Why Do We Need Atomic Bombs?

They think that the Japanese were going to surrender, that Truman’s advisers didn’t all agree that the bomb was necessary, and that there was a better way to get Japan to surrender. But, it turns out that this was not the case. Japan was an honor-based country. Surrendering was not honorable to them. They were taught that suicide was an honorable death. “A prominent local Navy man, a former employee, had committed suicide the day before by throwing himself under a train- a death considered honorable enough to warrant a memorial service.”. (Hersey, 16). If it was honorable enough for a normal man to commit suicide, then people wouldn’t hesitate to die for their country. Japan would be wiped out because they wouldn’t know when to give up. In an interview with a high ranked Japanese officer on v-j day, Karl T. Compton asked him what he thought would happen if we hadn’t dropped the bomb, and invaded instead. He said, “We would have kept on fighting until all Japanese were killed, but we would not have been defeated.”. By this he means that they would have kept fighting until they were dead, and even though they would lose, it wouldn’t be losing if they died honorably, fighting for their country. Another reason why people did not think that he atomic bomb was not necessary was because people think that Truman’s advisors were not in favor of the bomb, therefore making the decision to drop the bomb only up to Truman,

(Doc C). Next, Winston Churchill’s recollection of the Potsdam Conference also emphasized the need to end the war before Soviet intervention. It seemed to be a mutual agreement between the U.S. and Britain that the two powers should not need the Red Army to end the war with Japan (Doc E). Finally, nuclear physicist Leo Szilard’s recollection of a 1945 meeting between James Byrnes and a group of concerned atomic scientists supports the idea that America dropped the atomic bomb to intimidate the U.S.S.R. The scientists were very concerned about the rapid spreading of Russian influence in Europe, which probably contributed to the U.S. policy of containment. Due to this fear, James Byrnes and the atomic scientists believed that demonstrating the bomb would make the Soviet Union more manageable in Europe. One can also argue that this approach can be related the John Foster Dulles theory of massive retaliation, which is the belief that the threat of “massive of retaliation” with nuclear weapons would stop Soviet aggression. Therefore, one can argue that the dropping of the atomic bomb was a diplomatic measure calculated to intimidate the Soviet Union and one can argue that this idea was backed by the theories of containment and massive retaliation.

When President Truman authorized the use of two nuclear weapons in 1945 against the Japanese in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, the nature of international security was changed irreversibly. At that time, the United States had what was said to have a monopoly of atomic bombs. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union began working on atomic weaponry. In 1949, it had already detonated it first atomic bomb and tensions began to heat up between the two countries. With the information that the Soviets had tested their first bomb, the United States began work on more powerful weapons1, and a fight for nuclear superiority had begun.

Was it necessary for Truman to drop the Atomic Bombs on Japan in World War II? On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped by a US aircraft on Hiroshima. This atomic bomb was dropped to force Japan into surrender, this bomb alone destroyed Hiroshima and over 90,000 people were instantly killed in the explosion and an additional 100,000 people perished from burns and radiation sickness. On August 9, 1945 only three days later, the second atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki resulting in an additional 80,000 casualties of the Japanese population. The people of Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945 soon after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many people opposed to the use of the atomic bombs because people argued that Truman 's decision to use atomic bombs was a barbaric act of cruelty. People also argued that the US government had other ulterior motives to drop the atomic bomb that were necessary for America 's ideals. Necessary motives like presenting The Soviet Union a strong message for the Soviets to watch their step around America. A conventional way of warfare for Japan 's surrender would have costed many more American lives. Truman and others believed that the atomic bomb was necessary to save American lives but also Japanese lives. These actions from President Truman marked the end of the most destructive war in history. The two sources that will used and evaluated in this paper are is The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb by Dennis D. Wainstock (1996)

Before the bombs were set off over Nagasaki and Hiroshima, a test bomb was detonated in the desert lands of New Mexico. The scientists involved in the research and fruition of this weapon were holding their breaths to see if it worked. They were not concerned with how many potential lives their creation could end, they were only interested in seeing if all of their hard work and two billion dollars in funding would pay off. Dr. J. R. Oppenheimer was credited with the idea of using the atomic bomb as a military weapon. If the bomb worked the intention was to use it to end lives, but as they watched in anticipation to see if the

The Japanese people had a mentality of “total war” and if a conventional war were to be brought to their homeland, the Japanese were ready and prepared to fight, which would have resulted in many casualties on both sides. One possible consequence of a conventional ​war would have been a prolonging of the war. Rather than spending months, even years, fighting a war in Japan and suffering many more losses, the prospect of simply dropping a bomb over Japan and ending the war was more appealing (Wainstock 73). Truman wanted to minimize the amount of time needed to force an unconditional surrender because Russia was to join the fight against Japan within 90 days after VE Day. If Russia joined the fight against Japan, the other countries would be obligated to give her a portion in determining post­war Japan, which would result in the communist influence being spread over to Japan and eventually the entire Pacific. Truman also made this grueling decision because he had to show the power of the US to prevent future quarrels with Russia and other

The cold war in conjunction with the nuclear arms race raised a countless number of dangers that were new to Americans. One of the most obvious risks raised by the nuclear arms race was the blast of the bomb itself. The bombs that were emerging were only getting colossal, and the effects were reaching potential world destruction. For example, the atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were minuscule compared to the Hydrogen bomb, which the U.S built to stay ahead of the Soviet Union. But as history has shown itself, the Soviet Union came kept up with the competition and created a Hydrogen bomb as well. Now both countries possessed bombs that could decimate out entire countries.

The Atomic Bomb or known Atom Bomb was created by a scientist, which assembled the first bomb. He and General Leslie Graves officially and successfully tested it in New Mexico, July 21, 1945. Despite this, two refugees from Italy and Germany in the early 1940’s, Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard were the first to ever produce a controlled chain reaction. The bomb was created to use during WW2 and end it. This was big for America as president Franklin was notified that Germany was working on a similar weapon to use on America and its Allies. This bomb was needed to win the war and it took approximately 160,000 lives as a result while also having many affects on the people then, the people today, and the environment (Henretta, Edwards, & Self, 2012). The US was the first and only country to this day to drop an atomic bomb on another country, not once, but twice. This did end the war; however, the results were quite devastating to Japan. The environment and lives lost were all greatly impacted however, the world as a whole would be impacted for years to come. It also had its political reasoning behind it to show the global power of America. The devastation caused by the bombs also created deterrence from using them in the future at the time. Furthermore, now as other countries have improved technological

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

The Japanese saw this as an incredible insult to their ruler, and therefore refused surrender (Lawton). The only reason why America could follow through with the term of “The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction” (“Potsdam Declaration”) was because it had made the terms of the Potsdam Declaration completely disgraceful and unacceptable for Japan. Clive A. Lawton argues “Many Japanese politicians would only agree to surrender if Emperor Hirohito remained on the throne”. Had the U.S. revised its treaty terms in order to keep Hirohito in power and leave at least some of the Japanese military intact, Japan would have likely surrendered quicker and the bombs would not be needed.

World War II Was one of the largest wars in the world, and because of this there were many controversies to do with the war. One of these was whether or not it was right to use bombs.

During world war two, many countries were trying to build an atomic bomb. They wanted to build it first so they could end the war and win. The United States was mainly racing against Germany and the Soviet Union to build an atomic bomb. We did not know how far along Germany was in building an atomic bomb because everyone was keeping their progress very secret. The Soviet Union had many spies trying to figure out the science behind the atomic bomb because we were farther along than them. Once we had built the bomb Germany had already surrendered, but Japan had not. We decided to drop two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because we did not want to lose any more American soldiers in the war. After I read this book, I think we made

The decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the hardest decision for President Truman to make. He had the power right there in his hands to end the war but he would have to unleash the most powerful weapon known to man, at this time. Everyone was very tired of fighting but the Japanese would not give up so Truman decided to drop it. Even though we told Japan that if they did not surrender we would completely demolish some of their cities, they did not listen and they did not surrender. Maybe they did not think about what kind of weapons we would use because

The nature of the Atomic Bomb created a global and theoretical set of stakeholders that few other ethical dilemmas reach. In many ways this use of nuclear technology created the Cold War and the global fear of a nuclear Armageddon. At that time every citizen of the globe feared how the use of nuclear weapons would harm them and their world. The future is also a stakeholder in this conversation. The effects of nuclear fallout were not well understood at the time. Nuclear aftermath could last for decades and even longer, effecting the health and livelihood of all living things for generations to come. The information that could be collected and research opportunities created after a nuclear weapon detonation would be studied for centuries and will change medicine and research forever. Future citizens and scientists were also stakeholders in this decision.

As evidence, Truman’s critics point to the “peace feelers” put out by the Japanese, as “peace entrepreneurs” that appealed to Portugal, the Vatican and Sweden to help negotiate the terms of surrender. The most noteworthy of these entrepreneurs was ambassador Natoke Sato who was working at the time in order to negotiate better terms for a surrender. Also, an inner cabinet had formed that consisted of powerful Japanese leaders who in secrecy intended to negotiate an end to the war (Frank 46). This could have opened a diplomatic path to negotiate a surrender which Truman did not use and it gives his critics reasons to believe that the bombing was not for military purposes.Moreover, Japan had militarily lost the war. Their navy was sunk and air force could not prevent the American B-29 air raids. The naval blockade (Code named Operation Starvation) had made food and fuel scarce meaning the Japanese were starving to death. Given these facts, it would seem that Truman really had no need to bomb Hiroshima because he could have secured peace without