“I stated that Hiroshima and Nagasaki are ‘among the most unspeakable crimes in history.’ I took no position on just where they stand on the scale of horrors relative to Auschwitz, the bombing of Chungking, Lidice, and so on”(Noam Chomsky). In this quote, Chomsky is recognizing the true evil of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by American forces. For many reasons the dropping of the two atomic bombs were an atrocity rather than a retaliation. For one, it is understandably known that it is not ethical to kill innocent people whether or not during time of war. Harry S. Truman, who had only been president of the Untied States for four months at the time, gave the authority to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, instantly murdering 80,000 people, with the total number of human deaths rising to 166,000 due to injury and radiation. Of those deaths, over 146,000 were virtuous civilians unrelated to the war. This included …show more content…
For the 2,000 soldiers lost in the bombing of Pearl Harbor, there was over 199,000 total Japanese casualties, the bulk of them being civilians. The war between Japan and American was coming to its close with the assistance of China, the Soviet Union, and other Allied countries. It could have been approached in a better way to avoid the lost of innocent lives. America did not even know the effect of atomic bomb other than it would have a big explosion. To conclude, the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was completely unethical and could have been avoided. The majority of deaths were innocent civilians who did not deserve their bitter fate. Radioactive particles caused by the nuclear power was released into the air, causing disease, pain, and further lost of life that would linger far after war. The whole operation was necessary and