In August of 1945, the United States launched two atomic bombs on Japan; the first, in Hiroshima on August 6, and the second in Nagasaki a few days later. Despite the obvious diplomatic advantage to implementing one of the most intimidating weapons of that time, the United States’ tactics and goals behind dropping the atomic bombs were purely military oriented; the political benefit was merely an added bonus. The atomic bomb was necessary due to the Japanese’s refusal to surrender and the hundreds of thousands of lives at stake.…
Although the use of the bomb killed many innocent civilians it also saved many lives because if the bomb had not dropped the war would have gone on with more air raids and more attacks on cities and many soldiers on both sides would have died. If the US had not dropped the atomic bomb the nuclear arms race would have would have went on and the standards would have been different and it may not have been just two cities but an entire country.…
On August 6th, 1945, the United States dropped the first ever Atomic weapon on Hiroshima, Japan. 140,000 people lost their lives, most of which were civilians. President Truman was in charge of this major decision, and he made the correct choice. The alternative solutions were much too costly for the United States, both in expenses and American casualties. Another reason Truman’s decision is justified was due to the declination of the fair ultimatum recieved by Japan. Also it was important to the well being of the world to keep the Soviets out of Japan. Dropping the Atomic Bomb was the most reliable and definite way to end the war.…
“On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later another B-29, Bock’s Car, released one over Nagasaki. Both caused enormous casualties and physical destruction.” (Maddox 1). These disastrous events have weighted upon the American conscience ever since that day in history. Even though there are some people that disagree with the dropping of the atomic bomb, President Truman’s decision was very critical because he prevented the loss of many American lives, Japanese soldiers fought with no notion of ever surrendering, and it brought an end to a bloody war.…
Twenty years after Harry Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bomb, scholars and citizens subscribed to the original version of the story: the President acted to avoid the invasion of Japan and lose anywhere from 200,000 to 500,000 American lives. Then in 1965, Gar Alperovitz published a the book “Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam”. He argues that the dropping of the atomic bomb “was not needed to end the war or to save lives” but was a message to the Soviet Union. Fifty years after the atomic bomb was dropped, Alperovitz said that the final answer to why the atomic bomb was dropped is “neither essential nor possible”. He also said,”What is important is whether, when the bomb was used, the President and his top advisers understood that it wa not required to avoid a long and costly invasion, as they later claimed and as most Americans still believe.” Alperovitz believes that if the bomb was not used, Japan might still have been made to surrender before the first American landing on the island of Kyushu.…
It was August 6, 1945 when the first ever atomic bomb dropped on the city of Hiroshima in Japan. Three days later another was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, Japan and this let to the surrender of Japan in World War II. The surrender would have not occurred so soon if it had not been for President Harry Truman’s decision to use the first ever nuclear attack on another nation. His decision changed history and the way the world worked. This meant that nuclear power was out there at the disposal of the United States for them to use whenever they saw fit. The decision Truman had to make was extremely difficult seeing as he was faced with a huge ethical dilemma whether to kill entire cities to save millions of American lives. The issue was not only was it ethically right but did he have enough justification to prove to the world that dropping the atomic bomb was the only way to end the war.…
In august of 1945, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a questionable decision by Harry Truman, the president of The United States of America. Throughout the years, it has been a heated debate in terms of whether the decision was morally correct and justified. Historians have analyzed and presented many arguments. In this short essay, I will attempt to expand on how historians feel about the decision by Truman to use atomic bombs. The revisionists bring into perspective and question the motivations of Harry Truman claiming he had more on his agenda than just the war. In my opinion, the decision to use atomic bombs was somewhat justified because if looked at statistically, the death toll with an invasion would have been higher and Truman…
I am completely opposed to the bombings on the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is…
In Europe, the war with Germany was over but Japan was still fighting. So the U.S could concreted on the war with Japan. The U.S had atomic bombs ready and a decision had to be made; should they sent ground forces to invade Japan or should they bomb Japan. So on August 1945 the U.S decided to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and this created some controversy. Some people though it was a good idea to bomb Japan, while others say that 200,000 innocent people were killed. I believe that bombing the two cities was the right decision because it did save the lives of many U.S soldiers and it ended World War II.…
On August 6th, 1945, President Truman addressed the American people, informing them that one of the most influential events in history had occurred, “Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima,...That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of TNT...which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare”. By the summer of 1945, millions of soldiers and citizens of the world had died after years of fighting in the Second World War. Although Europe’s involvement in the war had come to an end, the War in the Pacific between the United States and Japan had not found its conclusion. The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki have come to be among the most debatable events in history. While some argue that because the bombings ended World War II, more lives of both American and Japanese soldiers were saved then there were victims of the bombs; others argue that more measures could have been attempted in order to possibly preventing the need for the bombs. The argument that the dropping of the bombs have prevented possible future wars from occurring has been made. However, the lasting environmental and social effects of the bomb have left…
Wars have occurred for various different reasons all around the world, each nation involved using their best means of defensive and offensive attacks. Weaponry has been updated as time went on, leading us from arrows and bows to powerful guns. In the 1940s during World War II, however, one weapon in particular left a huge impact. The United States’ decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II was not justified due to the fact that it was ethically wrong, an excessive use of force, and unnecessary.…
In 1945 Harry S. Truman decided to use the atomic bomb not only once, but twice to finish World War Two. The first bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima August, 6th killed upwards to around 80,000 people and the second bomb dropped on Nagasaki August, 14th killed 40,000 people. The controversy of the atomic bomb is because of the amount of innocent people that were killed in Japan. Nobody will ever know the outcome of the war if we never dropped the bomb, but we do know that the war was ended because of it. Over 100,000 people lost their lives because of these bombs, but how many lives would have been lost if we never dropped them? That is the other question that can never be answered, but based…
On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing thousands of innocent people! The United States did it to force Japan to surrender and end World War II. To this present day it still and will remain a controversy whether or not the US was in the right or wrong of bombing Hiroshima. I argue that the US shouldn’t have attacked Hiroshima the way they did.…
The dropping of the atomic bomb was possibly the most debated topic undertaken by Harry Truman and the United States government in 1945. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan, fighting in the Pacific reached terrifying levels as Allied forces systematically destroyed Japan. Despite how potent these forces were, the cost of human life was sickeningly high. This “problem” had a controversial solution- the atomic bomb. Upon becoming president, Truman had the final decision pertaining to the dropping of the weapon.…
In the summer of 1945 the United States was entering the final stages of World War II. One could assume that ending the war quickly was a priority. President Truman was demanding “unconditional surrender” from Japan. In a statement he released on May 8th, he described unconditional surrender as “Our blows will not cease until the Japanese military and naval forces lay down their arms in unconditional surrender. Just what does the unconditional surrender of the armed forces mean for the Japanese people? It means the end of the war. It means the termination of the influence of the military leaders who have brought Japan to the present brink of disaster.… Unconditional surrender does not mean the extermination or enslavement of the Japanese people. (Alperovitz, Gar (2010-12-29). The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb (p. 39).)” So if the war were to end the Japanese would have to unconditionally surrender, secretary of state James Byrnes said as much, “For instance, in his 1947 book Speaking Frankly, James F. Byrnes declared without qualification: “Had the Japanese Government listened to [Ambassador to Soviet Union] Sato and surrendered unconditionally, it would not have been necessary to drop the atomic bomb. (Alperovitz, p. 34)” The Japanese refused to surrender because of the terms they would be conceding to. They wanted a guarantee that their emperor would be protected and they felt unconditional surrender would put him in jeopardy. “The reality is that as the summer of 1945 progressed, most U.S. leaders fully realized that the only serious condition Japan’s leaders sought was an assurance that the Emperor would not be eliminated. (Alperovitz, p.34)” One could conclude that the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because of Japan’s refusal to unconditionally surrender. There is also belief that the atomic bomb was dropped to intimidate the Soviet Union. As historian Barton Berstein put it, “The combat use…