Atomic Bombing on Japan

Jennifer
Mr. Ehrlich
U.S Military Pd:7
June 7,2013

There may be many reasons as to why the United States dropped a bomb in Japan. The bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese to initiate United States entrance into the war, just four years before, was still fresh on the minds of many Americans. A feeling of justification and a desire to end the war strengthened the resolve of the United States to quickly and decisively conclude it. President Harry Truman had many alternatives at his disposal for ending the war: invade the Japanese mainland, hold a demonstration of the destructive power of the atomic bomb for Japanese dignitaries, drop an atomic bomb on selected industrial Japanese cities, bomb and blockade the islands, wait for Soviet entry into the war on August 15, or mediate a compromised peace. The Japanese reaction to the bombing was giving by Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo which called August 9 "a bad day." When news of the Nagasaki bombing reached Tokyo, Togo proposed acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration which set out terms of surrender for Japan and was signed by the United States, Great Britain, and China. Japan's Supreme War Direction Council was deadlocked on a decision.Debate continued throughout that day and night. Finally, at 2 A.M. August 10, 1945, Prime Minister Admiral Baron Kantaro Suzuki respectfully begged His Imperial Majesty Hirohito to make a decision. Hirohito did not hesitate, "...I do not desire any further destruction of cultures, nor any additional misfortune for the peoples of the world. Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi, founder of the kamikazes, argued the Japanese "would never be defeated if we were prepared to sacrifice 20,000,000 Japanese lives in a 'special attack' effort." He later committed suicide rather than surrender. Hirohito was determined. Against all precedent, the emperor himself convened an Imperial Conference and at noon on August 15, 1945, announced Japan's surrender. The war was over. I have a 50/50 position on this topic which is, I think that by dropping the atomic bombs on Japan, President Truman prevented a land invasion on Japan, which may have killed about one million U.S. Military lives. But in other hands the US did not know the amount of damage the bomb was going to create, or the effects it would have on the people effected by the radiation. The dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was an inhumane act of cruelty and murder to over a hundred thousand Japanese. The US should have held back from dropping the bomb until knowledge of the bombs full power was known. The US should have demonstrated its power to Japan by bombing an unpopulated area, not incinerating a Japanese city. These are the reasons for President truman and the Americans reason for dropping the atomic bomb on Japan and the reaction of the Japanese before and after the atomic bomb dropping. An also my opinion in the topic.