preview

The Bombing Of The War Essay

Decent Essays

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. Another United States military officer to offer his input on the dropping of the bomb was General Carl Andrew Spaatz of the air force. Spaatz was directly involved in the chain of command of dropping of the bomb. Spaatz said “to me war is war no matter how you kill them.” This brings up a very interesting point. The fire bombings on Japan killed around 300,000 people while the atomic bomb killed 200,000, yet the atomic bomb brings a much

Get Access