The third reason why dropping the atomic bombs wasn’t necessary to end the war is because dropping the bomb, contrary to popular belief, was not the only low-casualty option for ending the war. As more and more people have examined the situation surrounding the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, more and more evidence has appeared challenging the orthodox belief that dropping the bombs was the option that would save the most lives. This belief was first challenged through the discovery of other options presented at the end of the war in the Pacific that were subsequently suppressed by the U.S. government. The article "How We Bungled the Japanese Surrender," written by Ellis Zacharias five years after the end of the war, details one of these strategies. In the article, Zacharias, who was the Deputy Chief of Naval Intelligence at …show more content…
Nathan Donohue explains in his article, “Understanding the Decision to Drop the Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” that a high-ranking American official stationed in Japan, General Robert Eichelberger, wrote on July 24 of that year, “a great many people, probably 50%, feel that Japan is about to fold up.” This low morale, according to Donohue, was probably because “The war had already taken a great toll not just on the Japanese military but also on its entire domestic infrastructure,” after the firebombing of major industrial cities such as Tokyo. Eichelberger’s damning account goes directly against what so many Americans have been told about the Japanese people during World War II: that every man and woman and Japan were brainwashed into fighting to the death for the country should a land invasion had occurred, justifying the use of the atomic bombs to prevent hundreds of thousands of American
The book, Hiroshima, is the story of six individuals who experienced the true effects of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945. Miss Toshinki Sasaki, a clerk in the East Asia Tin Works factory, just sat down in the plant office and was turning to converse with the girl at the next desk when the bomb exploded. Dr. Masakazu Fujii, a physician, was relaxing on his porch, which overlooked the Kyo River, where he was reading the morning periodical when the shell detonated. Before the eruption, Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura was observing her neighbor destruct his house as part of a fire lane in preparation of an American attack. Previous to the attack, Father
Hiroshima is an outstanding recreation of the complete annihilation and devastation of during the aftermath and the year following the United States’ dropping of the atomic bomb. As the war in the east carried on, many thought this desolated war might last a lifetime, all the while hoping for an end and praying it not mean their own end. To end the war, Americans had to pick a target that would leave the Japanese government with nowhere to retreat, allowing for a crippling effect that would essentially cause their collapse and surrender. In his writings, John Hersey proclaims that Hiroshima was a “… inviting target - mainly because it had been one of the most important military command and communications centres in Japan …” (HERSEY, P. 107). In the minds of American strategists, this must have seemed a flawless method to force the Japanese military into a corner, not allowing withdrawal without laying down of arms. There was surely no doubt that dropping this bomb of god-like destructive power would, at a minimum, tear into the souls of Japanese, causing catastrophic devastation.
During world war two, the Imperial Japanese army forced an estimated 200,000 women into sexual slavery. This is just one of the many atrocities committed by Japan during world war two. Even though many say that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were inhumane, the US was completely justified because the future casualties were minimized and Japan and its allies committed atrocious war crimes.
In the midst of World War II, August 1945, the United States unleashed the first ever atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The usage of the atomic bomb was effective, but at the same time devastating and unnecessary. The United States should not have dropped the atomic bomb because it maimed countless of Japanese civilians, caused radiation poisoning whose effects impacted future generations, left both cities in ruins, left citizens homeless, and it was absolutely unmoral for the United States to have created such havoc and chaos in these two cities. Being there on the day Hiroshima was struck by the atomic bomb, junior high student,
The research question of this essay is “To what extent was the atomic bombing of Japan at the end of the Second World War Justified? In 1945, the United States authorized the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The first bomb, dropped on August 6th 1945, had a total casualty rate of 135,000, including non-combatant civilians, and as this, the atomic bombing of Japan at the end of the Second World War has indeed been a hugely discussed topic within academic and social circles until today. There have been historians, academics, and other influential individuals throughout the world who have argued on both sides of the spectrum regarding the effects of the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and whether they were necessary and justified towards the ending of the conflict. According to the Center For Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), by 1944, it had become clear to both the United States and the Empire of Japan that Japan was indeed losing the war, and as this, there are many arguments and counterarguments regarding the effectiveness of the atomic bombing of Japan, as well as suggestions regarding alternatives due to the enormous human toll the bomb caused.
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.
Imagine a leader of a country that has sent a super weapon to a country they are fighting that’s already losing. This bomb kills over 80,000 people and ends the war with this country, and the leader still said that they made the right choice up until their death, about sending the super weapon. Well this actually happened, President Truman ordered the atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war. The war has gone on for six years and over sixty-million people had died. Europe had already surrendered, but the war in Japan was still going on. The U.S. has developed a super weapon to end the war, and stop the endless bloodshed. This super weapon was the first atomic bomb. President Truman decided to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing Japan to surrender, but killing over 80,000 people in Hiroshima alone. The controversy over whether the U.S. should’ve dropped the bomb or not has been an endless debate (Debate: Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki). The U.S. should have dropped the bomb on Japan because the U.S. didn’t know the power of the bomb, a demonstration of the weapon wouldn’t have ended the war, and because it helped Japan in the long run (Debate: Bombing Hiroshima
Although WW II ended over 50 years ago there is still much discussion as to the events which ended the War in the Pacific. The primary event which historians attribute to this end are the use of atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although the bombing of these cities did force the Japanese to surrender, many people today ask "Was the use of the atomic bomb necessary to end the war?" and more importantly "Why was the decision to use the bomb made?" Ronald Takaki examines these questions in his book Hiroshima.
This was the world’s unforgettable events. It took the lives of many people and its side effects can still be seen today. The atomic bombing of Japan that America did cause a distinct stop to the World War II. Since 1942, more than 100,000 scientists of the Manhattan Project had been working on the bomb’s development. At the time, it was the largest collective scientific effort ever undertaken. It involved 37 installations across the US, 13 university laboratories and a host of prestigious participants such as the Nobel prizewinning physicist Arthur Holly Compton and Harold Urey. Directed by the Army's chief engineer, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan Project was also the most secret
Before the fateful bombing, in mid July 1945, the Japanese military controlled over roughly 5,000,000-armed militants and 5,000 suicide air bombers. They were stationed all over Asia, China, Mongolia, Korea and the former USSR, to name a few, at roughly over 2,000,000 people. In the main islands of Japan as well, approximately over 2,000,000 people. Although Japan had “been seriously weakened by [United States’] increasingly violent attacks,” for example, the ongoing air bomb raids on Tokyo that devastated the entire city, “there was as yet no indication of Japan to accept unconditional surrender.” The US did delivered, however, an ultimatum, which did not conversely hint at the bomb. In spite of this Japan’s premier, Suzuki, haughtily replied back that it was ‘unworthy of public’s notice.’ Thus a list of possible targets was presented to Henry L. Stimson, US Secretary of War at the time, for his approval; hence he had doomed the fate of
Some regard the atomic bomb as “the thank God for the atom bomb”. This places God on the U.S. side and regards the bombs as our saving grace. This bomb forced the Japanese to surrender which in turn proved the U.S. to be the heroes who saved the American’s lives.1 The Americans intended on ending the war but did not expect to end it with such a large number of casualties. The results of the atomic bomb and how it effected the Japanese people both emotionally and physically will be addressed. “The bombs marked both an end and a beginning—the end of an appalling global conflagration in which more than 50 million people were killed and the beginning of the nuclear arms race and a new world in which
With the approval of American President Harry S. Truman, the fates of two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were sealed. This decision came with heavy hearts, as the United States attempted to end their involvement in World War II by using nuclear power against the nation of Japan. Truman’s primary goal in this form of attack was to discontinue the war as quickly as possible, while also sending a message to the enemy and establish the United States as the leader in atomic energy. Beginning as a secret operation labeled the Manhattan Project, atomic bombs became the new weapons of mass destruction. The evident frontrunner in nuclear technology, the United States was the first country to release atomic bombs on another nation for war
On August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb, "little boy" on Hiroshima, Japan. Hiroshima had been almost eradicated with an estimated 70-80,000 people killed. Three days later, a second, more powerful bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing over 100,000 people. Since Japan was economically and militarily devastated by the late summer of 1945, the use of the atomic bombs on an already overcome Japan was unnecessary and unwarranted in bringing about a conclusion to the war in the Pacific.
August 6, 1945, marks one of the worst decisions in U.S. history. On this day, the first atomic bomb in history was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The second one dropped three days later, again on a highly populated city known as Nagasaki. This day marked the day the U.S., “made itself the archenemy of humanity” (Japan’s Horrified Reaction, 351). These bombs left thousands of casualties. Looking deeper in the decision we can see that dropping the atomic bomb was a preconceived notion. The bomb was to be made and dropped there was no other alternative brought forward. The decision shows the United States incompetence to work and find a less devastating solution, one in which Japan could have been warned and have had time to surrender.
History will always have its fair share of disputable issues and most of them would question about the morality of a decision, the missed opportunities, the true motives behind the event and its long-term impact. One of the most controversial issues from 1945 that has caught the attention of various historians and scholars from every generation was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Though many have questioned the necessity of the atomic bombs and its devastating effect on the survivors’ health, this essay would examine the idea that Japan’s surrender could have been feasible with a negotiated agreement considering it was already on the verge of surrendering and its only major obstacle was the unconditional surrender policy.