Atomic Bomb Dbq Essay

President Truman once said, "America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand." He was the current president during the last years of WW II. By 1945, the only axis power remaining in the war was Japan. The other main axis power, Germany, had just surrendered, leaving Japan to fight America in the Pacific. The Americans continued to fight the Japanese by firebombing the mainland, however this was not enough, Japan kept fighting. To end the biggest war in history the Americans dropped the new atomic bombs on Japan. By dropping the bombs the Americans officially ended WW II. Further, dropping the bombs prevented even more causalities American and Japanese alike.

After dropping the bombs, the Americas ended the war once and for all. Next, dropping the bombs was the quickest way to end the war with Japan. A land invasion would be difficult with still an estimated 5 million men at the Japanese disposal (Document D). With that large of a military force it still would be very difficult to launch a successful land invasion. On the other hand, some argue that after the air attacks on Japan they were weakened enough that the bombs would not be necessary (Document H). However, American lives were still being lost with the air attacks and it was taking a long time because the Japanese still had a sizable military force protecting the main island, though their navy was weakened by the Americans effort. Last, the Japanese were sending for help from Russia in hopes that they would aid them with fighting the Americans (Document J). If the Japanese received that help they could have created a stronger military stretching out WW II by many more years. Ties with Russia would cause many problems not only for America but for other allied countries and would destroy the trust the Allies had with Russia perhaps starting another

Some Americans believed that the Japanese military and specifically navy was weak enough that the Americans could launch a successful land invasion on the mainland. However, if this was done it was estimated that over one million American lives would be lost and the Japanese would suffer many causalities as well (Document D). Also, there was many very bloody battles leading up to the dropping of the bombs that would support the idea. For example, Pearl Harbor that left 2,402 people dead and 1,100 people wounded. Battles like Pearl Harbor left Americans dead and supplies diminished (Document A). Consequently, over 130,000 Japanese people were killed when the first bomb dropped. On the other hand, this number is insignificant to the amount of Americans the Japanese killed throughout the war and Pearl Harbor. Last, the Japanese citizens were committing suicide. Due to the Japanese honor code when the Americans took over islands or places with Japanese citizens often the citizens would commit suicide by jumping off of cliffs. They did this because they thought it was a better solution then giving into the Americans. To conclude, the bombs dropped saved the lives of Americans and Japanese people supporting making the necessary decision by the military to drop the atomic