Examples Of Island Hopping

One major argument for the use of the atomic bomb was that it would save thousands, if not, millions of U.S. and Japanese lives. With a U.S. invasion set for November of 1945, it was predicted that nearly a million U.S. soldiers would be lost, and the entire population of Japan’s main inland would suffer causalities. We believed that thousands of civilian lives were worth our own. The sacrifice of these individuals was worth it all. Where does morality come into play? How does one decide what lives matter and which ones do not? I believe that the atomic bomb was inhumane, more so for the long-term environmental, social, and health effects which took place.

“Truman stated that his decision to drop the bomb was purely military. Truman believed that the bombs saved Japanese lives as well. Prolonging the war was not an option for the President,” (ushistory.org 1). President Truman and the United States government made a fair decision by dropping the atomic bomb on the Japanese citizens in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during 1945. The bomb allowed the United States to appear more powerful and led to them influencing the rest of the world. The dropping of the atomic bomb was also a just response to the previous atrocities committed by Japan to other countries including the United States. In the long run, the bomb saved more lives that would have been lost in the war, since the bombs caused the

America should not have dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima because the bomb had killed millions of innocent Japanese civilians and just instantly turned them into ash, only a shadow was left of them. If children had went into bomb shelters and survived, they would not live for long because of the radiation scattered throughout the blast radius. Radiation scattered throughout Hiroshima will kill a further billion as a result. Also, they would be made orphans because their parents have been turned into nothing. The atomic bomb was very harsh, flattening all property in blast radius and people will be burnt alive. Japan was already seeking peace to many countries and more than 60 of its cities had been destroyed by conventional bombing, the home islands were being blockaded by the American navy, and the USSR entered the war in Asia by attacking Japanese troops occupying Manchuria. American refusal to modify its “unconditional surrender” demand made the Japanese even put up more resistance. If America demonstrated an explosion over Tokyo harbor would have convinced Japan’s leaders to quit without killing many people and cause them to suffer immense pain. The bomb was very expensive to make and develop. It used 2 billion US dollars to invent and make the atomic bomb. The conventional firebombing would have

As the war continued and violence escalated, bombings caused enormous destruction and high death tolls, leading inevitably to the use of the atomic bombs. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki represented a culmination in the destructiveness of bombings, not a significant deviation from previous bombing practices. The alternatives to the use of the atomic bomb were likely to have caused equal suffering for the Japanese people. The use of the atomic bomb was no less moral than these horrific wartime practices. Harry Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan was justified by Japan’s refusal to immediately surrender. Harry Truman gave the Japanese time to surrender in order to preserve the existence of their people. They did not comply and as a result endured the consequences. (Walker) Yet an alternate perspective states that it was quite unnecessary to drop the Atomic Bombs in that Japan was practically an already defeated opponent. If a conditional surrender were to be issued by the United States to Japan in

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.

When faced with the prospect of killing a few to save many, it may be difficult to discern whether doing so would be moral or not. However, when Harry S. Truman was forced to decide whether or not to drop the atomic bombs on Japan, the moral choice was clear: dropping the bombs was the most viable option available that would end World War II, minimize casualties on both sides of the war, and ensure American victory. Every other option available to Truman would have resulted in a much greater loss for the people of both Japan and the United States. While dropping atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was undeniably an atrocity, which resulted in over 300,000 casualties, this gruesome attack was the most ethical option available to Harry S. Truman for defeating Japan’s barbaric regime and ending the bloodiest war in human history.

           Even though there are many statistics and other information to backup that the bombs were necessary to end the war in a timely manner, it is important to understand the emotions of people at the time. Fear ran strong throughout the country following Pearl Harbor, the first attack on American soil. The Americans had won the war against Germany and the country was growing anxious for the end of the war. The men would have been deployed and fighting for years, many had died in the war against Germany and many more were dying fighting Japan. The war against Japan was drawn out because the americans had to island hop to get to the mainland. On the islands it was guerilla warfare. Many innocent Japanese citizens would die from dropping the atomic bombs, and result in many more casualties than the attack on Pearl Harbor. But the United States was fighting all the citizens of Japan. This is shown by the kamikazes particularly in the Battle of Leyte Gulf and Okinawa and the citizen suicides on the island of Saipan. Before the kamikazes were officially a special force, the Japanese airmen were taught that if their airplane was damage to inflict as

With the shock of these nuclear weapons being unleashed, also came the doubt of whether dropping the bombs was the right thing to do. Throughout America, people wondered whether there could have been another solution to end the war. People wondered whether it was right to drop the bomb on so many innocent people. On the topic of the bomb, General Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "Japan was at the moment seeking some way to surrender with minimum loss of 'face'. It wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing." Not only that, but Americans also questioned why their country had to be the one to cause mass death, destruction, and devastation. After dropping the bomb, even

"Should we drop the weapon of mass destruction capable of taking out entire civilizations? At this point, you're probably thinking that we shouldn't. Let's set the stage on we should, the Japanese dropped many regular bombs on us when we weren't ready or expecting the attack, Now if you've taken your history classes this is known as The Sneak Attack. Following the dropping of the bombs we entered one of the bloodiest wars ever, World War II, hundreds of thousands of people were dying and according to Tom Nichols, Professor of National Security Affairs, "The fact of the matter is that Japan was not preparing to surrender; it was preparing to fight to the death." So this war was not going to be over anytime soon. As far as Truman, the president at the time could tell this war was not going to be over anytime soon. This is why the bomb should have been dropped.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the US decided to march towards Japan. The pivotal battles of Midway, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa exhibited Japan’s unrelentless nationalism through the use of kamikazes and their bushido philosophy . Furthermore, this manifestation of imposed pride caused great fear for the Allies. President Truman felt that invading Japan would be a huge struggle, for Japan would do anything to protect their homeland. Truman decided to drop the atomic bombs on Japan, which were originally intended to be dropped on Germany if they did not surrender. On August 6, 1945, the atomic bombs, Fat Man and Little Boy were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the obliteration of the two cities,

August 6 and 9 came around, and the bombs were dropped. Japan issued their surrender several days later. The bombings could be seen as an event that directly resulted in the end of the war, or merely accelerated it by as little as a few days. Numerous analyses by top United States Army officials say that Japan would have surrendered well before the end of the year even had the bomb not been used. One of these army officals, Major General Curtis Lemay of the air force, said that “the atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war.” He also said that the bombing was justified simply because it speeded up the Japanese surrender, and “probably saved a few lives.” While Lemay may be correct that the dropping of the bomb accelerated the Japanese surrender, it does not justify the killing of innocent civilians, especially if surrender was inevitable. Lemay believed that invasion was not necessary and that conventional bombing also could have ended the war. With that logic, the bombings didn’t save any lives only spent lives.

Dropping the bomb wasn’t morally right. The droppings of the atomic bombs killed over two-hundred-thousand people. These people weren’t all military either, almost all of them were civilians. Their whole fight was pretty much done, they barely had a navy and they didn’t have any allies left. (www.historyextra.com) So when we bombed them, they were partially defenseless and didn’t have much of a way to fight back other than willpower.

There are multiple reasons to prove that America was justified in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan. Japan would never give up. After the missiles were dropped in Midway, there were many deaths, but America found out in Okinawa and in Iwo Jima, that Japan wouldn’t surrender. Japan followed the Bushido code which meant they would never surrender, so the war could go on for five more years. Five years of war would mean a lot more death, so the atomic bomb just made those deaths happen more quickly. The second reason the atomic bomb was justified is because it saved many lives. The death caused by the dropping of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is less to the amount of deaths that would be caused in a five year war. The dropping of

“On 6 August and 9 August 1945, the first two atomic bombs to be used for military purposes were dropped on Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, respectively. One hundred thousand people were killed, 6 square miles or over 50 percent of the built up areas of the two cities were destroyed.” (World War II and Mccarthyism 367) As we can see from the quote above, weapons of mass destruction are powerful. This brings into conversation numerous opposing sides of morality, and what it takes to win the war. Were the Japanese going to surrender? Was the use of force by the United States justified? The decision that led to dropping the atomic bomb on Japan spanned from three motives:

If you were in the middle of a war and trying to end it what would you do? Go to their territory and fight a bloody war? Or, drop two nuclear bombs on a city that destroys everything in a 180 mile radius? Most would choose warfare, but president Truman decided to drop two bombs in two major Japan cities. The United States was not justified to drop two nuclear bombs on Japan because one, it’s illegal to drop bombs randomly on civilians. Two,there were laws that stated citizens can't be bombed. Lastly, no one's life is worth more than another.