Dropping The Bombs On Hiroshima And Nagasaki

With the closing of the Second World War at hand, Harry S. Truman represented the United States in Potsdam Germany to decide the fate of a post war world. The key individuals in the conference consisted of the allied leaders, Soviet Premier Stalin, Prime Minister Churchill, and Truman. Dubbed the “big Three” in the second conference of the post war, they were charged with the daunting task of dealing with Japan and their continued effort in the ending war. The Potsdam Declaration was devised. It simply stated that Japan must immediately agree to an unconditional surrender or face total destruction. Japan would ignore this declaration (Scoenberger, 1969).

Intense moral justification was needed in order to make the decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki however, President Truman was ultimately the man who made the final decision to launch ‘Little Boy’ and destroy Hiroshima, Nagasaki and their civilians, thus forcing an end to the war. Although there were many alternatives presented to President Truman, it is unknown as to whether they would have actually succeeded in ending the war or producing less casualties. Truman made the decision to drop these bombs in the heat of war but his justification of having a military target appeared extremely unrealistic, as both cities were full of innocent civilians. The morality of the bombs have been debated over the years, however the publication of the actual damage to civilian life caused a strong voice opposed to the usage in the 60 years following the action.

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 decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the hardest decision for President Truman to make. He had the power right there in his hands to end the war but he would have to unleash the most powerful weapon known to man, at this time. Everyone was very tired of fighting but the Japanese would not give up so Truman decided to drop it. Even though we told Japan that if they did not surrender we would completely demolish some of their cities, they did not listen and they did not surrender. Maybe they did not think about what kind of weapons we would use because

The United States made the right decision to bomb the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. President Truman, felt that is was evident that the other alternatives where the Allied forces thought of invading Japan could have led to a lot of casualties on their part (Roark 685). Another reason can be because it is the same Japan that agitated America to join the Second World War, which it had initially avoided, by bombing the Pearl Harbor (Riggs 3). Apparently, this grudge was carried forward.

On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the Atomic Bomb “Little Boy” on Hiroshima. On August 9, 1945, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb “Fat Man” on Nagasaki. The first bomb was dropped to scare the Japanese into surrendering when it didn’t work the second bomb was dropped causing destruction and the surrender of Japan. In a time of need and anguish, Harry S Truman made the courageous decision to drop the first atomic bombs on the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The big question is whether America was justified in dropping the bombs and it was because it would help stop the war, save American lives, and avenge those who were sadly murdered or hurt in the process.

During World War II Americans dropped atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing nearly 200,000 people. This resulted in Japans surrender in World War II. J. Samuel Walker analyzes this historical event in his book Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs. Over the past 70 years’ extensive research has been conducted and there is an understanding that Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bombs is inconclusive. It is impossible to determine that the use of the bomb was the quickest way to end the war. An analysis of President Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb reveals one challenge: was the decision to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki a show of good judgment.

The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945 and Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945 was the first and last time the weapon has been used to date; the atomic explosions exposed the true potential of nuclear warfare whilst also highlighting the global superiority that America possessed at the conclusion of World War II. On August 6th 1945 “Little Boy”, a uranium atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in an effort by the United States backed by the Soviet Union, the British and the Chinese to force a Japanese surrender. However American intelligence suggested no evidence of Japanese surrender which acted as the catalyst for the second use of a plutonic implosion type bomb, “Fat Man” on Nagasaki on August 9th 1945. The sheer force of the bombs reportedly killed 66,000 in Hiroshima and 39,000 in Nagasaki Japanese residents whilst injuring another 94,000 residents suffering symptoms of intense third degree burns.

On August 6, 1945, “Little Boy” the first atomic bomb, was dropped on the city of Hiroshima and three days later, “Fat Man” a second bomb, was dropped on Nagasaki, resulting in the untimely death of over 20,000 people. This was done as an offensive and retaliation by the United States of America, whom had feeling of revenge and an unwavering desire to end an ongoing war as quickly and decisively as possible, against the Japanese for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. However, this took place right after a demand for an unconditional surrender of the Japanese by the Allied leaders by means of a Potsdam Declaration, in late July 1945, was flatly rejected by Japanese leaders. Thus resulting in the use of these atomic bombs being authorized by President Truman.

The dropping of the atomic weapons in Hiroshima and Nagaski, ordered by President Harry S. Truman, were completely necessary to ensure a speedy end to the war while saving many lives that would have otherwise been taken, had the battle continued. The atomic bombs, also known as Fat Man and Little Boy, were dropped in Japan in the summer of 1945. To this day, The United States stands as the only nation to have used a nuclear weapon on another nation. A single atomic bomb can reduce a city and its population to dust. Although the bombings were inhumane and had negative effects that were unavoidable, the nature of war is catastrophic and human lives are taken nonetheless. What was to be decided was whether these deaths should be of the Japanese

The decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the hardest decision for President Truman to make. He had the power right there in his hands to end the war but he would have to unleash the most powerful weapon known to man, at this time. Everyone was very tired of fighting but the Japanese would not give up so Truman decided to drop it. Even though we told Japan that if they did not surrender we would completely demolish some of their cities, they did not listen and they did not surrender. Maybe they did not think about what kind of weapons we would use because

On August 6, 1945 United States decided to bomb Japan with an atomic bomb. Japan denied to to accept the unconditional surrender the Potsdam Conference had demanded and at around eight in the morning an atomic bomb called “Little Man” was dropped on the city Hiroshima from above 2000 ft. The president of U.S Harry S. Truman thought it was better to drop the bomb then to risk and lose U.S life’s. This bombing had a power of 20K tons of TNT and a huge effect on Japan's economy.

The two bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II were the only atomic bombs ever to be used in warfare. The United States are the only country to have ever made an atomic bomb and use it. Each bomb alone weighed around ten thousand pounds. Little Boy was the code name for the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th 1945. Three days after the first bomb was dropped the U.S dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki. Sixty six thousand people died in the first few seconds after Little Boy detonated. Sixty nine thousand suffered from different types of injuries. Around forty thousand people died instantly when Fat Man was dropped just three days later and thousands later died from other injuries. Altogether and estimated one hundred and thirty thousand people died from both bombs. Even one hour after the bombings what remained of Hiroshima was still burning. A majority of the city was completely flattened. Ninetythree percent of all the nurses and over ninety percent of the doctors were either killed or injured. Since most of them were stationed in the downtown area of the city which received most of the damage. All the hospitals were either completely destroyed or suffered great damages which prevented them from any aid to survivors in need of medical care. Not till ten years after the bombings did the long term effect in the survivors become apparent. The increased risk of cancer in survivors was first noted in 1956. Not long after this did tumors

Through the efforts of the “Manhattan Project” and the scientists within it, several nuclear bombs were created. Two of which, “Little Boy” and “Fat Man,” ended up being dropped on Japan. “Little Boy,” the only uranium bomb created was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 (Batchelder 99-105). “Fat Man,” the second nuclear bomb ever used in warfare, detonated above Nagasaki on August 11, 1945 (Batchelder 95-105). The leaders of the United States, decided that dropping the newly developed atomic bombs on Japan was the smartest action they could take at the time, given the current situation that the United States and the world was in. Dropping the bombs on Japan was mainly motivated by the belief that human lives could be saved. A massive invasion of the Japanese mainland was the only other option if no bombs were going to be dropped. The fact that the Japanese main army of approximately two million had never before been defeated on top of the Japanese terrain which was much better suited for guerrilla warfare than the mechanical ways of the U.S. put estimated American deaths alone well over the deaths at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined (Batchelder 114-118).

Would you kill a thousand to save millions? Well the drastic actions taken by the United States did save millions. There were two actions that had to occur to save the millions and end the war, the dropping of the two atomic bombs being the first of their kind were to be the most powerful bomb ever invented using atomic and nuclear forces so create it and packed over 20,000 tons of TNT and was about ten feet long. The bomber that transported and dropped them was called the 'Enola Gay’. The two Japanese cities’ that were struck by such creations were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In this essay I will be discussing on how the actions taken by the United States of America were completely justified in dropping the two bombs as is established a future power image, saved millions, ended the war and ended the axis of evil.