Almost 75 years ago the world was ushered into the atomic age when the United States dropped the first of two atomic bombs on Japan. Ever since the world has been a changed place, and for the first time in human history it seemed possible that we could become the cause of our own extinction. However, to this day the argument has raged on about whether using the atomic bomb was truly necessary to end the war, and what affect it had outside observers such as the U.S.S.R. Both sides have their proponents, and both sides have convincing arguments as to whether or not the United States should have dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What is indisputable though dear reader is that we cannot change the past, and we cannot …show more content…
Losing a key military base would have been far more harmful to the Japanese war effort than bombing metropolitan areas. The Japanese military high command had proven time, and time again that they cared little for the lives of civilians. This is evident through the propaganda they put out telling people to kill themselves rather than be captured. So, in reality dropping the bombs on the targets that the dropped them on did less than most people think it did to end the war, but they still had a major influence. The Japanese military establishment was not stupid, they knew they were going to lose, especially since Russia was planning on diverting forces to help the United States in the Pacific. It is my belief that Japan would have at least tried to sue for peace within in a couple weeks of Russia entering the picture. However, they would have attempted to settle for something less than complete surrender as they would not see their political establishment disassembled. Without the disassembling of this political establishment, and the occupation of Japan, I have no doubt that Japan would have eventually returned to its imperial ambitious. The dropping of the two atomic bombs removed any hope the Japanese had for continuing the war, or negotiating for peace. The bomb left them with one option, unconditional