August 6, 1945 and August 9, 1945 were days in history like no other. Only one country in history has ever used an atomic bomb against another nation; the United States of America. Code named the Manhattan Project, the atomic bombs were being developed to use against Japan towards the end of World War II. The United States was completely justified in dropping the bombs on Japan. Japan was near defeat, but many question how close Japan was to surrender (Jennings).
After Germany and Italy were defeated, only Japan stood standing. When the Japanese refused to surrender, The United States was not left with many options. They could continue to send men and machines to fight and die, or end the war quickly. It was a smart move for the United States to bomb Japan. During a war, a country has to think of themselves before
The only real problem that prevented the Japanese from surrendering was the unconditional surrender the Americans demanded. The Japanese thought the emperor to be descended from the sun god and would protect the emperor at any cost. If President Truman had agreed to leave the emperor alone and taken more time to negotiate Japan’s surrender, they probably would have. Instead, after the testing of the first atomic bomb, it was decided after a few days that Japan would be bombed. Even if Truman had decided to use the bomb, there was no reason to bomb Hiroshima.
President Truman announced the first bomb to be dropped at 10:30 am on August 6th, 1945 (“The Atomic Bomb & End of WWII” 1). In Hiroshima 90,000-166,000 people died, and in Nagasaki 60,000-80,000 died (“Atomic Bomb” 1). From both of the bomb dropped in each town only some building remained standing simply for the reason that they were reinforced by concrete (1). Out of all the survivors Eizo Nomura was the closest known survivor of the bomb, he was 560 feet away from where the bomb hit (1). It was hard for people to believe this guy survived, although he was in a reinforced building its still amazing that he managed to survive.
Moreover, other countries claimed the right of nuclear weapons to defend their citizens. Consequently, the tragic bombings became the example of an arm’s race instead of peace. Furthermore, since Japan was already on the brink of collapse the bombing was unnecessary, and peace talks would have taken place within a decent time frame (even after the cancelled Hawaii summit). The millions of deaths calculated by Operation Downfall [the codename for the Allied plan for the invasion of Japan near the end of the Second World War, which was abandoned when Japan surrendered following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki] actually show that only desperation and honour stood between Japan and unconditional
Kelly Shaver AMH 2030 Week 7 Individual Work What factors likely motivated President Truman to authorize the use of atomic bombs against Japan in August 1945? President Truman did not trust the Soviets. The Potsdam Declaration – July 26 listed U.S. policy also giving Japan a chance to surrender without guaranteeing that Emperor Hirohito would not be tried for war crimes committed by Japan. Japan was so cautious about their response that is was seen as a refusal on their part. The Japanese were seen as bloodthirsty savages willing to die rather than give up.
The project was headed by Major Leslie R. It became known as “The Manhattan Project”. It was kept top secret against almost everyone and the military soldiers. After six months of bombing the Japanese we dropped the bomb Know as “Little Boy” and was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. We then doped another bomb Called “Fat Man”, and was dropped over Nagasaki. I do agree of dropping the bomb because it did save a lot of lives.
Many people will argue that the United States was justified in the dropping of the atom bomb. These people believe that dropping the atomic bomb was necessary for Japan's surrender and the end of World War II. Before the bombing, Japan refused to accept the unconditional surrender offered to them by the Potsdam Declaration, and in response to the Declaration Japan prepared every man, woman, and child to fight till death. There was no possibility that Japan would surrender. The pride of the Japanese was so great that it would not allow them to surrender and many of Japan's soldiers fought in a kamikaze style which they would go to the extreme of killing themselves in order to kill at least one enemy soldier.
The Japanese military had already shown an unwillingness to surrender throughout the war, and this feeling was made famous by their infamous use of suicide pilots, called kamikazes. They had 5,000,000 troops scattered throughout the Pacific Theater of Operations, and an American invasion of the Japanese homeland would have lasted until late 1946 at the least, resulting in no less than 1,000,000 American deaths, according to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson (Keene, Cornell, O’Donnell, 712). Although such an invasion was the initial plan of action, after testing of the Manhattan project in New Mexico was completed, the Atomic Bomb seemed to be a quicker solution to an already drawn out war. Towards the end of WWII America was faced with a dilemma. The Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor using Kamikaze pilots and were showing no signs of regret for it or any signs of not continuing these kinds of attacks.
• Even though the bomb was dropped and Japan refused to surrender. American’s were still being drafted for the war effort. This was a fault on America since it was already planned that another bomb was going to be used to end this