The Pros And Cons Of The Atomic Bomb

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.

Ray Bradbury once said, “After Hiroshima was bombed, I saw a photograph of the side of a house with shadows of the people who had lived there burned into the wall from the intensity of the bomb. The people were gone, but their shadows remained.” Keep in mind that quote only described the intensity of “Little Boy”, the nickname for the bomb that devastated Hiroshima. The bombs that dilapidated both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were harrowing, gruesome, and in all sincerity, needless. The reasoning people have given to justify the bombings was because it was a military necessity; they thought the atom bombs were needed to save lives and to end the war quickly. However, the Merriam-Webster dictionary explicitly defines a ‘military necessity’ as “the necessity attending belligerent military operations that is held to justify all measures necessary to bring an enemy to complete submission excluding those (as cruelty, torture, poison, perfidy, wanton destruction) that are forbidden by modern laws and customs of war.” According to this interpretation of a ‘military necessity’, both of the bombings do not match this definition. Various people wonder why the U.S. would condone the use of the explosives and inflict such destruction on others, considering that they had first hand experiences on devastating attacks that seemed gratuitous. Many have argued that there were multiple alternatives to such a catastrophe, and the bombs did not have to be utilized. Others state that the bombings were

“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.

I believe that the dropping of the atomic bombs were a necessity to end the war. There are 3 main reasons I believe this. Those reasons are that millions of American and Japanese lives were saved, there was no imminent evidence that Japan was going to surrender, The US was trying to show their power to the USSR.

On August 6, 1945, the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. For decades, there have been feuds relating to the justification of the bombing. Was the U.S justified? It depends on your opinion. The United States was justified due to the unprovoked attack and bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which occurred three years prior to the bombing of Hiroshima, it was necessary to stop the war because it saved thousands of American lives. Until then, the fight had never been on United States soil. Innocent men, women and children did not have to worry about being killed on their land until the infamous day: December 7, 1941, the attack of Pearl Harbor. On that day, the Japanese took to the skies with 423 planes, arriving in Pearl Harbor, killing a total of 2,403 and wounding 1178. Hitting 18 U.S ships, it crippled the U.S naval fleet in one day. Little known to the people, the bombing also destroyed 180 fighter jets used in the U.S Air Force. This was an unjustified, barbaric act and dropping the bomb on Hiroshima was justified.

Since Japan is a island it makes it harder to invade the country. Invading the country would take a lot of people. Instead of risking hundreds of thousands of American lives. The U.S. decided to do the smart thing by bombing Japan. Bombing Japan instead of trying to invade it saved many American lives and Japanese lives. The bombing was a quick solution besides a long, deadly fight between the U.S. and Japan.

Atomic bombs are so powerful that it immediately causes a widespread killing of the people close to the explosion. The aftermath of the explosions are horrific to where there were bodies floating down the stream (Document F). “The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in out war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender” (Document B). This means that the Japanese thought these weapons were exceedingly brutal and would wipe out everything, so they weren’t in favor of the bombs. They were already defeated from the power of these bombs and they couldn’t do anything after the explosions, and this was just not necessary. After the attacks, Hiroshima was no longer a city but a burned-over prairie. To the east and west everything was flattened (Document D). Entire cities were wiped out and this caused shock and sadness to approach into

The result of this was the death of tens of thousands of individuals, even civilians, in place of those who would’ve died in future battle, where it could even result in even more bloody casualties, as well as a substantial amount of American casualties. As stated by President Harry S. Truman, “It was their recommendation that the bomb be used against the enemy as soon as it could be done. They recommended further that it should be used without specific warning…” (Doc 1). In my opinion, this quote shows how we needed no demonstration and no warning to the Japanese and hit them hard, fast, and respond exactly how they did at Pearl Harbor. Another quote from Document 1 includes how this atomic bomb “would likely bring the war to an end,” (Doc

On August 6, 1945, the 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, made the executive decision to drop a 10,000 pound atomic bomb named “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima in Japan. Three days later, Truman ordered another atomic bomb, called “Fat Man” to be dropped on another Japanese city, Nagasaki. Each bomb had a blast radius of fifty miles. The decision to utilize these weapons of mass destruction will always be a very controversial topic because of the debated morality of the decision.

The launching of the bomb during the summer of August was delayed due to the wet weather. Then by August 6th the first bomb was detonated over Hiroshima, which would cause many to go through cancer and have birth deformities. More than 800,000 perished from the site of the blast. However, Prime Minister Suzuki and Emperor Hirohito were still holding their ground. They did not want to take any action before the full report on Hiroshima was in. Consequently, the US was ready to strike again in order to force Japan to comply to their utter defeat. Nagasaki would be another target on their list even though Kokura was initially on their list, but the weather caused

They were two bombs that were dropped with just one day of one another, which gave Japan no time to think about what is coming at them. It might have been possible that Japan would have surrendered after the first bomb but America gave Japan no time to think about it and dropped the second bomb. If Japan would have given in, then the second bomb would have been complete unnecessary and could have saved way more lives and the consequences would have been less than dropping two bombs. What America should have done was to give Japan a chance to explore its possible options and should have given them the idea of surrender before dropping the second

Why the bomb seemed like it would make the war worst it actually ended the war quicker. The war ended quicker because it finally caused Japan to surrender and accept the defeat. “The atomic bomb did not win the war. Japan had been defeated already by land, sea, and air campaign that went before. It is reasonable to conclude, however, that the bomb did force the Japanese surrender -- and considerably sooner than it would have occurred otherwise.” (Text 1 Page 8). The bomb did not win but it ended it because Japan’s way of fighting is fight to the last man and it is better to die in combat than to surrender. If the bomb had been dropped sooner it would’ve been the factor that won the war, but since Japan had little fighting effort in the air

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

By June of 1945, the United States had been dropping bomb after bomb on many of the cities of Japan without any real sort of retaliation from the Japanese for over six months (Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Wikipedia). Why? Because by then, Japan’s military forces had all but cease to exist. Cities had been reduced to ruins by the never-ending attacks. Bombs fell out of the sky like rain from storm clouds. Production of weapons, or anything, in what was left of buildings and factories that once stood was virtually impossible (Weber). A fourth of the population was left homeless and near death from starvation. Transportation was practically nonexistent. The country of Japan was on the verge of collapse, and they knew it. Little did they know it was only going to get worse.