Atomic Bomb Pros And Cons

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The Big Bang During the course of the war in Japan, we, the Americans, had a very important decision to make. One of the options was to drop a newly tested bomb on the Japanese hoping to get them to finally surrender. The other option was to have a mass land invasion on Japan and hope to overthrow with sheer force. We knew that no matter which option we took, there would be a significant amount of casualties. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at the executive order of U.S. President Harry S. Truman on August 6 and 9, 1945; these attacks prevented the death of many Japanese and American lives, while preventing the destruction…show more content…
If you convert that cost into today’s dollars the cost of its development would near $20 billion (Brooks.edu)”. This cost was a pretty profound number for something of its caliber. The bombs were very “fresh” to this earth. The first bomb that was dropped had only been tested once before, while the second bomb labeled as “fat man” had never been tested and its true potential was a mystery even at the time of its detonation. Without the bombs, the goal of getting the Japanese to surrender may have never been accomplished. This was our ultimate goal as we were still heated after the Japanese actions on Pearl Harbor. Another widely overlooked advantage of dropping the bombs was that it aided the survival of POW’s. Throughout Japan there were camps that held American soldiers under the control of the Japanese. By using these two strategically aimed bombs, we were able to avoid killing our own troops in these camps and by forcing the Japanese to surrender, we got our troops back…show more content…
The ones who believe this, do not comprehend the many different factors in war and how the route that was chosen was best for both parties that were directly affiliated with the bombings. The cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have been fire bombed if the atomic bombs were not dropped, causing similar damage and death counts to the atomic bombs. According to Kyoko Iriye Selden, "The most influential text is Truman's 1955 Memoirs, which states that the atomic bomb probably saved half a million US lives— anticipated casualties in an Allied invasion of Japan planned for November. Stimson subsequently talked of saving one million US casualties, and Churchill of saving one million American and half that number of British lives"(1). With this amount of casualties projected, a land invasion would have trumped the death toll of D-Day. Also, more civilians and more cities would have been destroyed because of the strict Japanese leadership and stubbornness to surrender, especially when they know that they are in an un-winnable war. Another negative one could claim is that these events lead to the arms race. If the bombs were not dropped, there would have still been the arms race. Urgent use of the bombs portrayed to the world of the bombs potential and prevented future use when stockpiles were much
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