1.The dropping of the Atomic bombs on Japan was an unjustified, inhumane war crime. Firstly, these bombing attacks on Japan were radically motivated by American resentment towards "the savage Japanese". Secondly, the main intentions of these bombings was to scare communist Russia, rather than to defeat Japan. Additionally, there were many other alternatives to using nuclear weaponry; for instance Russia was planning an invasion for the following week. Also, the use of Atomic bomb on innocent civilian cities was inhumane, and illegal according to the law stated in the League of Nations. The bomb was intended only for last resort defence purposes, using it in attack is simply inhumane. 2.Towards the end of WW2, the US government knew that there …show more content…
were a number of alternatives to defeating Japan other than dropping the atomic bombs; the best suited would've been to wait for Russia to invade the following week after the bomb. Russia was planning a large scaled attack with the US on Japan in order to end the war in the pacific, which would've been an easy task considering that the Japanese Army was depleted and their navy and air force was almost completely wiped out. Japanese officials knew the inevitability of defeat prior to the bomb, the idea of a Russia and American invasion of the mainland may have initiated a surrender before the invasion started, potentially saving thousands of lives. So how can a devastating bomb be justified if there was a much more effective way to end the war such as joining the invasion effort with Russia? 3.The use of the atomic bombs on Japan was motivated radically by America's racism towards Japan.
Enemies of the USA during WW2 were caricatured in government propaganda, but the Japanese were stereotyped at a much higher level of hatred than the other enemy nations (depicting as much hatred as Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda). Japanese were dehumanized in propaganda often being depicted as vicious buck tooth rats who's only interest was to take over the world. Harry Truman in his presidential diary entries constantly referred the Japanese as "savages, merciless, fanatic and ruthless", he also stated before the bombing "When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast." In summary, racism is an unjustifiable act of hate, and using this hate as a reason behind killing thousands of people makes this event a sickening moment in …show more content…
history. 4.The use of the atomic bombs were more intended to scare the growing communist Russia rather than to defeat Japan to end WW2.
The ideology of communism had a general rule that states "communism needs to be spread worldwide for success", and the Soviet's motive at the time was to spread communism to Asia and Eastern Europe; dropping an atomic bomb would hinder the USSR's expansion in the following years. The shock-and-awe effect of the bomb on Japan would make the Soviet Union more manageable in post war negotiations with the US. Therefore, demonstrating the power of American weaponry on Japanese civilians would allow the US to have the upper hand against the Soviets in the post war world. In conclusion, using a bomb against innocent civilians in the name of national superiority is entirely
unjustifiable. 5.The use of the atomic bombs is entirely illegal according to the laws of the League Of Nations. The League of Nations made a unanimous decision that the intentional bombing of civilian populations is a inhumane war crime. The league says, "Any attack on legitimate military objectives must be carried out in such a way that civilian populations in the neighbourhood are not bombed through negligence." For a country that avidly supports ideas of human rights and freedoms and presents itself as a model of these concepts, it is just horrifying that they have failed to meet the most basic way of conduct. If the dropping of the atomic bombs was justified, I am sure that the US would make it within international law, but since they have broken the law it should be known as a war crime. 6.The use of such a destructive powerful atomic bomb against Japan is an inhumane act of cruelty that is impossible to justify. Hundreds of thousands of civilians who had no democratic rights to question or oppose the militarist government's actions were vaporized, horrifically burned, buried in rubble and saturated with radiation, in the name of national superiority and ending the war. The few survivors of the blast lived a life of psychological and physical suffering, some died of radiation poisoning while others commit suicide because of emotional implications. Implications from the blast lasted an extremely long time, affecting the economy through rebuilding while people continued to die of radiation poisoning well into the 21st century. It is very hard to justify your inhumane actions against entirely vulnerable citizens in the name of ending a war. 7.With all these arguments in mind, you can conclude that the decision to drop the bombs on Japanese civilians was unjustified because of the sheer cruelty and radical ideas that supported the action. When the US wanted to carry out an action of such magnitude, using valid justification is a must, so radical explanations for the bomb based on racism is just unacceptable for any country. Also considering that the use of the bomb against civilians is entirely against international law just makes the American's attempts at justifying their actions nonsensical. Most importantly, the inhumanity of the Americans actions is the main reason I find it so hard to justify, the amount of pain and suffering people went through is truly incomprehensible for the sake of national superiority. Furthermore, the US actions will always be pictured as an inhumane, unjustified war crime.
From 1754-1763, Britain fought the French and Indian war. Although Britain had won the war, they still had a lot of war debts to pay off. Britain turned to the colonies to pay off their debts by taxing them. The taxes angered the colonists because they believed it violated their rights. Benjamin Franklin had initially proposed the Albany plan of Union to unite the colonies, however this law was rejected by all of the colonial governments. It wasn't until after all of the British laws and taxes that the colonies would unite and write the Declaration of Independence.
During the 1700’s the Britain Colonist decided to declare war against Great Britain. The war began due to friction between the British colonists over the King's policies. The colonist eventually lost their patience and started a revolution. High taxes, and no religious freedom led the colonist to fight for self government.
The quicker the war ended, the less casualties Americans would suffer. Second, he sought to justify the money and effort that was put into the Manhattan Project. If he did not use the bomb, people would blame him for the lives lost towards the end of the war because he withheld such a powerful weapon. Third, using the bomb would impress the Soviets, make them more subordinate to American desires, and improve overall relations with them. Fourth, Truman realized he lacked reasons to avoid using the bomb. In the military, diplomatic, and political sense, the bomb was the best route. Morality would be the only issue, but these were not a major preventive. Lastly, Truman claimed the Japanese were like a beast and the only way to deal with them was to treat them like a beast. After the attacks on Pearl Harbor, hatred had been built up against the Japanese. This hate diminished any hesitation Truman may have experienced in his decision to drop the
Beginning of the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans began to explore in the Atlantic Coast of Africa. They were mainly lured into the excessive trade in gold, spices and other goods without knowing about slaves in Africa. Nonetheless, Europeans had no success of taking over these African states to achieve all of these goods but later they did take over various regions in other areas. Africans seems to be willing to sell as many as 11 million people to the Atlantic slave trade to the Europeans. Thus, this makes them the first people to have slaves not the Europeans that forced them into this trade. Furthermore, at the start the Africans seems to have full control of the slave trade, but the Europeans came in and slowly dominated the trade without the Africans knowing. Later on, the trade was overturned and everything went back orderly.
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
The use of the atomic bomb against Japan was completely justified in both cause and impact. An intense weapon was necessary to force a quick Japanese surrender. The bomb saved thousands upon thousands of American and Japanese lives that would have been lost if the war continued or an invasion occurred. The bomb was the only way to end the suffering of the millions who were being held captive by the Japanese oppressor. The weapon of mass destruction also sent a powerful message to the shaky Soviet allies. The choice to use the atomic bomb was justified because it compelled a Japanese surrender, saved countless lives, served as retribution for the sufferings of many people, and acted as an anti-Soviet deterrent.
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 (
In my opinion, the decision to use the atomic bomb was harsh and rash, but necessary to end the war and protect American lives and interests. Sometimes harsh decisions need to be made in order to serve the greater good. It was somewhat unjust to the Japanese civilians but in the end saved many military lives that would have been wasted if the war dragged on for who knows how many more years. This is why, in the end, I feel it was the best way to put the storm of World War 2 to rest.
using the bombs during WWII not only to defeat the Japanese, but also to intimidate the Soviet Union and prove their power to the world. The U.S. knew Japan would surrender soon without the use of a destructive weapon. The Soviet Union definitely had some influence on the military decision made by the American government. As Professor Stoff mentioned in one of his lectures, Churchill believed Stalin was more dangerous than Hitler. Although the Soviet Union was an “ally” to America, they never really had an actual relationship. It was more of an alliance of convenience. The U.S. has always wanted to prove itself to be the best. Being the first country to have and use a nuclear weapon was a huge deal. As a result, President Truman told Stalin that we had a weapon and Stalin told us to use it. The U.S. also announced to Japan that we would use a weapon that would cause massive destruction and the majority of citizens ignored it. At the time, there was a threat that Russia would become a problem after the war. The U.S. dropped the bombs in Japan to end the war as quickly as possible to prevent Russia from gaining land in Asia. Therefore, the use of the bombs was not purely to defeat the
The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan were ethical decisions made by President Harry Truman and the United States government. By the time of the atom bomb was ready, the U.S. had been engaged in military conflict for over four years and lost over 400,000 soldiers. Truman claimed, "We would have the opportunity to bring the world into a pattern in which the peace of the world and our civilization can be saved" (Winkler 18). The bomb was aimed at ending the war immediately and avoiding prolonged battle in the Pacific Theater and the inevitable invasion of Japan. President Truman hoped that by showing the Japanese the devastating weapon the U.S. possessed, that the war could be brought ...
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.
During World War ll, Japan was on the brink of collapse. The Atomic Bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United State were unnecessary to end the war. The allied forces which were Great Britain, Soviet Union, France, United States and China, would conduct countless air raids and fire bombings on Japan. Japan’s military and civil defenses were inadequate to defend themselves and had no chance. For months Japans cities suffered attacks of bombs and fire raining down on them by the allied forces. The country was weak, starving and had no strength to fight back. On August 6 and 9, 1945, Nagasaki and Hiroshima would be the first cities to ever experience an atomic blast. Hiroshima and Nagasaki became literally test dummies for the atomic bomb. Japan had attempted to settle a peace treaty with the United States, but they refused and were determined for a unconditional surrender. Instead, the United States should have made an effort to make a peace treaty, not force them into surrender with the ultimate destruction weapon. The reason for this unconditional surrender was to prove America’s superiority over the Japanese. America used propaganda to convince Americans and demoralize the japanese people rather than their army. The use of the atomic bombs was caused by a strong racism motivating factor.
Bombing a country itself was not illegal, however, bombing a civilian population was unlawful. The League warned, “Any attack on legitimate military objectives must be carried out in such a way that civilian populations in the neighborhood are not bombed through negligence.” Even though the United States was not a member of the League of Nations, the unrighteous acts were no way to introduce the first use of atomic weapons. The introduction could have caused a domino-effect and left little meaning to the laws concerning atomic weapons in the League of Nations. If Japan had not surrendered, their furiousness could have been refurbished into fury and used against the United
The United States was justified in dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki for many reasons. First of all, just to start out, the bombings had nothing to do with Japan, it was about the Cold War and the real reason America used these weapons was to show Russia that the US possessed them. Second, the war in the Pacific had been raging for almost four years. The two battles immediately preceding the bomb decision were Iwo Jima and Okinawa, two battles where the Japanese fought to the death and the cost in American casualties was horrific. It was predicted that the invasion of the Japanese mainland at the Island of Kyushu -- scheduled for November of 1945 -- would be even worse. The entire Japanese military and civilian population would fight to the death. American casualties -- just for that initial invasion to get a foothold on the island of Japan would have taken up to an estimated two months and would have resulted in up to 75,000 to 100,000 casualties. And that was just the beginning. Once the island of Kyushu was captured by U.S. troops, the remainder of Japan would follow. You can just imagine the cost in injuries and lives this would take. Also It is not beyond the possibility that a million or more Americans could have been killed had we landed. The Japanese had correctly guessed where we intended to land, and were ready and waiting for us. The casualties would have been high. Another reason the atomic bomb was justified is the bomb was dropped with a desire to save lives. It is a matter of math. How many Americans lost their lives fighting how many Japanese at Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Okinawa. The mathematical formula showed the closer we got to Japan the more we lost.
I do not believe that the massacre that was the bombing on Japan were justified in any sense. The fact that America had never tested the Atomic Bomb to see if it would work, nor even attempted to think about how many people would die because of it is appalling. To add insult to injury, Japan was already going to surrender to America, making the use of the atomic bomb pointless and a waste of resources on America's part. Also, every reason people many people have about why we should have or even considered to drop the bomb is highly flawed. This is why I believe the bombing of Japan unjust.