05.06 War Ends: Assignment

In my opinion, using the bomb on Japan was a “smart” choice. Even though it killed thousands and thousands of people, it stopped the war! If we hadn't bombed Japan the war would have continued, resulting in many young American lives lost. If you think about it this way, the atomic bomb would have eventually been used on someone, so why not Japan? I don't want to be harsh and say they deserved it but they were pretty guilty of doing horrible things to the places they invaded. So yes, the bombing was definitely necessary to do in order to put an end to it all.

Although I feel bombing Japan was necessary, there are a few reasons as to why the bomb shouldn't have been used as well. In the midst of the bombing, a lot of innocent people were killed! Another reason is that Japan was already exhausted and reportedly on the verge of surrendering, it was just the military government with a “fight to the death attitude”, not the general population. They created the kamikaze because they ran out of weapons, this was a desperate act. The last reason I can think of would be that the bombing alarmed the Soviet Union and let to an eventual nuclear arms race.

If it isn't obvious already, I think bombing Japan was what had to be done. Even though it potentially killed innocent people, it saved just as many lives in the US, if not more! Many Japanese soldiers lives were saved, mainly because of the scheduled invasion. The experience of Iwo Jima and Okinawa proved their willingness to fight to the last man. The war ended much quicker. An invasion of the Japanese home islands was scheduled to begin no earlier than 1946 and would've lasted at least the better part of a year. At the end of the day it was drop the bomb and end the war, or be prepared to drag on a fight almost too great to fight.