Strategic Bombing WW2 During WW2, the Allied and Axis powers each used strategic bombing to try and defeat their enemy economically. Both bombed factories where military weapons where being made to slow down their enemy. Also being bombed where military forces, railways, harbors, cities, civillians, and industrial areas. They did this to try and break down their enemys will to fight, to try and lower their morale and help shorten the war. My opinion on this argument is that there should be no civillians killed by bombs unless it was accidental.
However, if violence was absolutely necessary, the United States should have continued bombing Japan with conventional bombs and proceeded to invade Japan. The conventional bombing runs were just as deadly as atomic bombs as firebombing of Tokyo decimated the city, killed at least two hundred thousand lives. However, the most important reason why conventional bombing was a better
I disagree that the Japanese in WW2 were defeated more because of their weakness rather than the strength of the Allied forces. The Japanese weaknesses included their incapability in managing the empire they took on. The strengths of the allied powers included their intelligent military strategies, an example was the "Island Hopping Strategy of Attack" used by America. Also, the dropping of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had an impact on Japan which caused them to surrender. The term "defeated more" refers to the factor which had the greatest impact on Japan, causing them to be drove to a state of devastation and have no other way than surrender unconditionally.
Both I think backfired somewhat because they caused America to come together and fight the enemy. On a calm Sunday morning on December 7, 1941, the Japanese shocked the world by bombing the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. The bombing happened because the U.S. Pacific Fleet based in Pearl Harbor could foil their plans to attack the American mainland. As insurance, the Japanese navy undertook an operation to cripple the Pacific Fleet by a surprise air attack. It succeeded.
One of the pros for dropping the atom bombs is that the Japanese would have not surrendered. The Japanese believed in the old samurai way called bushido. Bushido meant loyalty, honor, and self sacrifice to the Japanese, so surrendering was not an option for them. That was one of the pros for dropping of the atom bombs. This another pro for dropping the atom bombs.
The decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had many influential factors effecting the decision. There certainly was the possibility of success for an invasion, but the decision not to invade far outweighed the decision to invade. Conventional bombing and Blockade were considered in the effort to force Japan into surrender. But, the fact that the Japanese military were controlling the Government and were in a state of mind of absolute refusal to surrender, meant that this was not a reasonable option. Political factors were greatly influential of Truman’s final decision to drop the bomb and the threat of Russian military who were soon to advance in the region had its impact.
If the United States is clear that they do not want to make him a criminal but instead a national symbol then maybe the Japanese might agree and surrender. With this option the United States will have moral leadership and will be able to build a war of peace and democracy without stooping to the level of the enemy. If the United States does chose this option they are risking that the japes might take it as a sign of weakness and might encourage them to keep fighting. Another risk with this option is that if not all aggressive militarism is destroyed then we know that new dictators and wars will come up again. Option two is that the United States should drop an atomic bomb on a deserted island so that the whole world can see what power we have.
The historians who support Truman, sometimes called the traditionalists, agree that Japan had been defeated but argue that Japan was not ready to surrender and was, in fact, preparing for one last great battle that would have cost millions of lives. Popular opinion tends to side with the revisionists, but I will argue that Truman made the right decision, not only for the United States but also for Japan; in fact, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved Japan. Revisionists argue that the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima after Japan’s armed forces and over sixty of its major cities had been already been destroyed. Moreover, historians such as Howard Zinn argue that Truman knew that the Japanese were trying to surrender but that he ignored them because he wanted to use the Bomb (23). Gar Alperovitz, another revisionist, says that Truman’s main purpose in dropping the bombs was to demonstrate its power in order to intimidate the Russians (127).
An invasion of Japan could have caused tens of thousands of Allied casualties, while the bombs could be carried over and dropped by planes. Since Japan is an island nation, in order to invade it, the Allies would have to storm the beaches. When troops are all running in the same direction from one point, like from the beaches onto the land, they are basically running into the line of fire with no protection. In regards to a diplomatic solution to end the war, Arthur Compton, the co-creator of the atomic bomb said that “Though the possibility of a demonstration that would [end that war and] not destroy human lives was attractive, no one could suggest a way in which it could be made so convincing that it would be likely to stop the war.” (Alperovitz
The United States reaction to the bombing on Pearl Harbor leads to the fall of the Japan Empire, due to the United States involvement with the Doolittle Raid, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the Atomic Bombs. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt told the Joint Chief of Staffs to bomb the Empire of Japan. He wanted the Japan Empire to be bombed as soon as possible to boost patriotism throughout the United States. Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle planned and led the attack. Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle’s plan to attack the Japan Empire was to use B-25 aircrafts to drop on Japan and then to land in China were there would be Chinese Aircrafts to help guide and refuel the B-25s to the Chongqing Chinese military base.