Was the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan justified? Many people believe that it was very justified, but was it? Some reasons could have been the attack on Pearl Harbor, the destruction of Japans power to make war, also what seemed to the only answer to end war. “I wouldn’t hesitate if I had the choice. I’d wipe ‘em out. You’re gonna kill millions of innocent people, but at the same time we’ve never fought a war anywhere in the world where they haven’t fought and killed innocent people.”
-Paul Tibbets (DOC 6.) In that statement, Paul was stating that withier we dropped the bomb or not we’d still be killing innocent people. It was also more of an easy victory for the US by dropping the bomb more lives would be saved rather than letting the war go on. It seemed like the only way for the US.
“We will issue a warning statement asking the Japanese to surrender and save lives” -‘’Truman Diary Transcript’’ (DOC.6)
The Japanese were warned to surrender or face prompt or utter destruction. The US had their planes fly over and drop “leaflets”, or papers that warned Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and 33 other Japanese cities to leave the surrounding areas , if they didn’t leave not only were they putting themselves in danger but they put their families in danger . The US gave the people two days to evacuate before they would drop the bombs.
“We shall completely destroy Japans power to make war” -“President of the US” (DOC. 7) An eye for an eye, what made this seem like the only choice? It was either drop the bombs, kill a few thousand people or not drop the bomb, the war lingers on and more people die than the bombs killed. WW2 had to stop and this made it happen. Neither country could afford any more warring on the other, this was a costly expense. True the US killed innocent people, but if they didn't