor. The weapon of mass destruction also sent a powerful message to the shaky Soviet allies. The choice to use the atomic bomb was justified because it compelled a Japanese surrender, saved countless lives, served as retribution for the sufferings of many people, and

I believe that the decision made by the United States to bomb Japan was not thought through well enough and could have been approached differently. There were many possible alternatives to setting off the bombs that could have saved many innocent lives or at least lowered the death toll of Japan. One alternative that could have been more successful was if the United states had chosen to continue conventional bombing. There was a survey taken in Japan, called the Strategic Bombing Survey, that proved Japan was more than likely to surrender soon due to the pressure of the United States dropping continuous, conventional bombs (Arguments Against the Bomb: Argument #4.4). If truman had decided to wait and continue to use conventional bombing, the

If Truman decided to invade japan the death toll would be high. It was estimated that an invasion of Japan would cost one million American casualties alone (stimson 43). Enemy casualties would be much larger than our own (stimson 43). So Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb was right because it saved lives . Furthermore Truman was right because, every Japanese soldier, civilian , women and child would fight to the death with whatever weapon they had (Fussell 62).so not only did the bomb save American soldiers and Japanese soldiers the bomb saved Japanese civilians.

The U.S. didn't know the power and effect of the atomic bomb so they decided to drop it on a city filled with innocent people and children. “Hundreds of thousands of civilians with no democratic rights to oppose their militarist government, including women and children, were vaporized, turned into charred blobs of carbon, horrifically burned, buried in rubble, speared by flying debris, and saturated with radiation.” Innocent people didn’t have to die to have the war come to an end. The atomic bomb was not the right thing to do and it wasn't necessary at all. Some people may say the Japanese were given a fair warning and the Japanese could have surrendered right then and there.

I think it was necessary to drop the atomic bomb to end World War II because it would end the war earlier and stop the potential deaths of hundreds of thousands. Although critics state that the estimated casualties of the home island invasion are exaggerated, I do not agree with their assessment. Japan had millions of troops on the home islands along with millions of potentially armed civilians. The Japanese had a sheer devotion to their homeland and they were willing to fight to the death. Along with the invasion of Okinawa and its high casualty count, the invasion of Japan would create an enormous amount of death for both sides. In addition to the bombing of civilian targets, prolonging the war would definitely result in a higher death count.