The Pros And Cons Of Atomic Bombs

The purposeful bombing of civilians as a wartime strategy has oftentimes been used to bring about the end of a war, but controversy has sparked up about the ethicality of this practice because of its mass destruction of human lives. This tactic goes against human nature’s aversion to intentionally cause harm without a reasonable basis. Is the bombing of innocent people justified if it ultimately brings an end to the war? This ethical question arises when considering the issue of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

Whether the use of the atomic bomb on Japan during World War II was justified, we will never know. However, the amount of time spent on discussing the use and effect of the bomb seems to be nonexistent. If they talked about the bomb there was no major argument against using the bomb; with that came mystery because they did not understand the bomb. There were factors that they used as an excuse to use the bomb, but these were in the background and later added to make the argument seem more one-sided, in their favor. Whether the use of the atomic bomb proved helpful or not is up to debate. The atomic bomb changed the world, and given the evidence, the use of the bomb was not talked about in detail except for when and where to use it.

During World War II, President Harry S. Truman ordered for an atomic bomb to be dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6th ,1945. The second and last atomic bomb to ever be dropped was in the city of Nagasaki on August 9th, 1945. Many Americans believed dropping the atomic bomb was necessary to end the war in a more timely manner, however, many others believed dropping the atomic bomb was too extreme of a measure to take against Japan. With the creation of the atomic bomb, the United States had a weapon of mass destruction that no one else yet had. Therefore, with the power the atomic bomb possessed, some people believed its use should only be used as a last resort. If Japan would not surrender during this war, then the United States would have a valid and necessary reason in using the power of an atomic bomb. For the other Americans that believed in the immediate drop of the atomic bomb, dropping it would end the war sooner, which would then decrease the amount American soldiers who would be killed during the war. Whether dropping the atomic bomb on Japan was the most ethical decision that President Truman could have ordered is still debated.

“The city was hidden by that awful cloud . . . boiling up, mushrooming, terrible and incredibly tall," said Colonel Paul Tibbets, pilot of the modified B-29 bomber that dropped the world’s first atomic bomb over Hiroshima. The bombings resulted in the death of thousands, including not only Japanese citizens, forces, and military but also American captive soldiers. In the midst of World War II the United States forced Japan to surrender by dropping bombs in the major cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They released the second atomic bomb shortly after, in Nagasaki, Japan.

On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb to ever be used in the history of the world was dropped on Hiroshima. The result of this bomb killed roughly 80,000 people from the blast itself, and tens of thousands more due to radiation poisoning. After a few days passed, the United States dropped another nuclear bomb on Nagasaki, and threatened to drop another if the Japanese did not surrender. The bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki lead to the Japanese surrender to the United States, removing them from the war. While the use of this bomb was likely necessary at the time, was it an ethical decision? The lives that were affected from this blast were not just of those who experienced it, generations later, people who weren’t even alive at the time were faced with trauma as well. With that being said, the dropping of the bomb might have been necessary, but it was an unethical decision, even though the Japanese made it perfectly clear that they will fight until the last civilian.

Various viewpoints see the decision to use atomic weapons on Japan as completely justified. When the bombs were dropped in 1945, many Americans were all for it. A few of the main arguments backing the use of the bombs were to keep the lives of Americans safe, to end the war quickly to strike back at the Japanese for the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. One of the major arguments is that the use of the bombs saved numerous American lives and put a quick end to the war. If the bombs had not been dropped, more American soldiers would have been shipped to Japan to invade the mainland. Hypothetically, the lives of many American soldiers could have been lost and the US military might have sustained considerable damage. Another argument for the use of atomic bombs on Japan is the swift ending they brought to the war. The war ended on September 2, 1945 when the Japanese surrendered and complied with the Potsdam Declaration that demanded “the unconditional surrender of all

On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first ever atomic bomb, known as "Little Boy" on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. They dropped a second one known as "Fat Man" three days later on Nagasaki. When the first successful atomic bombs were developed by the Americans, they did not hesitate in dropping the bombs on Japan. Since then, the event has become a very controversial issue over whether or not the US was justified in dropping the bombs. But the fact is that they were not; there were alternatives to the attack, they attack violated international war laws,and they had unforeseen long term effects, As a result, the attacks were not justified.

World War II caused millions of deaths, civilian and otherwise. The death toll could have been much higher if the atomic bombs were not dropped. The United States made the correct decision to drop the atomic bombs. If the U.S. had not dropped these bombs the war could have carried on for years and taken millions more lives. If an invasion of Japan had taken place it would have likely taken years and millions of soldiers to cause surrender. No one wanted to prolong the war or cause more deaths than necessary, if the bombs had not been dropped history would likely be completely different.

In 1945, August 6th and 9th, a US bomber drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing instant deaths and massive destruction.Yet, Despite it ending the war, despite Japan surrender and thousands of lives saved. Was it okay for the US to use such massive amount of deadly power against other humans?

Was the atomic bomb all about splitting atoms. Was the atomic bomb big or small and where the people affected hardly by the bomb? The atomic bomb was a very hard and long project to build the bomb. The atomic bomb works by nuclear fission between atoms and the people were affected in many ways.

“Over three thousand five hundred Japanese kamikaze raids had already wrought great destruction and loss of American lives,” the artice the Decision to Drop the Bomb from USHisotry.org states. If the bomb on Hiroshima had not dropped, there would have been an all-out war going on for many years than it did. In Kamikaze raids, the pilot of a plane goes on a suicide mission and crash an aircraft stocked to the walls with explosives into an enemy; Kamikaze raids were not only death-totaling for the victims, but it brought death to the drivers of the planes. If the war had gone on, an estimated amount of around four times the deaths at Hiroshima would have occurred. However, some people may argue that it was just an estimated number and it would never be certain.

I disagree with the fact that the USA had dropped the bombs because the scale of the attack on pearl harbour was nothing compared to the atomic bombings.

It was believed that without the use of the bomb the war would have gone on for a longer amount of time, causing even more casualties and killing millions more. Once more in the Secretary of War’s article, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb”, Stimson states that they did also have plans other than using the nuclear weapons but, they weren’t ideal. “The strategic plans of our armed forces for the defeat of Japan had been prepared… We estimated that if we should be forced to carry this plan to its conclusion, the major fighting would not end until 1946, at the earliest… such operations might be expected to cost over a million casualties, to American forces alone” (Stimson). There could have been other ways to end the war other than the bombs, but those ways would’ve caused even more casualties on each side in the long run. Over 50 million people have already died throughout the war and the US didn’t want to add millions more, hence the use of the bombs. The events at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were tragic but the comparison of lives lost to lives saved, the use of the bombs were necessary for the war. In the article “Torture and the Bomb” written by Jon Reinsch, Reinsch explain the steps in which caused the US to use the atomic bombs. “In each case, the United States confronted a real threat. Japan had engaged in a brutal campaign of conquest, and the fight against it would kill or wound nearly 300,000 Americans” (Reinsch). Japan’s forces were a major threat toward the US, within each and every battle the amount of casualties continued to pile up. If the United States did not take a large step forward in defending themselves, many more lives would have been lost. This could have lead to the US losing the war. The United States took proper action, they saved many more lives by using the atomic

The Atomic Bomb should be used very strategically and tactically in order to ensure a minimal loss of American life and a quick end to the war. Japan will not surrender until defeat meets them face to face. Japan’s women and children are jumping off of cliffs so that they can not be captured by the Allies. The Japanese soldiers are kamikaze bombing our American soldiers. Russia is preparing for an invasion into Eastern Asia. This madness must come to a halt. The United States needs to drop one Atomic Bomb on an outlying city of the capital, Tokyo. This will wake up the Japanese Emperor, Hirohito, and make for a quick surrender. We, however, cannot utterly destroy Japan with a second Atomic Bomb. We must remember that this is 1945 and

If the war would have kept going and the United States would have won there would have been a low Japanese population after the war compared to the population after both bombs were dropped. The Japanese were told to fight to the death and that is what they did. The women and children were being taught on how to defend themselves from the Americans. I also find it hard not to believe that the Japanese race could have been close to extinction if the Americans would have kept fighting and won. The Japanese would put their life on the line for their country and their God. Even the women and children that American troops tried to help would kill themselves by throwing themselves off cliffs or fighting with the men till the death. The bombs also saved Japanese lives by ending the war so the Japanese population would not starve. The population of Japanese people that were not off to war and were still in Japan had a limited amount of food and were left eating anything they could get their hands on. Studies done to predict the number of deaths after the bomb dropped came out to be five to ten million, but if the United States had not dropped the bomb a Japanese professor predicted eighty million Japanese people would die. There was not enough food for the people and they were running out of options and getting weaker everyday. A Japanese professor stated that if the United States hadn’t dropped the bomb he would have died within the next