Bombing Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki Essay

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a devastating event for many, including those that made the decision to drop the bomb. “President Truman was concerned solely about American lives, and the use of atomic weapons saved many of them. On any scale of suffering these high numbers meant that the potential dead far outweighed the actual dead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus justifying the use of the weapons (Hu, Page 7).”Be it just or unjust, in the eyes of the survivors, the lives of family and friend were not worth the indecision that Japan’s military leaders showed after the bombing of Hiroshima. Mr. Tanimoto, a survivor of Hiroshima, was helping Mr. Matsuo move a cabinet when the air raid sirens went off. However, since the warning went off several times a day with no real result, the two men ignored the blaring noise and continued working. Mr. Tanimoto never sighted the planes, but distinctly remembers a great white light, a noiseless flash as it is described. Having time to react, being approximately 3,500 yards, or two miles from the epicenter of the bomb, Mr. Matsuo hid inside the house, while Mr. Tanimoto dove between two rocks. By sad stroke of fate, the house Mr. Matsuo was in collapsed in on

Nakamura recounts the few days before the bombing of Hiroshima. Being rather jumpy, Mrs. Nakamura always went to the bomb shelters with her children whenever the sirens sounded. Unfortunately, the alarm sounded late one night, forcing her and her children out of bed only to return when the “all clear’ was sounded. Once more, the air raid signal rings forth, yet as tired as her family is, Mrs. Nakamura decides to stay home. A devastating decision on her part, when the bomb goes off, Mrs. Nakamura is thrown violently into the next room and was knocked unconscious. When Mrs. Nakamura comes to, she is covered in debris, and can hear the sound of her youngest child crying. All the other children are dead (John, Page