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Effects of the atomic bomb on the world
Effects of the Second World War
Reasons the US dropped the atomic bomb
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On August 6th 1945 the first atomic bomb as dropped in an attempt to end the war efforts in the pacific. This year will mark the 69th anniversary of the dropping of the bomb, and even after all this time there is still much debate over if dropping the bomb was the right thing to do or not. One of the main reasons I have seen arguing for the dropping of the bomb was that it saved American lives, and that it saved more people than it killed. However, saving American lives was not the only motivation for dropping the atomic bomb, the argument could even be made that saving the lives of soldiers was not even first on the list of reasons for dropping the atomic bomb. Among the reasons for dropping the bomb was to justify the cost of the Manhattan Project, to impress the Soviets, a lack of reason not to use the bomb, and responding to Pearl Harbor. Ending the War earlier and saving American lives was indeed a deciding factor. However, General MacArthur who was one of the war heroes on the pacific front reportedly believed that the war could be won in as little as 6 months with little danger to American troops simply by intensifying conventional bombing and naval blockades. However, more importantly, by August the war on the pacific front could have been over for 8 months. In January 1945 Japan offered terms of surrender. The terms that Japan offered were full surrender of the Japanese forces, air, land and sea, at home and in all occupied countries. Surrender of all arms and ammunition. Agreement of the Japanese to occupation of their homeland and island possessions. Relinquishment of Manchuria, Korea and Formosa. Regulation of Japanese industry. Surrender of designated war criminals for trial. And Release of all prisoner... ... middle of paper ... ...zi party as something inhumane and monstrous in order to gain distance, they try and justify the atomic bombing, to prove that though it was horrible it was necessary. But just as Hitler was just a man, and the Nazis were just a group of people believing that they were right, the bomb was not necessary, and trying to paint those things as anything else is dangerous. Denying or rationalizing the destructive power we have does nothing to change it or prevent destruction, is is only a method of comforting oneself. And though taking comfort from the fact that it the Holocaust is something that was perpetrated by normal people is necessary and understandable, it does nothing to stop it from happening again. Similarly making excuses for unnecessarily dropping a bomb capable of that level of destruction is comforting; it does nothing to prevent people from doing it again.
In discussion of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, one controversial issue has the dropping of the atomic bombs being justified. On the other hand others believe that there were other ways of getting Japan to surrender and it was not justified, the only way we could get Japan to surrender was to invade them. Our strategy was to island hop until we got to Japan. Many more lives were at steak when doing that. Not only would just Americans would die, but a lot of the Japanese would have died as well, and the death toll would have much greater. 199,000 deaths came after the dropping of the atomic bombs. However, many American lives were saved, what the Japanese did to Pearl Harbor, and the treatment of our American soldiers while
On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped the world’s first atomic bomb over Hiroshima. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. On August 15th, the Japan announced unconditional surrender in World War II. To this day historians still discuss why the U.S. decided to use the atomic bombs. Orthodox historians argue that the decision to drop the bombs was a military one designed purely to defeat the Japanese.
...ecessary to end the war, because the Japanese were not going to surrender. In August of 1944 the war in Europe was over and the face off between the United States and Japan had finally arrived. The United States had to choose between sending hundreds of thousands of US soldiers, to invade Japan killing and being killed by the hundreds of thousands, OR dropping a newly developed weapon called the atomic bomb on two cities in Japan which would result in tens of thousands of civilian lives with little cost to US servicemen. The only hope of ending the war quickly and honorably was to drop the bombs. Calls for surrender were ignored and the Japanese hierarchy, Okinawa and Iwo Jima had shown clearly what an invasion of Japan would be like. The decision was made, the bombs were dropped, the war was ended and both military and civilian lives were saved by both countries.
Should We Have Dropped the Atomic Bomb? The atomic bomb killed many innocent people, but it was necessary to end World War II. After World War II began in 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced the neutrality of the United States. Many people in the United States think that their country should stay out of the war. The people wanted the Allied Forces to have the victory.
Another thing that can be brought up is that Eric Foner on page 878 in the section titled “The Nature of the War” tries to justify the atomic bomb by saying that the nature of the war was killing innocent civilians, and that Hitler killed millions in camps and bombings and then Britain did the same therefore we are not that bad. This is probably the lowest thing ever heard in the history of America. Justifying what this country did by comparing it to Hitler’s Germany and the Holocaust, is not exactly an excuse it’s just an embarrassment. The atomic bomb was a terrible decision and mistake that could have been avoided by the United States, however, what is done is done, and saying that Hitler killed more innocent people than us makes what we did okay is also not an option, Joe Paterno said,” We shall act with good intentions, but at times we will be wrong. When we are, let us admit it and try to right the situation” this is something that with all the pointless justification, we
The Atomic Bomb Should Not Have Been DroppedAs President Obama signs new nuclear policy, we are reminded of the longand sordid history of nuclear policy in the United States. We have come a long waysince we decided to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.It is amazing that we continue debating this initial deployment of nuclear weaponrytoday. The US should not have decided to drop these atomic bombs. This decisionwas morally incorrect and unnecessary. Thousands of people died who did not needto die, and many more became sick from radiation poisoning. The bombs wiped twoentire cities off the map. How can anyone even argue for this in the first place?One argument that was used to support dropping the bomb was that theJapanese forfeited their rights when they aggressively attacked Pearl Harbor andcommitted war crimes against prisoners and the Chinese. However, this argument does not work for a few reasons. First, there are two types of justice in war. There isthe justice for going to war (
“My God, what have we done?” were the words that the co-pilot of Enola Gay wrote in his logbook after helping drop two bombs, one in Hiroshima and one in Nagasaki, that killed an estimated two-hundred thousand individuals. The bombings were completely unnecessary. Japan was already defeated because they lacked the necessary materials to continue a world war. The Japanese were prepared to surrender. There was no military necessity to drop the atomic bombs nor is there any factual information stating that the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were dropped to “save the lives of one million American soldiers.” The United States bombed Japan in August of 1945. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were uncalled for and could have been avoided.
The dropping of the bomb brought unending effects to the Japanese but also caused a quick ending to the war. In my opinion the atomic bomb was needed. The effects of the bomb did affect many people and caused unnecessary deaths but if it wasn’t dropped many more American deaths would have occurred. Not only did the bomb save lives, it helped end the war quickly and get Japan to surrender. The bomb caused fear in many other nations making the United States the strongest country. Soon after the bomb was dropped many countries feared the development of atomic bombs. This facilitated peace talks and preventing of wars. Each side had their own opinions as to why or why not the bomb should be dropped. The moral and ethical debate over the decision to drop the atomic bomb will never be resolved, however it did bring an end to the most devastating war. If an atomic bomb were to be used today, or accidentally set off, it could wipe out the entire earth whereas the destruction and radiation alone would have devastating effects. Cancer would rise dramatically and a nuclear winter where all the light is extinguished could occur (7 Crucial Pros and Cons of the Atomic Bomb,
It has been stated that Truman’s decision to drop the bomb was purely military. An invasion of Japan in November of 1945 was said to cause between 500,000 and 1,000,000 allied casualties. Truman also believed that the “special bombs” would save Japanese lives as well. Prolonging the war was not an option for the President and the bomb would help to end the war soon as possible.
It was actually unnecessary for the United States to do this because the Japanese government was going to surrender anyway. Many critics that analyzed the military decisions insisted that Japan was forced to bend to the will of the Allies, even if it brought shame to their nation forgiving up (“Hiroshima”, 2016). For this reason, the U.S did not need to drop the bombs on Japan because Japan would have to surrender, since their military was defeated in other attacks. According to Barnes (2016), the estimate of the amount of lives of troops and civilians were way too high to be realistic. If the United States had waited for Japan to surrender, then the estimated lives of many people being lost would not have been accounted for because Japan would not have continued fighting in WWII. Therefore, the United States was not justified in dropping the atomic bombs because Japan was bound to surrender and the United States caused a lot of unnecessary casualties that would not have occurred if they had let Japan surrender on their
Using the Atomic Bomb ended the war. It was no secret that Japan was going to continue to fight until they were all dead, the Americans just needed to make it clear that they were already finished with the war. After the two bombs were dropped the United States was even so generous that they weren’t going to make Japan have an unconditional surrender. The United States let Japan keep their emperor Hirohito. The U.S. also made a constitution for Japan that said that granted full freedom for their citizens. (The United States and Japan After World War II)The people of Japan knew that something bad was going to happen. The U.S. sent leaflets to Hiroshima and Nagasaki that told them to leave and that their city would be bombed so that they could finish the war.(Warning Leaflets)
The year was 1945. World War II was nearly over. Germany had been defeated and the allied forces were sure to win the war. The only unsure thing was how many lives would be lost in defeating Japan. The United States decided to drop the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945. On that day the Enola Gay dropped "Little Boy" on Hiroshima. Three days later the United States dropped "Fat Boy" on Nagasaki. 240,000 civilians, mostly women and children, lost there lives on these two days. On August 14, 1945 Japan surrendered unconditionally. Was it necessary? I believe that the U.S. could have used other means to bring about the end of the war. This paper will note a few reasons for dropping the bomb, followed by a discussion of several alternatives to it's the use.
Admittedly, dropping the atomic bomb was a major factor in Japan's decision to accept the terms laid out at the Potsdam agreement otherwise known as unconditional surrender. The fact must be pointed out, however, that Japan had already been virtually defeated. (McInnis, 1945) Though the public did not know this, the allies, in fact, did. Through spies, they had learned that both Japan's foreign minister, Shigenori Togo and Emperor Hirohito both supported an end to the war (Grant, 1998). Even if they believed such reports to be false or inaccurate, the leaders of the United States also knew Japan's situation to be hopeless. Their casualties in defending the doomed island of Okinawa were a staggering 110,000 and the naval blockade which the allies had enforced whittled trade down to almost nothing. Japan was quickly on the path to destruction. (Grant, 1998). Of course, the Allies ignored this for the reason that dropping the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would intimidate Russia. Had they truly been considering saving more lives and bringing a quick end to the war in Japan, they would have simply waited them out without the major loss of life seen at both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The first most powerful bomb, which is called the atom bomb, was dropped on August 6 , 1945. In a city located in Japan, called Hiroshima. With these facts and the information i've read from this one book called "Hiroshima" I have a very strong opinion which I will speak of now. I think that the atomic bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima was a petty, childish way of trying to win a war. It was inhuman, so horrible that anyone whom lived through it, would most likely be traumatized for the rest of their living lives. I don't think what the Americans did was very right at all.
On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. This was an extremely controversial military strategy in the United States. Was the United States justified in the dropping of the atomic bomb? The U.S. feared the rise of communism and gave aid to any country against it. The U.S. also fought countries threatening the spread communism. One of these countries was Japan. We began a harsh and brutal war against Japan and against communism. This war was killing many soldiers and Japan was not backing down. President Truman decided to use the atomic bomb when things were getting worse. The decision to use the atomic bomb was a difficult one and many people wonder if it was the right choice.