Victory At The Cost Of Innocent Lives Analysis
Victory at the Cost of Innocent Lives Throughout the course of America’s history, millions of events and wars have affected everyday life. The Emancipation Proclamation, The Korean War, The Cold War, the American Revolution, the 15th and 19th amendments, the Great Awakening, and industrialization itself have all radically changed the way people participated socially and politically before the 1950’s. After the 1950’s, the next life-changing event occurred. It was the Vietnam War and the first dropping of atomic bombs on Vietnamese cities by the United States in a scurry to end the war. United States citizens have argued the bombing of innocent civilians was unnecessary to end World War II. The Vietnam war changed not only American peoples’
immortal view of their military, but also their view of the American Government as a morally sound government. They began to see the “real story” of the fight occurring. The people of the United States started to believe the Vietcong were using inhume tactics on the American Soldiers. Stories of Vietcong torturing and brutally killing South Vietnamese civilians as well as American Soldiers were rampant in the United States. The body count steadily rose everyday and the Americans were beginning to feel vulnerable to foreign armies. As the stories circulating the United States grew, the pressure to end the war and push Japanese to surrender did as well. The Japanese refused to surrender and President Harry Truman resorted to dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima as the only choice to end the war. When the bomb hit, 70,000 Japanese innocent citizens were instantly killed and in the months and years that followed, an additional 100,000 perished from burns and radiation sickness. At this time we had shown the Soviet Union what we were capable of, and in fear they declared war on Japan. Truman believed the first bombing did not make enough impact so on On August 9, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, where 80,000 Japanese people perished. In United States today, with freedom of speech, we openly go against the government and our own President’s decisions. Japanese citizens have their own opinions towards their country’s politics as well. The question is what makes it fair to bomb innocent mothers and children who have had no part in the war and may even be opposed to the war. Innocent civilians should never deserve a punishment of this sort. Directly after the bombings, treacherous tales of American soldiers killing young children could easily match the horror stories told of the Vietcong. Now, Americans questioned their involvement in the war and came to the realization they were not just fighting man-to-man, soldier-to-soldier, but taking innocent lives. The views of cruel American treatment from the Vietcong and pressure to force the Japanese to surrender brought Americans together in a feeling of revenge. These issues lead to the bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which was unjust and unnecessary to end World War II. The United States has always swayed towards neutrality and a good image, but deciding to drop the bombs under the belief it would hasten the end of the war and avert the need to wage prolonged land battles on Japan’s main island can make that goal seem counterfactual.
Works Cited
"The Decision to Drop the Bomb." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
immortal view of their military, but also their view of the American Government as a morally sound government. They began to see the “real story” of the fight occurring. The people of the United States started to believe the Vietcong were using inhume tactics on the American Soldiers. Stories of Vietcong torturing and brutally killing South Vietnamese civilians as well as American Soldiers were rampant in the United States. The body count steadily rose everyday and the Americans were beginning to feel vulnerable to foreign armies. As the stories circulating the United States grew, the pressure to end the war and push Japanese to surrender did as well. The Japanese refused to surrender and President Harry Truman resorted to dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima as the only choice to end the war. When the bomb hit, 70,000 Japanese innocent citizens were instantly killed and in the months and years that followed, an additional 100,000 perished from burns and radiation sickness. At this time we had shown the Soviet Union what we were capable of, and in fear they declared war on Japan. Truman believed the first bombing did not make enough impact so on On August 9, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, where 80,000 Japanese people perished. In United States today, with freedom of speech, we openly go against the government and our own President’s decisions. Japanese citizens have their own opinions towards their country’s politics as well. The question is what makes it fair to bomb innocent mothers and children who have had no part in the war and may even be opposed to the war. Innocent civilians should never deserve a punishment of this sort. Directly after the bombings, treacherous tales of American soldiers killing young children could easily match the horror stories told of the Vietcong. Now, Americans questioned their involvement in the war and came to the realization they were not just fighting man-to-man, soldier-to-soldier, but taking innocent lives. The views of cruel American treatment from the Vietcong and pressure to force the Japanese to surrender brought Americans together in a feeling of revenge. These issues lead to the bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which was unjust and unnecessary to end World War II. The United States has always swayed towards neutrality and a good image, but deciding to drop the bombs under the belief it would hasten the end of the war and avert the need to wage prolonged land battles on Japan’s main island can make that goal seem counterfactual.
Works Cited
"The Decision to Drop the Bomb." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.