Atomic Bomb Debate (Against)

Debate Intro The pictures in front of you are the gruesome results of the utter destruction after the atomic bombs were dropped on both Japanese cities. Almost half a million victims; equivalent to 13,000 tons of TNT; a 1.6 mile radius of destruction/bomb (within that radius, people were disintegrated, leaving shadows where they stood). Housewives and children were incinerated instantly, their internal organs boiled and their bones charred into brittle charcoal. 65% of the casualties were nine years of age and younger. Even days after the explosion their health began to fail. They lost appetite. Their hair fell out. Bluish spots appeared on their bodies. And then bleeding began from the ears, nose and mouth. All of this could have been avoided and we still could have won the war. Japan’s Navy & Air Force were almost obliterated, their economy was collapsing, and their people were starving. Germany was also collapsing as well, and the Japanese had no chance in the Pacific due to the blockades. There were on the brink of surrendering. Therefore, the atomic bombings on Japan were not only military unnecessary, they were in the form of “state terrorism,” in sense that they targeted innocents to achieve a political goal, they were a crime to humanity slaughtering thousands of innocent women, children, and the elderly, they were fundamentally immoral by violating international law by indiscriminately attacking and destroying civilians. These weapons of mass destruction cannot discriminate between men, women and children; between the healthy and the infirm; the aged and the newly born. Our lesson after 1945 led to the ongoing pursuit of more and better nuclear weapons. It led to a mad nuclear arms race based upon mutually assured destruction with the Soviet Union. It led to some 2,000 nuclear weapons tests in the world that have caused untold radiation damage to down winders, mostly indigenous peoples, around the world. Some fraction of the more than 30,000 nuclear