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Relationship between america and japan 20th century
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DBQ "We broke down and cried with relief and joy. We were going to live." reflected Paul Fussell, an United States Infantryman in Europe on Atomic Bombs in Japan. During the final months of World War II, Japan was the last remaining axis power. After Germany and Italy had been defeated in Europe, the United States could focus all of their money and attention on defeating Japan. Due Japan's mentality of never surrendering, the United States had to take more drastic measures to defeat them. The U.S. participated in the Manhattan Project; the world's top scientists working together to create an atomic weapon. American troops had already secured the islands Iwo Jima and Okinawa which were very close to the Japanese mainland. President Truman …show more content…
"The total strength of the Japanese Army was estimated at about 5,000,000 men. …The Air Force has been reduced mainly to reliance upon Kamikaze, of suicide, attacks," (Henry Stimson, Secretary of War). While the Japanese were in a weak state, they still had an army of substantial size, and a dangerous air force, even if they had no missiles. Kamikaze pilots crashed their airplanes into American ships, causing considerable amounts of damage. The United States military attack plan for the invasion of Japan utilized a little over 5,000,000 men. (Stimson). The size of the armies remaining on both sides were close to equal and could have resulted in a bloodbath. Since the Japanese were such fierce fighters, the death toll could have been drastic. Further, after Japan ran out of mussels, they began using Kamikaze. These suicide missions involved a pilot flying their plane directly into enemy ships. (Photo of attack). The Japanese also had no remaining allies to replenish their supplies with, so the kamikaze was a last resort. The Americans could have seen the attacks as a sign of weakness, struggle, and a near end to the war. Yet the Japanese mentality of never surrendering would have had them fighting to the last man. Finally, if the war had dragged on any longer dangerous allies could have been formed, causing the war to continue and be more dangerous and life threatening. A message, named 'Magic', was intercepted from Japan to Russia.
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. Revisionist historians argue that the bombs were not needed to defeat Japan; the bombs were meant to shape the peace by intimidating the Soviets. After analyzing the documents in The Manhattan Project it has become clear that the U.S. used the bombs during WWII not only to defeat the Japanese, but also to intimidate the Soviet Union
The United States of America’s use of the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has spurred much debate concerning the necessity, effectiveness, and morality of the decision since August 1945. After assessing a range of arguments about the importance of the atomic bomb in the termination of the Second World War, it can be concluded that the use of the atomic bomb served as the predominant factor in the end of the Second World War, as its use lowered the morale, industrial resources, and military strength of Japan. The Allied decision to use the atomic bomb not only caused irreparable physical damage on two major Japanese cities, but its use also minimized the Japanese will to continue fighting. These two factors along
Even before the battle started, America saw his attack coming. Japan had bombed the Dutch harbor in Alaska on the days of June 3rd and 4th. Japan landed there instead of on the islands of Attu and Kiska, in fear the United States might be there. There attacks failed when the plan to get the American fleet from Midway to aid the freshly bombed Dutch harbor. At 0900 hours an American patrol boat spotted the Japanese fleet seven hundred miles from Midway. At that point admiral Soroku Yamamoto’s plans of a sneak attack were over. Admiral fletcher commanded the U.S.S. Yorktown before it was sunk by the Japanese. Then at 0750, japan spots nine enemy (American) planes fifteen miles out. Tones, a Japanese cruiser, opened fire on the American pilots. Almost instantly if an American bomber plane were hit it would explode and go down. The bombers dropped their torpedoes to far from their targets, so the torpedoes didn’t land a single blow to Japan. At 1040 japan sent from Hiryu,...
However, it was not the case, the Soviets acknowledged the atomic bomb and wanted to create as many as possible so they could yield the control not only in the Pacific, but in the Eastern Europe. In the words of former US senator from South Carolina, James F. Byrnes, claimed “the bomb provided a unique opportunity to check Soviet control of Eastern Europe and Asia in the postwar years, and he very much wanted to delay or avert the entry of the Soviet Union into the war with Japan” (59). In the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, all the Allied countries, except the Soviets, stood together in preparing for the end of the World War 2. President Truman, learning of the success of the Manhattan project, and understanding that he must make a choice whether to drop the atomic bomb or not turned out to be the most difficult decision to make in his life. They came up with a decision to make Japan “unconditional surrender” (59) but they were afraid the Japan would not step down and refused to give up their fight.
However, the Japanese culture would have mocked the U.S. if they saw them drop the bomb on a deserted island. In addition, the Russians had just left East Germany and had at least a four month minimum time period to mobilize their military all the way to Japan, and still have time to effectively invade. Plus, the invasion would not have worked because of the barbaric fighting tactics from Japan. On top of all this, the American economy was still in an severe depression. The United States had to quickly end the war so that the government could focus on efficiently restoring the economy and getting out of the depression.
Stalin, political bureaucrats, and even leading Soviet physicists of the time often put early pre-war and wartime Soviet nuclear research on the back burner. This was mainly due to the Soviet Union fighting for its very existence during the first years of the war. After the tide of the war had turned towards the Soviets, and intelligence from the Western powers suggested an active atomic weapon program, renewed interest by Stalin and the Soviet machine began in earnest. The Soviet Union was behind the technological curve when it implemented its atomic weapons program in earnest and suffered greatly from a lack of resources. The Soviet scientific community, by itself, could not have produced a working atomic weapon in just four short years after the successful deployment of two atomic bombs by the United States over Japan in 1945. Resources, material, research, and scientists taken or stripped from Soviet occupied areas of the defeated Nazi Reich (mostly German) and designs stolen from the American Manhattan Project used for the Soviet nuclear weapons program allowed that program to become successful.
“The atomic bomb certainly is the most powerful of all weapons, but it is conclusively powerful and effective only in the hands of the nation which controls the sky” (Johnson 1). Throughout World War II, the war was in pieces. The Germans were almost at world dominance along with their allies, the Italians and Japanese. The Japanese and United States had remained in combat with each other since the bombardment of the Pearl Harbor ("U.S. Drops Atomic Bomb on Japan "1). There was abundant controversy as to whether the United States should have used the atomic bombs or not.
The attack at Pearl Harbor was the event that caused the U.S. to decide to be involved in the war. After this incident, the U.S. was trying to find a way to retaliate and counterattack against Japan. Some thought that the only way to do so was by using atomic bombs. People like, General Dwight Eisenhower, Harry S Truman, and a group of scientists believed that the use of the bomb would do good, and finally end everything. Eisenhower believed that because the use of the atomic bomb was successful in New Mexico, it would also be successful in Japan as well. Harry S Truman thought that even the atomic bomb was the most destructive weapon in the history of the world, it could be made the most useful. He stated that, “it was ...
But the Japanese military was cruel and had a mindset almost suicidal and the only viable way to win the war and prevent the least amount of American lives lost was to speed up the process with the use of atomic weaponry. Dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not an easy decision by the U.S. military and government and as the president stated it was not something that was taken lightly or was likely to be used again unless necessary. The Atomic bomb had quite an impact on American military strategy and it is important with the amount of impact two bombs can have on not only the United States but the world that we understand the reasons this kind of weaponry is used in the first place as a well calculated last
The Manhattan Project was composed of a top secret group of scientists who worked diligently to produce the atomic bomb. After hours of research on plutonium and uranium 235, the scientists had the ability to produce the bomb. When the Japanese refused to surrender, the Americans dropped two bombs on Japan, destroying the two cities. The entire world was shocked because no one even knew about the bombs that the United States created. Americans found out about the bombs after President Truman made the announcement to the United States. Overall, the Manhattan Project was necessary for the United States to gain victory in World War II.
In 1945, the United States was facing severe causalities in the war in the Pacific. Over 12,000 soldiers had already lost their lives, including 7,000 Army and Marine soldiers and 5,000 sailors (32). The United States was eager to end the war against Japan, and to prevent more American causalities (92). An invasion of Japan could result in hundreds of thousands killed, wounded and missing soldiers, and there was still no clear path to an unconditional surrender. President Truman sought advice from his cabinet members over how to approach the war in the Pacific. Although there were alternatives to the use of atomic weapons, the evidence, or lack thereof, shows that the bombs were created for the purpose of use in the war against Japan. Both the political members, such as Henry L. Stimson and James F. Byrnes, and military advisors George C. Marshall and George F. Kennan showed little objection to completely wiping out these Japanese cities with atomic weapons (92-97). The alternatives to this tactic included invading Japanese c...
The United States entered WW II immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The U.S. entry was a major turning point in the war because it brought the strongest industrial strength to the Allied side. The Americans helped the Allies to win the war in Europe with the surrender of Germany on May 7, 1945. However, the war in the Pacific continued. The war with Japan at this point consisted primarily of strategic bombings. America had recently completed an atomic bomb and was considering using this weapon of mass destruction for the first time. The goal was to force the “unconditional surrender” of the Japanese. Roosevelt had used the term “unconditional surrender” in a press conference in 1943 and it had since become a central war aim. Truman and his staff (still feeling bound by FDR’s words) demanded unconditional surrender from the Japanese. Consequently on July 26, 1945 Truman issued an ultimatum to Japan. This ultimatum stated that Japan must accept “unconditional surrender” or suffer “utter devastation of the Japanese Homeland”. This surrender included abdication of the throne by their emperor. Japan was not willing to surrender their dynasty and ignored the ultimatum. On August 6th and August 9th, atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively.
Japan had face the both countries United States and Russia like Germany. United States had already spend so much time and money onto the fighting against Germany so they do not want to spend more on the Japanese. “Americans did hope to avoid Soviet involvement. The atom bomb seemed to be the way to square this circle, to force Japan to surrender quickly without weakening the American demands.” Americans do not want Russia to get involved, but they are attacking on the another battlefield. So in order to let to win the war against Japan before Russia comes in and the American already put a lot of effort to fight against Germany and Japan had attack Pearl Harbor and the suicide planes and ships had made the United States have a hard time. United States is still worried about Russia and they do not want to put everything in and then have nothing to go against Russia. So they had drop atomic bombs to make the Japan surrender before the Russian gets in. Germany had taken over a lot of area in Europe and Japan had taken over of places in Asia. In this map, it had shown that Japan took over a lot of places like China, Philippines, and lots of islands in the Pacific
If the United States had invaded Japanese territory, the number of casualties would soar. Also, the Japanese said that they would fight to their death in this war, also making the United States more nervous. The Japanese thought that suicide or kamikaze was a very honorable deed in the military over surrendering. This was also one of the factors that agitated the United States even more.