The Bombing Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki

The atomic bombs were dropped with purpose of solving diplomatic reasons and to inevitably make Japan surrender. The diplomatic goals the US had at the time was to prevent Russia from joining the war against Japan, but the US wanted to win the war before the USSR joined in order to prevent Stalin from claiming land in Japan and spreading communist influence throughout Asia. So in order to impede the potential spread of Russian influence and communism in post­war Japan, the US had to end the war as soon as possible or else the potential spread of Stalin and the Soviet Union’s influence might bring forth more devastating and graver consequences for the future of the US. The atomic bomb was a diplomatic and intimidating way of keeping the Soviet

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.

When the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki all living things in a five square mile radius of where the atomic bombs impacted died instantly, it ended the war and saved thousands lives. The following documents tell you about the importance of dropping the atomic bomb and the thinking behind there strategies. The US wanted Japan to surrender and wanted no more bloodshed and wanted the Soviet Union to be surprised. As stated in document 13 the Americans concern for Japan's unwillingness to resign, “imminent threat of a landing, on Japan proper by us, to convince them of the hopelessness of their situation”1. and again in document 16 shares thoughts for Russia involvement, “atomic attack against Japan would shock the Russians”2 finally document 17 shows the stubbornness of “Japan to agree Japanese leadership would probably not have surrendered if the Truman administration had clarified the status of the emperor when it demanded unconditional surrender prolongation of the war and cost a large number of human lives”3. Although some people think dropping the atomic bombs on Japan wasn’t justified, I think that dropping the atomic bombs on Japan was justified.

On the 8th of December 1941, the United States congress declared war on the empire of japan in response to that country’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the prior day. It was formulated an hour after the infamy speech of US President Roosevelt. Following the declaration, Japan’s allies, Germany and Italy, declared war on the United States, bringing the United States fully into World War II. When the Allied forces finally got to the point where an invasion on the Japanese mainland was inevitable, it was decided to use the Atomic weapons due to the fact that Japanese leaders had convinced their people to fight the death against “the foreign invaders”. Faced with the prospect of an invasion that could easily cost millions of lives on both sides, the US decided to drop the big ones and hopefully end the war with relatively few lives lost. They chose to target Hiroshima and Nagasaki because of their strategic importance to the empire. Both were military ports used to supply the armed forces of Japan and were filled with military supplies. So the bombs were dropped to end the war, not in revenge of Pearl

    There were many causes for the United States dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of these causes was because we wanted to increase the chances of Japan surrendering so that

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.

Many Japanese soldiers were suffering and had little resources left, they were struggling to stay alive (Document D). The atomic bombs were able to stop the fighting and help the soldiers go home to their families safely. On the American side, soldiers had a plan of invading Japan but it would have been hard because of low resources, it was too expensive, and the Japanese home islands were heavily guarded (Document E). The bombs clearly were the right way to go. Many believe that Japan would have surrendered anyway due to sea blockade (Document K). That could have been true but due to the aforementioned evidence Japan would have continued fighting leading to more casualties on both sides than the amount of casualties caused by the bombs. Many people supported the nuclear violence, especially American soldiers who were glad they were going to live and did not have to invade Japan after all (Document H). Due to the personal accounts of civilians and soldiers it can be concluded that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were a military necessity because they saved the lives of Japanese and American

The atomic scientists also agreed that dropping the atomic bomb had nothing to do with the surrender of Japan. By this time in the war, Japan was essentially already defeated. (Doc. F) James Byrnes , an atomic scientist, argued that dropping the bomb needed to be done in order to limit Russia's influence and power in Europe. Other scientists also agreed that the bomb was used to shorten the length, casualties, and costs of the war. (Doc. H) If the war had carried on, and the atomic bomb had not been used, it is predicted that monetary costs would have skyrocketed. Although Japan was already on the brink of surrender, getting them to do so would have cost a large amount of money. Dropping the bomb on Japan was done in order to ultimately decrease the cost of the war.

Another reason that the bomb’s use was unjustified was that the U.S. made aware that Japan was on the verge of surrender. Japan had been blockaded by the navy and had been continuously bombed. Cities such as Tokyo were decimated and thousands of

           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

There were many causes for the United States dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of these causes was because we wanted to increase the chances of Japan surrendering so that our

The atomic bombs ultimately saved both American and Japanese lives (Henry 51). If the bomb had not been dropped, more lives would have been lost and other nations could have gotten involved. The soldiers would have kept fighting for who knows how long, causing the war to continue on longer, with many more lives lost, both American and Japanese. If other nations got involved in the Pacific War effort, then people from those nations too would have more dead. The bombs saved the US from an invasion of Japan, therefore saving thousands of American lives.

The atomic bombing of Japan was an unjustified decision that many considered was inhumane. Through the use of atomic bombs, many innocents were harmed in one way or another. Berger described the atomic bombing of Hiroshima as "a terrorist act" and that it was "evil". While Berger 's argument was extreme, the U.S. still remains unjustified because they did not know exactly how much damage the bomb would actually cause. Bombing Japan, the U.S. harmed thousands of civilians and displayed the effectiveness of the atomic bomb despite having other options to end the war.

The first reason why the dropping of the atomic bomb was unnecessary was that the war was basically over. There were multiple reasons for that. Because of the extensive bombings in Japan most cities and therefore there military bases and machines were destroyed. (Greenwell) During the Pacific war, especially the invasion of Thailand and the war with China Japan lost most of its machines, which would have made it impossible to defend themselves during an invasion. At the beginning of the war Japan had the probably strongest Navy in the world. It outnumbered any other countries’ naval fleet. During the war, they lost the majority of their ships, their last carriers at the battle of Midway, which was a turning point of the Pacific war, when the United States soundly defeated the Japanese.

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.