The Pros And Cons Of The Atomic Bomb

On August 6, 1945 an American atomic bomb with the potential to incinerate anything in a one-mile radius was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days after the attack on Hiroshima, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan with the same catastrophic effects. It was, indeed, a climactic point in history, but was it really necessary? The dropping of the bombs was not necessary, because it was predicted before that Japan would have lost the war anyways even if there were no atomic bombs dropped.
While the war was in progress, Japan was losing large amounts of military and weapons. Japan was ready to surrender, but was trying to find a way to surrender at the time the bombs dropped. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was the Supreme Commander

of the Allied Forces in Europe, agreed with this statement saying that “Japan was already defeated”. The entire senior US officer corps, including Eisenhower, knew that by the middle of 1945, Japan would be forced to surrender with the extreme famine of Japanese military.
After America took action against Japan, almost nothing was left of its overpowering navy or its mighty air force.

Due to this, American bombers dropped bombs at will all over Japan’s cities. The surviving facilities and workshops worked hard to build weapons, however, there were hardly any acceptable raw materials to use. Oil was cut off from Japan since April of 1945 while this devastation was happening. By July, 25% of Japan’s residential buildings were destroyed. Japan’s transportation system was inches away from collapse. Japanese citizens were starving from the lack of transportation of food to local grocers. The atomic bombs were too much for Japan to handle with the lack of food and

military.
In March of 1945, about 300 American bomber planes attacked Tokyo, Japan, resulting in 100,000 Japanese casualties. Nearly the entire city was destroyed, destroying about 250,000 buildings leaving 1,000,000 Japanese citizens homeless. Two months later, in May, a major air raid took place when 520 B-29 American bomber planes dropped nearly 4,500 tons of incendiary bombs on Japan a second time. A few days after that air strike, another one takes place, dropping 4,000 tons of bombs. It is clearly seen that Japan’s capital was completely destroyed. Japan was going to collapse with its capital destroyed. A Japanese prime minister mentioned that: “the thing that brought about the determination to make peace was the prolonged bombing from the B-29 planes.”
In April and May of 1945, Japan attempted to make peace with Sweden and Portugal.

It was made aware of by Japanese prime minister to Japan’s Emperor that they should try to make peace by using the United States’s terms of surrender. However, the Emperor refused, because this meant unconditional surrender. When surrendering unconditionally, you have no control of how the opposing country being surrendered to choses your punishment. The Emperor was afraid that the United States would arrest the Emperor. The Emperor of Japan was part of a dynasty that started 2,600 years ago and didn’t want to end that dynasty. The Japanese were afraid America would execute or humiliate the

Emperor.
In June of 1945, the Emperor and his advisors made the decision to seek peace and try to end the war. Their first task was to seek peace with the Soviet Union. Japan wanted to end the war by September. The Emperor told his war leaders to do whatever they could to conclude the war.
In July of 1945, the United States intercepted messages between Japan and Russia discussing negotiations for ending the war. The United States knew that Japan did not want its Emperor to be harmed. Later on, that month, the Emperor told his prime minister to terminate war with Russia to end the war with the United States. Britain and the United States issued the Potsdam Declaration saying that: if Japan doesn’t give up its leader, the United States will destroy Japan. Japan couldn’t accept and the United States knew of Japan’s desire to keep the Emperor, but wanted to show no mercy. If the unconditional surrender terms were much lighter and letting Japan keep its leader, Japan would surely have accepted defeat and surrendered.
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The United States wanted to rush and use the atomic bomb before Russia would have declared war on Japan two days later. If the United States didn’t use the atomic bomb and let Russia enter the war, Japan would most likely have surrendered 2 weeks after Russia declared war on Japan, because Japan had such a depleted military. This bomb caused around 80,000 deaths plus thousands more due to radiation poisoning. Three days later, the United States dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The Japanese government wouldn’t accept the Potsdam Declaration after the first atomic bomb. As a result, the United States felt obligated to drop a second one. This bomb killed about 40,000 people. Japan felt that the United States would keep dropping atomic bombs until Russia joined the war or Japan surrendered. Japan, finally, surrendered on August 14, 1945.
In conclusion, the United States was very unmerciful in WWII with Japan. Japan refused to accept defeat because the United States wanted Japan’s Emperor. The dropping of the atomic bombs was unnecessary and could’ve been avoided in many ways, like: not wanting to take the Emperor of Japan, realizing how weak Japan was and how the atomic bomb would not be needed to defeat Japan, and continuing to bombard Japan with more explosive and incendiary bombs (since stopping the constant bombing was the main reason Japan wanted make peace with the United States). Japan was already on the verge of collapsing with no choice of what to do except surrendering; the atomic bomb was not imperative to ending the war with Japan.