The Hiroshima Attack On September 6th Failed

In 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and in the act of “revenge”, we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, devastating the Japanese people. Harry Truman was not justified in his decision to use the atomic bombs against the Japanese and caused them to be victims. For, the Japanese already accepted that they were defeated and ready to surrender, Truman's goal of ending the war did not happen and instead started another war while horror swept the entire world, and it was very inhumane, many innocent Japanese lives were taken.

Truman dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. This action was an attempt to make the Japanese army surrender, which was almost impossible considering they had a mindset of ‘Bushido’, or no surrender, so a large action was needed to be taken. To share the responsibility and power, Truman made the decision with a group of opinions and people. “The Interim Committee, created in May 1945, was primarily tasked with providing advice to the President on all matters pertaining to nuclear energy” (“The Decision”). Truman had realized that nuclear power was too much responsibility for one person to have.

On the clear morning of August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima, Japan, the world was hit with a total shock, that went down in history as a day for the history books. This day, the city of Hiroshima was blasted by the world’s first atomic bomb, which sent the grounds quaking, and leaving thousands dead. The debates for years since the bombing were having us all wonder if the attack was a military necessity or not. Considering both sides of the argument, it is clear to me that the bombing was the best plan for ending the world war. The use of the bomb saved more lives than it took.

Whilst the exact death toll from the use of the atomic bombs on Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki are unknown, it is estimated that at least 200,000 people were killed. If Harry Truman had condemned the use of the atomic bombs, than the U.S military would have been forced to launch an attack on the Japanese homelands in two D-Day type invasions. The first invasion was called Operation Torch and would be targeting the Southern island of Kyushu, and was scheduled for the 1st of November. The second invasion known as Operation Coronet was set for the main island of Honshu, and was organised to take place in the spring of 1946. Together these invasions were entitled Operation Downfall which would ultimately sustain high casualties for a number of reasons. The first being that Field Marshall Hisaichi Terauchi threatened that he would condemn that the total figure of 100,000 Allied prisoners of war would be executed if the Americans invaded. Secondly, it was known to both parties that there were scarcely any good landing points, and that the Japanese would then be waiting there for the Americans to arrive, poised to attack and retaliate. Finally, the Japanese abided by a code of practise called Bushido, which viewed surrendering as weak and a disgrace to both your family and the emperor for generations. This

Japan during the 1940’s was a nation that prided itself on the concept of never surrendering. It was something that they took fierce and obsessive pride in. Their culture dictated that they are never to give up, even if they fought until every single man,woman, and child living in Japan was slaughtered, they would never surrender. This doctrine was one of the key deciding factors that influenced Truman in making the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Several weeks before the Atomic bomb was dropped, The Untied States of Military issued a warning to the Japanese government. “It warned the Japanese to surrender immediately or face ‘prompt and utter destruction.” (Yes! Harry Truman’s Simple Decision) Unfortunately, a mere two weeks before the first atomic bomb dropped, the Japanese prime minister publically dismissed the warning and refused to surrender. Even after the bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese government refused to stand down. Even though they had suffered over 225,000 civilian casualties in the attack, the Japanese military refused to surrender. It took until the second bombing of Nagasaki to finally force the Japanese to surrender on American

On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. To this day there is controversy on whether the U.S. should have risked the lives of hundreds of thousands of people to win the second world war. The U.S. Should have considered other options before dropping the bomb on Hiroshima. There were many alternative actions that could have taken place instead of dropping the bomb, but President Truman decided that using it was the best way to get the Japanese to surrender. If he would have chosen differently, the world would be a different place today.

Henceforth, thanks to the atomic bombs dropped, only 200,000 casualties (Ellis & Esler 2009) happened to the Japanese over the ten Million estimated if a land invasion had occurred. Another compelling argument favoring the USA’s arguments is that a considerable amount of Japanese high ranking officials knew of the existence of the atomic bomb but just brushed it off like the warning they received of mass destruction (Maddox, 2007). Japan were aware of the existence and threat of the atomic bomb. The atomic bombs ended WW2.

On August 15th Japan surrendered, and on September 2nd, 1945 they signed the “Instrument of Surrender”. Hospitals were filled with patients who had not seemed sick before. People vomited, bled from their gums, and spots had begun to appear on their skin. Later Japanese doctors discovered that the people were dying from radiation that came from the atomic bomb. {look up: conspiracy theory} When considering using the atomic bombs, President Truman took into account the lowest possible cost for ending the war, he also wanted to end the war quickly. Truman once stated, “When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast.” After the Pearl Harbor invasion. The U.S. started with “Operation Downfall,” invading Kyushu, many casualties where estimated, but this war proved to be even more deadly than predicted. General MacArthur thought that dropping more bombs, and using air power by itself would protect American lives, while also bringing forth a quicker surrender from the Japanese. When I look at both sides of the 1945 Japan bombing I really tried to stay open about the different viewpoints. The fact that the U.S., Britain, and the Netherlands crippled Japan was interesting to find. I felt that the Japanese did not want to compromise, and in some way bit the hands that fed them. It seems these allies had allot of power. The Japanese seemed to only

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.

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

On August 6, 1945, a bomb with the force of 20,000 tons of TNT, was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later a similar bomb was dropped on the city Nagasaki. Both cities were effectively eradicated and so was there people. Six days after that, Japan surrendered, thus ending World War II. Americans supported the action of Truman, that is until they saw the images of the destructive power of the bomb. The horrific images showing the victims of radiation and of burns that are caused by the force of the sun. As the Christian Century writes “What the use of poison gas did to the reputation of Germany in World war I, the use of the atomic bomb has done for the reputation of the United States in World War II.” The people of America began to question is Truman’s choice was a good one. Could have there been a different way to end the war without using Nuclear force?

One of the most controversial and heavily scrutinized issue of the twentieth century was President Harry S. Truman’s decision to unleash atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The motives behind Truman’s actions are shrouded in controversy as top military officials publicly denounced the use of such a disastrous weapon. There is overwhelming evidence supporting both sides of the decision, as historians are split in opinion. The United States had been using conventional bombing to try to push Japan over the edge to surrender, but with countless Japanese civilians loyal to their country, invading Japan proved to be more problematic than first thought. Harry S. Truman made the ultimate decision of dropping the atomic bomb in hopes that it would end the war, but the amount of casualties caused by it has historians questioning if it was morally right, “The bomb was unfortunate, but it was the only means to bring Japan to a surrender,” historian Sadao Asada states (Bomb 9). Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justifiable because they would ultimately lead to the end of the war and would demonstrate U.S. supremacy.

When the Japanese choose not to surrender President Truman makes the decision to use the atomic bomb rather than risk the 1,000,000 projected lives lost in a man to man combat war. Hiroshima was a chosen as

The atomic bomb caused a lot of unnecessary destruction when it was dropped on Hiroshima. It had destroyed houses and work buildings in Hiroshima, such as the hospital in which Dr. Fujii lived and worked. Dr. Fujii’s hospital was smashed “all around him in a mad assortment of splintered lumber and materials for the relief of pain” (John Hersey, 11). Buildings were blown apart, caught fire, and completely obliterated. Two-thirds of Hiroshima were demolished. Out of the 90,000 buildings in Hiroshima, 60,000 buildings were destroyed within a three mile radius of the epicenter. The havoc could have been avoided by not dropping the atomic bomb.

By bombing Japan, many civilians were killed as a result of the U.S. 's desire to use a new weapon. Laurence describes the bomb as, "a thing of beauty to behold" and "Never before had so much brain power been focused on a single problem" (11). This demonstrated how the U.S. saw Japan as a problem that needed to be dealt with quickly and that the new and supposedly destructive weapon was the best choice. While the targets, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were both production areas ,they were inhabited by a number of civilians. By choosing to drop the bomb, thousands were annihilated and any survivors began to suffer from radiation sickness shortly after. Because of its destruction, the U.S. believed the atomic bomb was a quick solution to the war.