In the article, Ending The War Against Japan: Science, Morality And The Atomic Bomb, the author provides information on the war in the Pacific which involved the United States and Japan. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the United States entered the second World War in 1941. United States gained control of Okinawa in 1945 which meant that the U.S had control, in the months of May through August there were major air attacks on Japan, the Manhattan Project and the two atomic bombs the United States dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were part of the choice out of the many options that might have been given to President Truman and Secretary of War, Henry Stimson. They felt that dropping the atomic bomb was the best way to get the Japanese to give an unconditional surrender.…
The atomic bomb shouldn’t have been used in World War 2 to defeat Japan. America could have used other alternatives then the deadly atomic bomb. President Truman should of waited a few more weeks for russia to declare war on Japan. The thought of invasion by both of America and Russia probably had an even more scared effect on the Japanese government then the Atomic Bombs. America could of also continue the conventional bombings and blockade.…
America has been through a tough and grueling war. We have lost many soldiers and need to speed it up on the Pacific front against the Japanese to change the tide and encourage surrender. America should drop the atomic bomb on Japan. Japan is in this war for the long hall and something has to change so men stop dying every day. Dropping the bomb is the best thing to do for the US and its military at this point.…
I don't think that the US should have bombed Japan. It was entirely unnecessary and the US had plenty of opportunities to do other things. America could have used a technical demonstration to show how powerful the bombs were on a nearby, but uninhabited, island. This would have been a effective intimidation act while not adding to WWII's already enormous death count. Admittedly this alone would not have ensured Japan's surrender, but Japan was planning on surrendering in the fall off 1945. The only thing that was keeping them from surrendering sooner was their unwillingness to accept completely unconditional surrender. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki may have ended World War II, but was it worth the lives…
The only military use of atomic weapons has been on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and almost certainly brought a prompt conclusion to WW2. However, the question of whether it was necessary is still hotly debated 70 years after the event. The answer is no it wasn’t necessary, although it is not as simple as you may think because if I had just been a soldier fighting in New Guinea or if I was a POW starving on the Thai-Burma railway [1] then answer is yes it was necessary. Necessary can have various meanings though such as indispensable or requisite, but also mean acting from need. The question becomes very problematic or ambiguous if one uses both meanings as again we get a yes and no.…
Those who are considered outliers in today’s society are those who challenged what they knew to grow, and eventually leave their mark on the world. The father of the atomic bomb and head of the Manhattan Project was no exception. Robert Oppenheimer challenged his upbringing and the society around him to become his own person. He supported the first use of the atomic bomb on an actual target, despite the possible moral concerns with that, as well as opposing the development of the hydrogen bomb. Lastly, Oppenheimer had relations with multiple members of the Communist Party, despite the high tensions during the Cold War, which was going on at the time. However, the first case of controversy Oppenheimer was involved with occurred during the Manhattan Project, when it was being decided whether the first use of the atomic bomb should be used on a real target, or as a demonstration.…
What would you do if you were a soldier, and you knew that if your country didn’t drop the atomic bomb, then you would die? This is what many soldiers were thinking about on August 6th, 1945 when the American government decided to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. By doing this they saved millions of American lives. When they did this Japan surrendered and it won us the war. Also, it demonstrated the power of America. America did the right thing by dropping the atomic bomb.…
The United States decided to use atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. This bombing created devastation and death that the world had never seen before. The use of the atomic bombs has been a topic of intense debate for years following the bombing. Several reasons for such outcry pertaining to the use of the atomic bomb were the moral dilemmas behind the bombing, the mass destruction caused by the bombing, the horrible physical and emotional effects on the citizens of Japan, and strained relations between America and Japan.…
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…
Since the end of World War two there have been debates about whether or not the U.S. should have dropped the atomic bomb or not. Many people argue that America had already won the war and that the bombs were uncalled for, but is this true (Doc K)? The U.S. made the right decision in dropping the atomic bomb because it led America to a victory, it ended the war quickly, and it saved more lives then it took.…
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…
Probably no other man-made object has wielded as much terror or destruction as the Atomic Bomb. Created, tested, and used during World War II, it brought about the end of that bloody conflict. Unfortunately, it also was the cause of much loss in human life. However, why it was created, creation, and use are very interesting, although somewhat sad, and offer many topics for study.…
The use of the atomic bomb remains controversial to this day. There are academics and policy makers of the time that still disagree on the whether it was justifiable to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They debate if it truly was in the interest of ending the war sooner and with less loss of life. Several issues played together to help form the opinion that Truman acted for more nefarious purposes. Domestic as well as international politics is said to have played a role in the decision of Truman to go ahead with the use of the atomic bomb . Would the Japanese have been willing to surrender without the dropping of the bomb? Some experts believe that because Japanese representatives were talking to the Russians about being…
Albert Einstein once said, “The explosive force of nuclear fission has changed everything except our modes of thinking and thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe. We shall require an entirely new pattern of thinking if humankind is to survive” Albert Einstein, 1946. Nuclear weapons are arguably the most feared weapon ever created. They have the capability to end wars, nations, and even our planet if we are not careful. So, how serious is the threat of a terrorist cell acquiring a nuclear weapon and using it in an attack? Any statement containing the words ‘nuclear and weapon’ must almost always be considered serious but what is the likelihood of a successful nuclear terrorist attack occurring? The answer is anything but straight forward and many different avenues must be explored in order to better understand this current threat.…
Two treaties put into effect over the past 20 years have set limits on the testing of nuclear weapons . The Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963, which has been signed by more than 120 nations prohibits nuclear explosions in the atmosphere ,oceans and the space, allowing only them underground .The Thresh hold Test Ban Treaty of 1976, a bilateral agreement between the US and the USSR, prohibits underground tests of nuclear weapons with a yield greater than 150 kilotons. In the present climate of widespread pressure for more effective control of nuclear arms the idea of a comprehensive ban on all nuclear testing is receiving renewed attention.Such an agreement would be an important measure.It might inhibit the development of new weapons by the major nuclear powers, and it might also help to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons technology to other countries.…