Morals of the Atomic Bomb

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.