On August 6, 1945 the first nuclear bomb ever used in war was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan by the United States. Only three days later, another nuclear bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Japan surrendered six days later. Though this tactical move by the United States did effectively end World War Two, there have been continued debates on the morality of the decision to use devastating force in this way. While President Harry S. Truman’s decision to bomb Japan did likely save American troops, it was at the cost of thousands upon thousands of Japanese lives, and ultimately was never necessary at all.
Japan as a country endured World War Two from December 7, 1941 to their official surrender on September 2, 1945. As the end of the war neared and conflict between Japan and the United States came to a head, the Japanese people, government and economy were struggling immensely. Japanese official concluded in May of 1945 that “the inability to produce aircraft, losses and damage to shipping, the precarious food situation and anti-war sentiments of the people,” made the war undesirable to continue to the Japanese government. Without aircraft, food or support of the
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The SBS discovered the Japanese officials “had decided as early as May of 1945 that the war should be ended even if it meant acceptance of defeat on allied terms.” This only serves to emphasize the question of morality regarding the United State’s decision to use nuclear weapons, not once but twice, on Japanese citizens. While Japan may have seemed like a very real threat to the United States people after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States government surely had an idea of how dire things had become in Japan and how close the country was to surrendering without the use of drastic force or a land