What Other Alternatives Were There For The United States?

World War II began in 1939, two decades after World War I, better known as the Great War began in 1914. It was even more devastating than World I and it destroyed more land all over the globe and took more lives than any other war. Leading up to World War II, in 1934 Adolf Hitler had gained power in Germany. Hitler was an unstable man who was obsessed with purifying the German Race. He wanted his race to be superior and believed that the only way to gain superiority and power was by war. To do this Adolf and his Nazi Party decided to sign treaties with Italy and Japan against the Soviet Union to continue on with his mission to dominate the world. As his next move, he decided to invade Poland in September of 1939 from the east and France and
Great Britain had no choice but to declare war on Germany because they’d guaranteed military support if ever attacked by Germany and so it was the beginning of World War II. By 1940 Benito Mussolini of Italy had joined the Axis to back up Germany and declared war on France who was already on the verge of collapsing and by 1941 Hungary Romania and Bulgaria had joined the Axis as well to help German troops take over Yugoslavia and Greece that April. Adolf then turned his attention to what his real objective was which was to invade the Soviet Union and by 1941 he surprisingly invaded the Soviet Union. While Britain was battling Germany in Europe, it was very clear that The United States was the only nation capable of bring down the Japanese. So Japan decided to do a surprise attack on a major U.S base at Pearl Harbor which killed more than 2,000 troops and on December 8 US Congress declared war on Japan making their entry into the war and this eventually led to the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was the world’s first atom bomb and it killed more than 80,000 and injured 35,000, and by the end of the year due to radiation 60,000 people died. Today, looking back at the bombing, I think that a lot of younger Americans who were not present for the events leading up to it believe that the bombing of Hiroshima was wrong because the Japanese are made out to be innocent victims but I think that many elderly Americans who were present to the events leading up to the bombing had a different view point and supported the bombing. First, the lens in which young Americans look through today is a completely different lens then the lens that the people of 1945 were looking through. It was a different era and young Americans such as myself would never be able to weigh the pros and cons of the decision. I personally think President Harry Truman’s intentions behind it were in the right place.
He made the decision to use the atom bomb to end the war in order to prevent a much greater loss of life. Had the United States invaded the Japanese mainland a lot more lives would have been loss. In my opinion it was a double ended sword. It was either the Japanese or the Americans, and so he made that decision, which I think was right because we hadn’t started it. We were simply defending our country and sending a message. Japan was not backing down. Germany had surrendered but the Japanese were raging on in the Pacific. Japan also was trying to find a possible way to successfully invade America and bring a negotiated peace. What other Alternatives were there for the United States? America at first had planned to invade Japan which was to begin on November 1st but it predicted 31,000 to 50,000 American deaths in the first month which didn’t sit well with the President. The United States was not willing to take the chance and so we tested the bomb and learned that it was a success. All America hoped for was an end to a war as quickly as possible and to avoid an invasion with the loss of many lives especially after witnessing the Pearl Harbor bombing. I think the United States tried to carry out the bombing in the most strategic was as
possible. We chose Hiroshima for various reason such as we didn’t think any American Soldiers were prisoned there, we wanted to target the factories that made materials and it was also the headquarters of the Japanese second Army. Truman ordered that only military targets were to be hit and not women and children, but it showed America was only targeting those involved but we didn’t quite know or understand the capabilities of an atomic bomb. Although we killed 70,000 men woman and children instantly, our hearts had been in the right place. The bomb was the only way to get the Emperor to surrender.