In World War II, the Americans dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, one in Hiroshima and the other in Nagasaki. The bombs caused insurmountable damage and together killed over 100,000 Japanese citizens. Although at times the decision has been questioned; it was necessary for President Harry Truman to drop the atomic bombs on Japan in order to end the war. On July 26, 1945, at the Postdam Conference in Germany, the three main allied powers (Britain, America and Russia) met and issued Japan an ultimatum. Japan was left with two choices; surrender unconditionally or “face prompt and utter destruction” (Wheeler 58).
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.
The airmen that dropped such a force of destruction did not know much about it either. However, they knew the destruction would be great, as it involved the splitting of the atom. As a result of the nuclear radiation and sonic boom of the bomb, thousands of Japanese perished. Also, thousands of injured and burned bodies were found by the time the destruction had ceased. There were few that encountered the blast and still survived.
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed millions of people, left families with nothing, and leveled cities. The war would have gone on for a couple more years if we had not dropped the bombs and sent troops to Japan instead. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified. This is one of the pros for the atomic bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of the pros for dropping the atom bombs is that the Japanese would have not surrendered.
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).
Discuss the decision made to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. By August 1945 the Second World War was as its final stages. Only one last victory was need for the Allies in order to win the war, a victory over Japan. Ending the war with Japan during World War 2 was both difficult and problematic for the Americans. The decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had many influential factors effecting the decision.
Necessity of the bomb lies with the amount of people that would have been killed in a land invasion, although it was vastly exaggerated. If next generation were raised on the path the Japanese were taking, they would grow up to become monsters. it saved many American Soldiers lives by stopping a land invasion of Japan and prisoners of war were being abused. But the Atomic bomb used against Japan was not necessary to end the war considering the numbers of American lives saved was vastly exaggerated, They were sending their battleships and pilots out on suicide missions as they were desperate, there was a vengeance for pearl harbour and racism towards the Japanese people, many victims of the bomb were civilians that had nothing to do with the war, the only reason Japanese weren’t surrendering is because they didn’t want to give up there emperor to the “unconditional surrender” and to demonstrate their power over the world. The bombing of Hiroshima was necessary to end the war as it would save many lives as suggests in source A “should adopt a position that rather than throw to this bomb we should have sacrificed a million American and a quarter of a million British live”.
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. The Japanese in WWII were defeated more because of the strengths of the allied powers rather than their weaknesses. One of the factors which lead to Japan's defeat was the strengths of the allied forces. The United States Army Air Forces made use of two atomic bombs on two cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The first atomic bomb exploded in Hiroshima at 0815 on 6 August 1945.
The Ethical Merits of Truman’s Japanese Atomic Bombing Decision: Was it Justified? Name: Institutional Affiliation: Abstract Over the years since the end of World War II, there have been raging debates about the United States’ controversial decision to unleash nuclear atomic bombs on Japan. The decision that has sparked worldwide discourse among historians and scientists alike was made by the then US president, Harry S. Truman. One bomb hit Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 while a second bomb was dropped in the city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The aftermath of the two bombings was catastrophic, with hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians buried and killed by the bomb debris.
In fact, the debates behind using the atomic bombs against Japan began even before the decision was made. Many of the scientists such as Leo Szilard and Dr. James Franck, who made great contributions towards the creation of the bomb, campaigned against its use. President Truman said “We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Amercicans”. It is completely understandable that President Truman’s aim was always to save the lives as many American people, but was it necessary to do it by dropping the atomic bombs on Japan? And was the reason behind the decision to drop the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki purely to ‘save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans’?