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Atomic Bomb Dbq Essay

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Atomic Bombs DBQ Imagine you are a WWII pilot that is about to drop an enormous atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. What are your thoughts? On August 6th and August 9th, 1945, two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The atomic bombs that were dropped were a military necessity. Firstoff, the bombs justified the times of the war. For example, Pearl Harbor. On December 7, 1941 Japan raided Pearl Harbor. Prior to this, America could be explained as a sitting duck in the war. One source states, “At 8:10, a 1,800-pound bomb smashed through the deck of the battleship USS Arizona and landed in her forward ammunition magazine” (OI). When Pearl Harbor was raided The USS Arizona burned for two days after their attack (Doc A). The wreckage of the Arizona still remains at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, and it still leaks a quart of oil daily. The U.S. Navy never recovered the ship because it is used as a memorial as respect. In addition, most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out, More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded …show more content…

President Harry Truman had the idea to invade the Japanese mainland by foot (Doc. 1). America would have lost many more lives with this plan. There could have been diseases spread and the geography of Japan is so hefty that it would have taken a gargantuan amount of time. The plan of invading Japan was named “Operation Olympia,” a full scale invasion of Japanese home islands (Doc. E). There would be many difficulties conducting the invasion of Japan. For instance, getting there would be a struggle because they had to travel overseas to get there. In addition, in 1945 Japan was approximately 1,984,000 km squared (OI/nationalww2museum.org). Traveling this far across Japan could lead to the loss of many soldiers. Therefore, the bombs were immense necessities to save American

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The U.S. viewed bombings as a necessity because Truman gave the Japanese a chance to surrender when he issued the Potsdam Declaration. In his message, Truman warned the Japanese that if they would not unconditionally surrender that they would be struck with “prompt and utter destruction.” Similarly, by bombing the Japanese it would spare up to 1 million American lives along with 250,000 British casualties because U.S and allied soldiers didn’t have to attempt to invade the heavily guarded Japanese territories. Another reason the United States needed to bomb Japan was dominance. The secretary of state thought it would put the U.S. in a dominant position in the postwar and have power over the Germans.

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The strategy of the war was to destroy the Japanese military by any means necessary. The total manpower of the US was more than the Japanese so bombing was not the only option. There was a costlier yet more humane way to do this that was not reliant on the atomic bomb. On the down side millions of lives just on the American side would be lost. Also, the longer the fighting the more likely communism was to spread and then the task would be more to handle than the US felt they could alone.

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On the clear mornings of August 6 and 9, 1945, the first atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagaski. Gigantic clouds of ominous dark smoke stained the sky, signaling the end of a seemingly incessant war. Americans and Europeans rejoiced throughout the world; many lives were spared from the brutality of continuing the war. Although this was an extremely hard decision to make and the results were devastating, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a military necessity. To begin, America had already seen how ruthless and cruel the Japanese could be.

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It was partially necessary for the United States to drop the atomic bomb on Japan because Japan had no intention of seizing the war and the U.S. had a duty to protect the Americans, however, the atomic bomb killed many of innocent people. At this time, the United States were under attack by Japan. Japan had no intention of seizing the war so they did a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor killing many people. The Japanese people felt like it was important to knock out Hawaii because that's where the U.S. Air Force was located.

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It was a military necessity to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For starters, it was a war necessity to drop the atomic bomb was because it ended the war faster. It got them to surrender instead of continuing to fight. The atomic bomb was called, “ The Winning Weapon” because it forces the other country to surrender (OI). “We have used it to shorten the agony of the war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans” (Doc I).

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If they dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, they would not have to worry about them fighting back and would not have to keep making more weapons just to defeat the Japanese. It is expensive to manufacture weapons over and over, dropping the atomic bomb would just be a one time thing and it would save time as well. Also, If the Americans and Japanese fought on the island of Kyushu, then more Americans would die as well, if they dropped the atomic bomb then lots of lives would be saved. Also, Nicholas Kristoff said that military officials were likely to fight on, furiously, until the end willing to "Sacrifice 20 million Japanese lives," as late as August of 1945.” (Doc. I)

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The huge bombs might have destroyed the cities but it ended the war in a matter of seconds. Japan and America were at war during the mid 1900s. Two bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in an effort to finish the war for good. With the amount of power carried within the bomb the casualties brought the war to a finish. The atomic bombs were a military necessity because it saved combat and lives, we had the technology to do so, and it was justified in the time of war.

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In the twentieth century, the United States dropped two atomic bombs, which were the most powerful weapons at that time, on Japan. It happened on August 6 and August 9, 1945. The atomic bombs killed 226,000 Japanese and ended the war. However, America should not have dropped the atomic bombs for two reasons. First, it was not necessary to drop the bomb to win the war militarily or to get the Japanese to surrender.

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Therefore, it was necessary for the US to drop the bomb on Japan during WWII because not dropping it would have prolonged the war and caused more casualties. For example, May and Astore’s artcle "Atomic Bomb: Was the Atomic Bombing Are Hiroshima and Nagasaki Justified?” argues, “The employment of the atomic bomb was the culmination of a U.S. attempt to end the Pacific war as quickly as possible by all military means available.” This illustrates how the war was at such a high priority to the world that the US made a tough decision and decided to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end world war II as quickly as possible. On the other hand, the US dropping the atomic bomb started the cold war. Dropping the bomb ended one war while starting another, causing even more loss of life and plunged the world into another war.

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These soldiers are fatigued and wanted the war to end, they did not want to fight anymore. With the atomic bomb it helped them, it ended the war. The bomb even ended the war quickly after the two bombs were launched at Japan. This bombing made it justified by the quick end to the war because we helped those soldiers who were hoping to go home from the first place after the battle against Germany. Besides other people wanted that war to end as well.

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Though the US attempted to justify that these bombs were to end WW2 as quickly as possible to shorten the extent of people's lives being taken and destroyed, this is entirely untrue; there was a better plan that would have had the same effect. According to President Truman and others as a part of his administration, The atomic bombings were necessary to cut the war in the Pacific short, avoiding the US invasion of Japan and saving thousands upon thousands of Americans. 1

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Comments left by readers of the US History Magazine, American Heritage, basically say that the Japanese Islands were also very difficult to attack, as Japan still had millions of troops still stationed there, leaving no choice but to attack from the air. The Japanese army left no point of vulnerability for the US to take advantage of, and any land invasion would surely be stopped, as Japan had around 12 divisions defending the island. The first atomic bomb did not force surrender from Japan, but the second, combined with Russia planning to invade, forced Japan’s hand. The decision to drop the bomb was made quickly, as any land lost to Russia in Japan or China would never be returned to the countries. These comments from others give useful reasons on why the US Military dropped the atomic bombs: to end the war quickly before Russia gained a strategic advantage on the Islands of Japan before the long anticipated Cold War.

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The civilians were also suffering from extreme food ration and were about to starve to death. (“I couldn’t have survived another month,” he said. “If the military had its way, we would have fought until all 80 million Japanese were dead. Only the atomic bomb saved me. Not me alone, but many Japanese, ironically speaking, were saved by the atomic bomb.

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581 Words | 3 Pages

President Truman and his associates believed that if they dropped the bomb they would receive surrender from Japan. Thus, saving millions of American lives, and ending the war. Nevertheless, by saving American lives they would sacrifice thousands of Japanese civilians. They had other idea to have Japan to surrender, but were willing to take the one that would have the most consequences. They were thinking too much about the US instead of creating actually peace within the nations.

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The dropping of the atomic bombs on World War II on the city of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a very important part of World War II. The atomic bomb ended the war between America and Japan. This was just one of the important events during the battle in World War II. The Battle at Pearl Harbor, where the Japanese attacked U.S. soil was also why the americans bombed Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Some believe that the United States was correct in dropping these bombs on Japan because of the attack on Pearl Harbor while others believe that it was very wrong to dropped the bomb.

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