Korechika Anami, the Army Minister of Japan during World War Two, was adamant that Japanese soldiers must never surrender. Even after the U.S. fire-bombed Japanese cities, Japan still did not surrender. The Japanese had suicide bombers that would throw themselves under tanks to honor the Japanese emperor. The main result of such a sense of honor, the event that led to the decision of the U.S. to drop the bomb, was when Japan's Prime Minister Suzuki Kantaro refused the U.S. Potsdam Declaration's requirement that Japanese armed forces must surrender unconditionally. August 6, 1945 is a day that implanted images of buildings aflame, millions of shards of glass, and vanishing human beings into the minds of those who remember or attempt to
Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki. They left a death toll of 210,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. People were in grief over
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).
The city of Hiroshima was the primary target. The city held at that time an estimated population of 300,000 to 400,000 people. According to the United Nations in 1976, the death toll of the 'Little Boy' had reached 140,000 people, give or take a couple tens of thousands of people. All buildings near Ground Zero were completely destroyed and anyone near four-kilometers of the explosion was killed and the deadly gamma radiation spread many miles out. The former economic house of Japan was left with bloody pools and rooting dead bodies.
Even after the surrender of Nazi Germany on May 8th, the war against Japan continued. The United States threatened to destroy Japan in the Potsdam declaration, but this threat was ignored by the Japanese. This prompted the use of the atom bomb. The first atom bomb was dropped on Heroshima on August 6. Three days later, another atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
When the atom bombs were dropped most of the cities in the radius of the blast were leveled. Many people died of radiation sickness, some people got flash burns, and some had the horrible fate of vaporizing into thin air in the blink of an eye. The atomic bombing killed millions of people. It was considered to be genocide and the bomb should have not been dropped. Then again the atomic bombs helped end the war so no more troops would have died.
(2) Why did it happen? The atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in 1945. The two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date. Following a firebombing campaign that destroyed many Japanese cities, the Allies prepared for a costly invasion of Japan. The war in Europe ended when Nazi Germany signed its instrument
“It wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing” – Dwight Eisenhower Discuss this quote in relation to historian’s views on the United States decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan. On August 6th and August 9th 1945, atomic weapons were used as weapons for the first and only time in human history. President Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan has since created some of the most controversial debates in history. Historians have been divided since that day, as to whether or not it was necessary to drop the atomic bombs, and what the real reasons for dropping them were. In fact, the debates behind using the atomic bombs against Japan began even before the decision was made.
Was the United States Justified in dropping bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? I believe that the United States was justified in dropping the atomic bombs on Japan. It all starts on December 7. 1941. This was the day that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
They stated that the United States only used the atomic bomb to show its power to the USSR. It was not a question of saving lives; it was about showing our power to the world. The affirmative side also argued that although the Japanese population was extremely loyal to their emperor and would have sacrificed themselves to protect him, the United States could have used a conditional surrender by allowing them to keep their emperor as a symbolic leader. The Japanese population would have been satisfied because they would get to keep their emperor, and the war would have ended without any lives being lost. However, if violence was absolutely necessary, the United States should have continued bombing Japan with conventional bombs and proceeded to invade Japan.