A Cruelty Beyond Comprehension: The Bombing of Hiroshima

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In the late summer of 1945 the decision was made to vaporize over 70,000 Japanese civilians with a single nuclear payload dropped on a city possessing virtually no strategic value. It is estimated over 100,000 more civilians died as a direct result of this bombing in the years that followed. The rationalizations and excuses made to justify the act are myriad. Some say that it saved lives, that it shortened the war. Others say it was justified revenge for the Japanese attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor. The truth is that the United States felt a need to showcase its nuclear dominance to the world. There will never be a legitimate justification for this bombing, which to this day remains the most destructive singular act carried out by human beings against other human beings. The most evil invention in history is nuclear weaponry, a shockingly destructive force that has the capacity to level an entire city, and reduce its population to ash and bone. Nuclear warfare has not taken place since the last days of World War II, yet this is not for lack of nuclear capabilities. In the decades following there has been a proliferation of nuclear capability despite the knowledge that if one nuclear device were to be used, the consequences and implications would be likely irreparable. Nuclear war has the potential for extinction of the human race, yet no genuine attempts at moving towards a complete nuclear disarmament are being made. The amount of nations with nuclear capabilities is unconscionable; yet the number will only increase with the greatest of these nations unwilling to consider a complete nuclear disarmament. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Following ‘Little Boy’, the first nuclear bomb used in war... ... middle of paper ... ...nited States" Congressional Record, Volume 144 Issue 15 (Wednesday, February 25, 1998). U.S. Government Printing Office, 25 Feb. 1998. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. Eisenhower, Dwight D.. "Chapter XIII - Problems of Internal Security." Mandate for change, 1953-1956: the White House years. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1963. Print. Masters, Jeffrey. "The Effect of Nuclear War on Climate." Weather Underground. Weather Underground, Inc., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. Red Cross. "Humanitarian assistance in response to the use of nuclear weapons." International Committee of the Red Cross. International Committee of the Red Cross, 15 July 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. Shapell Foundation. "President Harry Truman, in August 1945, Defends Atomic Bombing of Japan as the Only Language a Beast Can Understand." Shapell Manuscript Foundation. Shapell Manuscript Foundation, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

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