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When the atomic bomb went off over Hiroshima on Aug. 6th,

1945, 70,000 lives were ended in a flash. To the American people who

were weary from the long and brutal war, such a drastic measure seemed

a necessary, even righteous way to end the madness that was World War

II. However, the madness had just begun. That August morning was the

day that heralded the dawn of the nuclear age, and with it came more

than just the loss of lives. According to Archibald MacLeish, a U.S.

poet, "What happened at Hiroshima was not only that a scientific

breakthrough . . . had occurred and that a great part of the

population of a city had been burned to death, but that the problem of

the relation of the triumphs of modern science to the human purposes

of man had been explicitly defined." The entire globe was now to live

with the fear of total annihilation, the fear that drove the cold war,

the fear that has forever changed world politics. The fear is real,

more real today than ever, for the ease at which a nuclear bomb is

achieved in this day and age sparks fear in the hearts of most people

on this planet. According to General Douglas MacArthur, "We have had

our last chance. If we do not devise some greater and more equitable

system, Armageddon will be at our door." The decision to drop the

atomic bomb on Japanese citizens in August, 1945, as a means to

bring the long Pacific war to an end was justified-militarily,

politically and morally.



The goal of waging war is victory with minimum losses on one's

own side and, if possible, on the enemy's side. No one disputes the

fact that the Japanese military was prepared to fight to the last man
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