What Are The Pros And Cons Of The Atomic Bomb

As nuclear fission became a reality during World War II, the world became entrenched in a race to build and detonate the first atomic weapon. This led to the development of the Manhattan Project, in which the United States constructed the first atomic weapon. On August 6th and 9th of 1945, atomic bombs were detonated over both Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan respectively. Although the dropping of atomic bombs had led to the end of World War II, it was unethical for the United States to detonate them over the citizens of Japan due to the adverse effects it had brought upon the international community.

The dropping of the atomic bombs had led to the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese citizens. When the bombs were detonated in

As well as killing and wounding hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese citizens, it had also led up to the Cold War. Many theorize that the detonations weren’t for war’s sake-but for a political message directed at Soviet policy makers (1). As the Soviets had taken this action as blackmail, they began to build their own atomic weapons. International tensions being at a high, they completed their own nuclear program-compounding the risk of nuclear warfare. Along with this, a Cold War was sparked, and a battle of philosophies began. In various wars between anti-communism and pro-communism (such as the Korean and Vietnam wars), millions of people lost their lives in these proxy wars (4). As the atomic bomb had also been the causation of political tensions and another armament race, the cost far outweighed the benefit of the

While this may have been true, there had been far more diplomatic alternatives which would have led to the same resolution. Many alternatives were discussed at the Interim Committee and were far more peaceful. These alternatives included the continued bombing and airstrikes-which would have ended the war six months later, allowing Japan to keep its emperor during a surrender, and even waiting for the Soviet Union to enter (3). Each of these options would have ended with less civilian casualties-as all of the above would have been used to force a surrender. Therefore, nuclear weapons were not the only, nor the best way to end the war.

In a war with no rules, it had been entirely ethical for extreme measures to have been taken. However, it was later shown in the Geneva Convention that it was unethical to attack enemy civilians. Even in earlier conventions, it had been shown to be illegal and immoral. In the instance of Hague IV, it had been shown and ratified by congress that attacking defenseless citizens or persons was wrong (2). This was not the only treaty or convention, as there had been multiple others previously. Therefore, it was unscrupulous and hypocritical for the United States to drop atomic bombs on the