Atomic Bomb Argumentative Essay

1242 Words5 Pages

In just one minute after being dropped, the atomic bomb exploded on Hiroshima, killing about 140,000 people in the blink of an eye. This forced Japan to surrender to the United States, ending the war effective immediately. However, was Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb a military necessity? This has long been a question that may people have pondered. Some say that the bomb was not needed; the Japanese could not handle another invasion of the U.S. military and would have given up anyways. On the other hand, some people say that Truman made the right decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because more American soldiers would have been injured or killed invading Japan. There can be many arguments to support both sides …show more content…

They say that it killed many innocent people in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the surrounding cities that were impacted by the blast. However, as stated earlier in the paper, more people were killed by invasions and air raids than the atomic bombs. So, in comparison, the bombs didn’t kill very many people. Another good point the other side can make is that Japan would have surrendered anyway, even if the atomic bombs had not been used. Maybe they would have eventually given up and surrendered to the US, but more soldiers’ lives would have been taken for the Japanese to realize that they were already basically defeated. Back in the article, “70 years ago, World War II ends in a flash” by Thomas Stearman, it says, “Japanese forces were outnumbered by U.S. forces five to one, yet it took us 83 days to defeat them, but then only when most of the 130,000 defenders had been killed. (U.S. killed was 12,613).” (Paragraph 4) Many Japanese soldiers were dying, they were outnumbered “five to one,” and even with the bombs, it took them 83 days to surrender. However, 130,000 soldiers were already dead. If we had not used the bombs, the war would’ve lasted longer, and more people would have died. All in all, the atomic bombs helped the United States win the