The Atomic Bomb Was Not Justified

July 16th, 1945, a test bomb was successfully detonated at a test bomb site in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Months later, on August 6th, 1945, the first ever atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On August 9th, 1945, a second atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. In my opinion, the dropping of the atomic bombs “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was not justified. I believe it was not justified because of the effect it had on innocent civilians, the immorality of the operation and theories that the attack may have been racially motivated.

First, the usage of the atomic bombs were immoral, inhumane and a war crime. The atomic bombs caused a tremendous amount of destruction and casualties. At the time, it was justified as moral; to bring a swift end to the war and to prevent the deaths of more Americans and Japanese, as U.S President Truman had said. Yet the long term effects of the bombs exceeded the standard expectations of war.
Truman slightly disliked the Japanese people and it could be that this racist attitude may have led to the bombings. At these times, the Japanese were discriminated and stereotyped harshly; because they were different to the Americans and a minority in America. Japanese-Americans had their rights, freedoms taken away, and they were interned and sent to isolation camps. German-Americans and Italian-Americans were not treated as infamously as Japanese-Americans. There was also lots of anti-Japanese propaganda/imagery. They were shown as monsters with big pointy teeth and having sharp nails. The dehumanization of them led to more hatred shown towards the Japanese people. The Americans saw how some of the Japanese acted radically while fighting in the war, and their brutality towards other nations. This is how the racist attitude towards the Japanese could have led to the dropping of the